Veterans Portal Project - www.warriorportal.com

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The NJ Veterans Portal Project will contain all things needed for the veterans & mil spouse community

★  Veterans Hiring

Powered by a dedicated Job Board or another e-hiring platform, we are trying to establish a central meeting point that connects employers with military candidates, veterans, veteran spouses, and student veterans. As the former lead for economic development for the state of New Jersey, I can attest to the struggles often seen by both veterans seeking employment, as well as companies that would like to do a better job hiring veterans. 

We would also like to conduct networking events (ILO Hiring fairs) that connects veterans and their families looking for work with company representatives that have vacancies and are looking to hire veteran candidates. We can do this fairly easily with Job Path as Geographic information is captured and these events can be tailored to specific geographies or work fields

★  Veteran Business Support

There is an unfortunate inequity between the public & private sectors and veteran business entities. We have hundreds of Veteran Owned Businesses (VOBs) & Service Connected Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses (SDVOBs) in the state that are affiliated with the NJ State Veterans Chamber of Commerce. The state of NJ has a Public Law (PL2015 Ch. 116) that states that 3% of all public contracts are to be set aside for SDVOBs. Since the law was enacted over 3 ½ years ago, not one dollar has been awarded to a SDVOB. This is not only wrong, but illegal as it goes against public law. An easy way to remedy this is to connect the VOBs & SDVOBs in the state with procurement personnel. Every agency can post their RFPs or RFQs on the portal and VOBs & SDVOBs can compete for them. It can also be used as a portal for prime contractors to find qualified VOB & SDVOB subcontractors adhering to supplier diversity standards.

★  Veterans 2nd Chance

This section of the portal would be for those incarcerated veterans that are pending release or formerly incarcerated veterans. The hallmark of a strong program to reduce the recidivism rate in the state would have the following components:

·  Reentry support

·  Mental health / substance abuse counseling

·  Homelessness or risk of homelessness support

·  Job training

·  Employers willing to hire formerly incarcerated veterans

All of these components would be included in the 2nd chance portal. Multiple agencies would have access to the portal such as the State Parole Board, Department of Corrections, Human Services, etc, as well as those that have been incarcerated. There will be specific training, education, and career opportunities available for them throughout the state. 

★  Veterans Health Care

One of the issues with veterans health care is the access to quality, coordinated care. Many veterans have to drive out of the state to receive their care at a VA hospital. Many times, some of these veterans have to be bussed for several hours each way to get to an appointment. Additionally, practitioners are always looking to give back to the veterans community. I have had several health care providers, both physicians and dentists, that have contacted me wanting to offer free medical & dental care for veterans. There is currently no efficient way to put those veterans who need quality care with those practitioners who are offering it. This section of the portal will include:

·  Health care providers who are offering free care to qualified veterans

·  Transportation options for veterans requiring it

·  VA Healthcare facilities and the services they offer

·  Information about Choice care with accepting hospitals & clinics

★  Veterans Calendar

There are a multitude of things going on throughout the state that supports veterans. There are charity events, educational events, business events, hiring events, and a score of others. There is currently no efficient way to communicate to the veterans community throughout the state of all the things that are happening in New Jersey. This would be a universal calendar that all folks, once vetted, could post and share the information with the greater veteran community. 

★  Veterans Service Organizations - VSO

This section of the portal will be used to identify veteran service officers throughout the state. It will also communicate the priorities of each VSO in the state and have contact information on how to get in touch with the VSOs. There will also be a landing page of different posts throughout the state and things that they are working on. There will be contact info for those that want to get VSOs to help with VA claims.

★  Veteran Resources

There is no single point of contact for veterans resources throughout the state. This will serve in that capacity. There are significant amounts of benefits at the federal, state, county, and municipal levels. This will be the place that all government agencies and private sector businesses can post their information and benefits as it relates to veterans.

★  Veterans University

This section of the portal can be used by transitioning military, reservists, national guardsmen, veterans, veteran spouses, and student veterans. This will include online courses and seminars that will benefit the veterans community to enhance skill sets or help with entrepreneurship or needed education to get a better job. It can also be used to support pre-apprenticeships and apprenticeships as some of the online content can be included. In speaking to NJMEP, the advanced manufacturing arm in the state, they informed me that they have upwards of 250 jobs that go unfilled because the candidates who apply for them do not have a sufficient baseline to understand the specifics of the jobs. By organizing an online training platform, we can effective bring up the baseline so that the veteran community can apply for these high paying jobs. Additionally, there can be valuable online training such as project management, six sigma, software instruction that can help veterans get meaningful employment. This will be connected to the veterans hiring section so that as a veteran completes a certain training module, it will automatically get uploaded to their resume that is attached in that section. 

★  Veterans Credentialing

There is no collection point anywhere in the state which speaks to veterans credentialing. This area will make it easy for veterans to understand what their military training and experience offers them towards a license in the state of NJ. It will compile training information needed, forms that are needed, and specific people in the state that they can submit their credentialing information to and follow up with. No one understands the credentialing field in the state and it is a frustration point for veterans as they wish to receive credit for military schooling and training. 

We will also include a section for military spouses who may have transferred to the state with a specific license only to find out that there is no reciprocity here. We will spell out reciprocity regulations and connect the veteran spouses to the exact people who can help them with their licensing needs.

★  Veterans Blog

This will be a blog specifically for the veterans community. Topics will be wide and varied but will focus on benefits, opportunities, support, and all other topics that are affecting the veterans community. It will be like a facebook type of program so that people can post and people can reply and follow. Representatives from the state can monitor this to get feedback on specific programs.

★  Veterans Hall of fame

The NJ State Veterans Chamber of Commerce along with other state veteran organizations, will be launching the NJ Veterans Hall of Fame. We want to make it easy for the veterans community as well as the educational community to see who is in the veterans hall of fame and see why they got there and what they did for society. Many states have a veterans hall of fame and unfortunately, New Jersey does not. We will hold a gala every year to induct 5 veterans into the veterans hall of fame and will conduct events throughout the year to showcase the value these veterans have brought to the state, or the Gold Star families and all they have sacrificed for all of us.

★  Veterans Charities

There are a significant number of veterans charities operating in the state and nation. Many of them operate in their own silo’s when trying to do great things for veterans and their families. We want to have a section where we can see all of the veterans charities in the state and to see what they are up to. They always have programs and fundraisers and it would be nice to have one central area where all of the charities could have a presence. This is a long form text area designed for your content that you can fill up with as many words as your heart desires. You can write articles, long mission statements, company policies, executive profiles, company awards/distinctions, office locations, shareholder reports, whitepapers, media mentions and other pieces of content that don’t fit into a shorter, more succinct space.