Vets internship effort

From Oakland County Commissioner Jim Runestad (R-Waterford, White Lake)

With Veterans Day fast-approaching and both presidential candidates addressing the sluggish economy and high unemployment, especially among our returning veterans, we need to move past empty political rhetoric to assist these heroes who are returning home from our country’s longest war abroad to one of our history’s toughest job markets.

To compound matters, due to the Afghanistan (troop) draw down, a huge new wave of veterans are posed to return to this sluggish market. The President has estimated that 1 million people will return to civilian life over the next five years. It is crucial that we address their employment prospects to ease this transition, locally.

U.S. Department of Labor Statistics reports unemployment among active-duty Gulf War-era veterans was 12.1 percent, in comparison to the country’s overall unemployment rate of 8 percent.

Hardest hit groups, with a 29.1-percent unemployment rate, are young male veterans ages 18 to 24, who served during the Gulf War Era II.

Often these returning service members struggle to reintegrate, navigate, and bridge cultural differences between military and civilian life. After enduring long periods in extreme circumstances in a heightened state, the adjustment to the ordinary aspects of everyday life can be challenging. They are required to translate these military skills into the civilian marketplace.

Solutions can seem daunting, but with proper help and mentoring, many returning service members can play an integral role in enhancing our local workforce. They are highly skilled and capable workers who possess a wealth of talents and experience, which include leadership, enhanced teamwork, adaptability, a strong work ethic, integrity, and aptitude for learning.

It was in searching for solutions to support these returning vets from active duty back home to Oakland County that fellow Commissioner Dave Woodward (D-Royal Oak) and I introduced the Hire Our Heroes resolution which passed the full board, unanimously, on Nov. 1 to develop a county internship program to help service members translate their military skills into civilian job opportunities. The goal is to build confidence, skills, and to connect veterans with the community to obtain gainful employment. Several (entities) across the nation — such as King County, Wash., Los Angeles County, Calif., the Virginia Department of Transportation, and the Port of Seattle — have successfully designed and implemented veterans’ internship programs, which have been proven very effective.

We envision a county government veterans’ internship program that would offer veterans an overview of county government and on-the-job training while identifying transferable skills which link to support services. The program would provide experience in the civilian work environment and provide development of effective skills to compete for job opportunities throughout Oakland County and southeast Michigan.

To ensure success, we have been researching all options and best practices across the nation and have discovered that successful veteran internship programs have tailored programs that recognize and relate to vets’ special circumstances and needs. Veterans need to feel a sense of their value to the organization, and they also profit from mentoring by other veteran employees to ensure their successful transition. Commissioners support for the program has been wide and bipartisan.

However, an even wider goal is for this program to create a model for, and inspiration to, our local businesses, foundations, and other municipalities to emulate and expand on-the-job training, work experience, and other tools needed, in order, to overcome the obstacles our veterans face in becoming gainfully employed and competitive in the job market.