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Running Header: THE GREAT IMPACT OF THE WARRIOR OUTREACH 0

The Great Impact of the Warrior Outreach

Allen Jones

Grantham

I think that there are some really good things that can come from a community partnership. When a business gets together with a nonprofit both parties can benefit from that partnership. However, for some of the businesses working in the partnership they are only there for their personal gain and perception. I have seen this in a lot of different scenarios through my time and it really makes me question that business and what kind of morals that business has. The Warrior Outreach is a nonprofit that benefits the veterans and without them and all their partners the Community would have a lot more people in need.

For me one of the most important things in the communities that I have lived, my adult life, in is community partners. After joining the army in 2004 and being stationed at Fort Hood I realized that the community may seem large but in comparison there are only a few people that know what you are going through. Statically less than one percent of Americans serve in the military so that means when organizations, like the Warrior Outreach, require heavily on the partnerships that they have with the community. The Warrior outreach is a Nonprofit organization that works with military veterans, Service Members, and their Families offering a wide variety of equine related activities. Warrior Outreach Ranch offers confidence building instructional and relaxing opportunities to interact with horses and enjoy family bonding. The Warrior Outreach main focus is to help veterans who are returning home and not have to adjust to life after Traumatic events and returning home from deployments. In the article of Project Valor, it is stated that “The prevalence of PTSD in service men and women returning from overseas operations in Afghanistan and Iraq is estimated 10% immediately post-deployment, with and approximate doubling of the prevalence within five years after deployment.” (Rosen , et al., 2012). This statistic is scary if you are living in a military community and even more shocking when you have been to two tours of duty in Iraq. That is why it is important for organization like the Warrior Outreach to be operating in and around the military communities.

One of the best partnerships that this organization has is that they work great with Fort Benning. Fort Benning is located on 182 thousand acers and is the located in Columbus, Georgia and Phoenix City Alabama with a population of around 250 thousand people and is the third largest city in Georgia. If it was not for Fort Benning, the Warrior Outreach would not have the ability to do everything that it does for the community. Fort Benning in 2010 was the 3rd largest army base in populations and 5th largest in land and at some point 90% of the army will do some type of training at the instillation. The partnership between the Warrior Outreach and Fort Benning is a bond that help the owner of Warrior Outreach Retired Command Sergeant Major Sam Rhodes (CSM ret Rhodes) has built over the years of working and living on and around Fort Benning. Most of the volunteers that work at the ranch for Warrior Outreach come from Fort Benning. He also has partnerships with a lot of different businesses and organization in the community of Columbus Georgia. The complete list can be found at http://warrioroutreach.org/sponsors-2/ but I will talk specifically about a couple of the organizations like The Home Depot. After reading the Article, The Debate Over Doing Good, I think Home Depot really does a lot in leading the way for their community outreach programs. They do and help at the Warrior Outreach with donations as well. The partnerships at the ranch that I would say is needed is that they really do need someone in the feed business. It is not easy or cheap to feed all the horses that they man has. He does an amazing job but that could really cut down on his operating budget and really help them do more community outreach.

The issues, that I see, with community partnerships is that when and organization only wants to be a partner for the benefit of the company’s bottom line or to erase a scandal that the business did. I like how the article the Debate Over Doing Good states it. “In the wake of corporate scandals, corporate social responsibility builds goodwill—and can pay off when scandals or regulatory scrutiny inevitably arise” (Grow, Hamm , & Lee, 2005). I feel this is why a lot of businesses like to participate in partnerships with nonprofits. I also found another article, posted by a guest on the Razoo Foundation, the article is How Businesses Can Benefit from nonprofit partnerships this person goes on to say that “if your motives aren’t genuine, and merely a means to an end, people will notice” (Guest, 2012). As I was reading this article and looking at way for profits can affect their partnerships I think of BP and how they completely overlook safety regulations to make the company more money. Then three years later BP, “The company broke from convention and sided against almost all major oil companies when it decided not to pursue the reversal of the U.S. Renewable fuel standard” (Kaye, 2015). I then see how the statement makes since to me because would they have done that had it not been for all the bad publicity they got from their laps in judgment.

The culture around the military has been ever changing over the years. When you have an organization like the military where people come from all different backgrounds and everyone has their own system of values, beliefs, behaviors, and norms it really becomes difficult for one organization to help so many different types of people. The Warrior Outreach really does a good job with just helping anyone that needs help. In the Article Military Culture and the Transition to Civilian Life talks about a lot of the issues that are faced by veterans. Part of the article talks about the reintegration process and it states “Reintegration can be conceptualized as finding purpose in life; having interpersonal relationships; being employed or in school; and having access to housing, health care, and other benefits” (Pease, Billera, & Gerard, 2016). The Warrior Outreach does a great job at helping veterans of all types achieve these objectives. Not only does the organization help people with their struggles with PTSD they help disabled vets when in need. On several different occasions Sam, the owner, takes people out and helps the veterans. Do routine housework, painting, or even just cleaning up the yard. Once the outreach leaves the house these people can find a purpose in life and see that they are not alone in their battles through everyday life. I have never once seen them not help someone in need. Just the other day Sam was honored by the Atlanta Braves Baseball team as a community hero. As I talked to him, at the game, he introduced me to a lot of the people that work at the ranch. This man has made connections with businesses and a lot of them only hire veterans that are getting out of the military and Sam sends him people that are in need of a job and the pest control business hires them on the spot.

As the organization grows their need for volunteers has grown a lot as well. Most people think about volunteering as free labor when you tell them that you are volunteering. Sam and the Warrior Outreach does not see a volunteer like that. He trusts people to make smart decisions and do the right thing. As I work with him he may be obtaining free labor and that benefits him but it does more for me than most people realize. I have made a lasting friend that will help me if I am ever in need and it will also give me experience working in areas that I may not have knowledge in. While reading the article Finding Meaning Through Volunteering they made a statement that I really don’t believe in it said “when their jobs are not meaningful, individuals are more likely to experience wanderlust. As a result, they volunteer an activity commonly perceived as meaningful to compensate for that perceived deprivation” (Todell , 2013). I don’t feel that people volunteer because they are deprived in their jobs. I feel that people volunteer to help the community and gain experience. Myself for example, I spend a lot of time volunteering and have spent over 1 thousand hours since 2012 giving back to my community. This has helped my build a relationship with a lot of different types of people. The things that I learn have also opened doors for me in my current career and benefited me in the long run. I have never used my volunteering as a means to be successful, that mind set will hurt you in the long run. I spend my time to learn new things and to take my knowledge and give it to other people. I often tell people that I am a jack of all trades and a master of none. I know how to work on cars, build metal carport, sew curtains, even make balloon animals, and much more. That has helped me become a well-rounded individual with knowledge in a lot of different situations. That is the main reason that I can contribute to the Warrior Outreach so much. Just the other day Sam and I was talking and he said that he wanted to get my orders deleted so that I can stay in the community and continue to help him and his organization.

Sam’s vision for the future of the Warrior Outreach is to help service members so that they don’t end up in his situation. Sam tells in his book, Breaking the Chains of Stigma Associated with Post Traumatic Stress, how he was at a job interview and the guy interviewing him really did not ask him any questions about his resume he only wanted to talk about an article that he did in a local paper. In that article he talked about his struggles with PTSD and how it affected him. There is no doubt that the gentleman doing the interview only looked at Sam and damaged goods. Sam did not get the job but has built the ranch as a way for him to coupe with his PTSD. In the Article Volunteering and Life Satisfaction came to conclude that “volunteering can play a protective role for individuals and increase their well-being in the face of otherwise unsatisfactory life conditions, with coefficients being higher for individuals on the lower end of the well-being distribution” (Binder, 2015). Sam uses his ranch to stay busy and that helps him heal from the stress associated from war and he allows anyone to use and work at the ranch in the hopes that they can obtain their own way of coping with that stress. He wants all service members to be able to succeed upon leaving the service and if his ranch can help he one person then he feels that he has a purpose.

As you can see this community is a close knit community that does love the veterans and like to help them anyway they can. The Warrior Outreach has the ability and the connections in the community to keep them successful and maintain the ability to help anyone that he can. Sam is a great combat veteran that wants to make peoples life easier and help them succeed before, during, and after the military.

Binder, M. (2015). Volunteering and Life Satisfaction. Appiled Economics Letters, 874-885.

Fort Benning MWR. (n.d.). Retrieved from Fort Benning MWR: http://www.benningmwr.com/documents/acs/Fort%20Benning%20Digital%20Welcome%20Packet.pdf

Grow, B., Hamm , S., & Lee, L. (2005). The Debate Over Doing Good. Business Week, 76*78.

Guest. (2012, June 7). How Businesses Can Benefit from Nonprofit Partnerships. Retrieved from Razoo Foundation: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/07/exxon-to-invest-20-billion-on-us-gulf-coast-refining-projects.html

Kaye, L. (2015, Frbruary 19). Five Years After Deepwater Horizon, can BP Repair Its Reputation. Retrieved from Sustainable Brands: http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/marketing_comms/leon_kaye/five_years_after_deepwater_horizon_can_bp_repair_its_reputa

Pease, J., Billera, M., & Gerard, G. (2016). Military Culture and the Transition to Civilian life. Social Work , 83-86.

Rhodes, S. M. (2014). Breaking The Chains of Stigma Associated With Post Traumatic Stress. bloomington: Author House.

Rhodes, S. m. (n.d.). Warrior Outreach. Retrieved from Warrior Outreach: http://warrioroutreach.org/

Rosen , R., Marx, B., Maserejian, N., Holowka, D., Gates, M., Sleeper, L., . . . Deane, T. (2012). Project VALOR: Design and methods of longitudinal registry of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in combat ezposed Veterans in the Afghanistan and Iragi Military theaters of operations. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 5-16.

Todell , J. B. (2013). Finding Meaning Throung Volunteering. Academy of Management Journal, 1274-1294.