Veterans for Volunteers

Picture found here

Greenhouse helps a lot of people, and there are many people in Murfreesboro who are at least familiar with what Greenhouse does. When asking the average person, "What does Greenhouse do?", the kind of answers you will typically get include "food pantry", "homeless help" and even "helping the poor". While these are all true, Greenhouse does much, much more than this.

In an effort to educate more people on the many services and opportunities Greenhouse has to offer,  I will dedicate this blog post to a different area every week.  Last week, we talked about the Garden Patch Thrift Store, and I am still looking for your social media pictures with the hashtag #gpdesigns! This week, I will highlight one of our newer, but definitely thriving, programs; Veterans for Volunteers!

A while back, we noticed that a large number of our clients--whether homeless or working poor, young and old, men and women--were veterans.  Once we got to know these people, we noticed a lot of them had the tendency to sit at home and do nothing. They had no desire to interact with people.  They didn't have jobs; they sat at home living off of their benefits and tried to work out the many issues they were feeling by themselves. Most of these men and women had been to war and were dealing with the effects of things they had seen and experienced while overseas. They were suffering from Post Traumatic Stress, and didn't see a way out, or that there were people just like them who could relate and bring them through the darkness. That is where we come in!

A volunteer counselor from the VA worked with us to start a program that would cater to the needs of the veterans, while not holding them where they were. An opportunity to move past what they had been through and seen, and go forward with their lives.

Our volunteer coordinator trying to prove that his Army skills are still holding strong!

With volunteers from the community, we reach out to veterans and offer them the chance to enroll in our Veterans for Volunteers program (V4V).  V4V is a six month program that pairs struggling or hurting veterans, with healthy, stable, active veterans who can help guide them out of their current situations.  They become a "Battle Buddy" to them, someone who they can confide in, someone who knows what they are going through personally, and someone who can build them up and help them see all the options in font of them.

Program participant Roger

The veterans will spend time at Greenhouse and in the community volunteering...we do this for two reasons.  The first, we love volunteers, and would like the chance to build relationships with our veterans.  The second, and more important reason, is that giving veterans a place to volunteer gives them a purpose and something to look forward to every day.  It is a reason to get out of the house.  It is an excuse to stop the substance abuse that many are dealing with out of a mixture of pain and boredom.  We provide an outlet for their energy and a way for them to use their talents to shine, which benefits us both!  Leaving the military does not have to mean an end to living...we hope to show these veterans that there is a lot left to live for, and that we are grateful for their service and sacrifices, and proud of the work they have done to keep us safe.

We have seen our program participants make significant improvements and take steps toward their recovery that would not have been possible before entering the program. The main goal is to help these veterans reintegrate back into the community. While working with us over their six month program, they go into the community and volunteer at other organizations, and we hope to help them find jobs.

We are so proud of our veterans and the major work we have seen them do! We have seen men come out of their shells, get jobs and apartments, find talents they didn't know they had and hobbies they enjoy, get closer to Jesus, and generally just rediscover their passion for life!

Andy Pounds, V4V Coordinator

If you are a veteran, or if you know a veteran, who could benefit from this program or who would like to volunteer with us, please do not hesitate to stop by and talk with us! Our V4V coordinator Andy Pounds, and current volunteer mentors would love to sit and talk with you!