NEW YORK, June 18, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mayor Bill Finch of
Bridgeport, Connecticut has endorsed Project VALOR, Veterans Across America's
plan to employ returning veterans as mentors to at risk, inner city youth in
economically disadvantaged urban communities. (VALOR is an acronym for Veteran
Adult Leadership for Operation Re-Deployment.) Veterans Across America (VAA), a
501(c)(3) organization, has helped more than 9,000 former service men and women
gain civilian employment since 1996.
Mayor Finch issued his endorsement during a meeting with VAA Board member
Paul Kwasniewski, an Old Saybrook, Connecticut resident and former Vietnam
veteran Army combat medic. Mayor Finch said: "Project VALOR is a win-win,
providing employment opportunities for our soldiers returning home and giving
our at-risk youth mentors who will lead them in the right direction. I applaud
the efforts of Project VALOR for supporting the men and women who have bravely
served our country with an opportunity to have a positive impact on inner-city
youth."
Mr. Kwasniewski, who helped save the life of Secretary of Defense Chuck
Hagel in 1968 when Hagel's armored personnel carrier blew up, added: "I
didn't rescue him and hundreds of other soldiers to sit by now passively while
our soldiers suffer and a new war is raging in the towns in my own state. On
9/11, and throughout the early fall, to get visibility for Project VALOR, I
plan to swim both the Connecticut and Thames Rivers, the Hudson River and, if
need be, every river in America."
According to the Children's Defense Fund, an American child or teen is
killed or injured every 30 minutes by gun violence. In response to this
national tragedy, Veterans Across America's founder, Old Lyme, Connecticut
resident Wesley Poriotis notes that "more law enforcement is not the
answer; veterans can be the solution through Project VALOR."
VAA Board Member Adonis Hoffman, a professor at Georgetown University,
agrees that "Veterans can play a key role in their own communities at
little or no cost to the government. The VAA solution puts veterans to work as
role models to help counter the forces which seduce kids into gangs and into
violence."
VAA Board Member, West Point Alumnus, and Vice Chairman of the USO of
Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey Ed Clemons confirms that "Veterans
are well positioned to help kids stay in school and on a positive track by
providing meaningful life planning."
In 1995, after Admiral William A. Owen, then Vice Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, asked Mr. Poriotis and his colleague, Barbara Mendez-Tucker,
to conduct a study on the obstacles Gulf War veterans faced in transitioning to
civilian employment. In September 1996, Mr. Poriotis met with President Bill
Clinton to brief him on the deselective biases, stereotypes, and myths veterans
faced in accessing post-military civilian employment. At the President's
request, Mr. Poriotis founded Veterans Across America. In 2004, 2005, and 2006
Mr. Poriotis testified before the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees
on the need to market the value of military service to civilian employers.
VAA's Champion Mentoring Program, which fostered unprecedented job creation for
the most needy and vulnerable veterans, especially enlisted men and women of
color, became a precursor to use veterans as Champion Mentors for kids at risk
through Project VALOR.