Empowering Veterans to Lead Successful Civilian Lives with Mia Garcia, Executive Director of the Texas Veterans Network at Combined Arms

Airmen Helping Airmen

• Some veterans have a hard time separating their military identities during their transition back into civilian life. They feel like going from hero to zero in the eyes of the civilian population.
  
• Some rose to the ranks of military leadership, and transitioning to civilian life would mean building their way up from scratch.
  
• Mia and Combined Arms are on a mission to encourage transitioning service members to connect with the communities they're returning to and build a plan for their transition.
  
• To help veterans overcome transition challenges you can start by communicating possible career opportunities, helping them get started, and connecting them with mentors from the industry.
  
• Combined Arms' services include career support, networking, interviewing skills, resumes, direct placement, fitness activities, mental health, family counseling, access to food, financial assistance, and more.
  
• Make sure every single thing is documented in your medical history before you transition. Trying to get people to write a testimony for you after the fact doesn't play as well.
  
• When it comes to Making Texas the First Interconnected State for Veterans, Combined Arms aims to break down the silos of veteran-serving organizations and government entities that are serving veterans to work together to share the veteran and ensure they have access to all the resources they need.
  
• Combined Arms launched the Texas Veterans Network, which has been able to help 30,000 unique veteran clients so far who have been connected to more than 60,000 resources. They have grown the network from seventy organizations to 256 organizations that now offer 1032 unique resources.