The Annual Veterans Moving Forward event held at the Wright State University Student Union is a job and resource fair focused on the veteran and military-connected community. Vets Moving Forward is sponsored by the Southern Ohio Council for Higher Education and the Greater Miami Valley MyVeteran Community, which connects veterans and veteran service organizations across the region. Comprised of numerous state and local representatives, business and education leaders, as well as veteran service organizations, the organization strives to create a collective positive impact.
The event has taken place for a number of years, but was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID. This year the event was back and so were those ready to show their support. We were one of over 100 organizations at this year's event. This was the first time VMAS had a booth at this event, but the members of our team have been involved with this event in some way since 2015 through the Veteran & Military Center and Veterans Voices. Thanks to Ericka Laforse, our Membership & Engagement Chair, into putting the thought and effort into crafting an awesome table display for our first year.
This year, we were able to reconnect with some old friends including representatives from Operation Fairborn Cares, the Dayton VA, the Montgomery County Veterans Services Commission. We also met some new members of the support community including Team RWB Dayton, the Dean of the Raj Soin College of Business, the Wilderness Agency, People Working Cooperatively, and Epoch Lending.
During the event we had great conversations with some of the individuals in attendance. We met an Alumni and area Nurse who expressed interest in sharing her knowledge and expertise with those in the medical field. We met a newly relocated veteran from Fort Drum who was coming into the Dayton area for the first time with her family. We also met a Veteran and WPAFB fire fighter who seemed interested in joining us for some of our volunteer events. During these discussions, we focused on communicating two specific areas of our organization; external support and internal opportunities.
We provide external support to the community and our members through;
Volunteer events like the Great Miami River Clean Sweep
Social events like our Golf Outing or Academic Semester Kick-Off
Establishing our Career Advancement Program
We provide internal opportunities to our volunteers through creating a space to;
Learn a new skill; Want to make your first marketing plan? Do it with us!
Refine an existing skill; Need a website to refine your HTML5 skills? We have one!
Leverage a network or expertise; Want to help others? Let's talk!
We had a good time at this years Veterans Moving Forward and have already identified areas of opportunity for us to get more out of next years event. Keep an eye on our events page for next years information to be posted when it becomes available.