MAYOR BLOOMBERG HOSTS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE FOR FEMALE VETERANS Day-Long Conference Sponsored by JPMorgan Chase in Coordination with the Mayor’s Office of Veterans’ Affairs and NYC Service, to Provide Employment Assistance and Information Sessions on Access to Benefits and Services including Financial Literacy, Resume Writing, and Entrepreneurship
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Chief Service Officer Diahann Billings-Burford, Mayor’s Office of Veterans’ Affairs Commissioner Terrance Holliday today hosted a day long professional development conference for female veterans, in partnership with JPMorgan Chase. The conference provided veterans representing all branches of the armed forces with informational sessions on access to benefits and services followed by a job and resource fair for the attendees. Aimed to support recently returning female veterans in their transition back home and into the workforce, the conference gave participants the opportunity to attend workshops on financial literacy and homeownership, personal presentation, healthcare, resume writing and small business preparedness. The conference is part of the Support our Troops initiative of NYC Service and the Mayor’s Office of Veterans’ Affairs. The Mayor was joined by the Managing Director of Veteran Affairs at JPMorgan Chase, Maureen Casey.
“Together with partners like JPMorgan Chase, we’re going to do even more to help connect New York’s veterans to the jobs and the services they need,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “Our veterans answered the call to serve, and as they return by helping them find their calling in the civilian workforce, we’re ensuring that remains true for years to come.”
“Our veterans deserve every opportunity a grateful nation can offer them for their sacrifices,” said Commissioner Holliday. “Thanks to corporate citizens like JPMorgan, we will continue to work together to help our service members and veterans in their transition back to civilian life.”
“New Yorkers have stepped up today to provide service to a select group of women who have served us all,” said Chief Service Officer Billings-Burford. “Strong corporate citizens like JPMorgan Chase, A & E Networks, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Estee Lauder Companies and Time Warner Cable have committed people, expertise, and in-kind resources to make this day one of great value. Through these efforts we will have real impact and address real needs in our City. It is a great moment to have so many New Yorkers using theirblanks for good in this endeavor.”
“We were honored to host today’s conference along with Mayor Bloomberg, who is a champion of this cause,” said Maureen Casey, Managing Director of Veteran Affairs at JPMorgan Chase. “I am proud to work for a company who is committed to those who have served our nation.”
The workshops will be followed by a Job and Resource Fair with 13 companies who are part of the JPMorgan Chase 100,000 Jobs Mission. JPMorgan Chase and other founding corporations launched the 100,000 Jobs Mission in March 2011, with the goal of hiring 100,000 transitioning service members and military veterans by 2020. The coalition members are committed to working together, sharing best recruiting and employment practices and reporting hiring results. Together, the 100,000 Jobs Mission members have hired several thousand veterans and are working to expand the coalition with like-minded companies that are equally committed to hiring veterans and sharing best practices to help solve the public challenge of veteran unemployment. Other City agencies and partners that a committed to offering services for veterans will also participate in the fair including the Department of Small Business Services, the Human Resources Administration, CUNY, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the US Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, Ernst & Young, CA Technologies, Frontier, Merck, Pitney Bowles, Avis Budget, AT&T, Bloomberg, Securitas, Broadridge, and the Institute for Veteran American Families.
The workshops included:
Making Your Money Work: Focused on effective financial management for veterans, specifically on the financial issues that veterans face when returning from deployment and/or transferring from active duty to reserve or civilian status.
Know Before You Enroll: Through Know Before You Enroll, the City helps New Yorkers select a school or training program and advises New Yorkers to be careful of taking on a large amount of school debt. The session focused on assisting female veterans with their benefits and rights as students, but more importantly, how they can utilize their education benefits to reach their personal goals.
Personal Presentation: Maintaining a professional appearance is important to any person looking for employment. For veterans, the shift from uniform to civilian attire can be difficult. We will provide professional guidance on presentation for the workplace as well as personal presentation for job interviews.
Wellness: When men and women in uniform leave the ranks and enter civilian life, there is often a major shift in their exercise and nutritional habits. When daily regimented physical training and provided meals are removed from their lives, this can pose a difficult task to get back into the swing of a healthy lifestyle. This session provided an overview of healthy work and lifestyle regiments, and review ways to promote good health and nutrition.
Small Business Preparedness: Leadership and work discipline makes veterans primary candidates for starting and maintaining small businesses. The Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for Veterans with Disabilities offered by Syracuse University provides veterans with assistance with starting and developing small business plans. This presentation will provide an outline of resources available as well as best practices.
Resume Writing: This portion of the programming provided overall best practices when crafting a resume in a digital age, provided information on maximizing the impact of a well-crafted resume, and also provided a personalized resume consultation.
Last month, Mayor Bloomberg announced a partnership with the Robin Hood Foundation to help veterans find jobs and housing as they transition back to civilian life in New York. Beginning this summer, the City’s Workforce 1 centers will provide priority job placement services for veterans and will open a veteran-specific center in Manhattan to help place more veterans in full and part-time jobs. This initiative is supported by a grant from Robin Hood to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, which is dedicated to supporting public-private partnerships and is working with Robin Hood on a range of veteran-specific efforts. The Mayor also announced efforts to enhance the Workforce1 pilot through citywide recruitment and job fairs, initial results from the City’s efforts to place homeless veterans in permanent or transitional housing, and plans to create an online tool to help veterans navigate City services.
