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Minority Vets of America

About Minority Vets of America

Connect. Understand. Serve.

Have you been looking for something bigger than yourself since you left the military? Do you often feel like you are missing your sense of belonging in your community? Do you want to celebrate the identities you hold beyond military service member of veteran?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, Minority Vets is the home you’ve been looking for. Membership to the organization is free and is open to Veterans of Color, Women Veterans, LGBTQ Veterans, (Non)Religious Minority Veterans, and our allies.

Membership Benefits

  • Access to Minority Vets events
  • Ability to connect with other members
  • A supportive community
  • Leadership opportunities
  • Resources and information
  • Networking opportunities

Emerging Leaders

Emerging Leaders is MVA’s leadership development program that is designed to invest in the development of the next generation of minority veteran leaders to return to lead their communities. The program is intended to address the leadership gap that exists for minority and underrepresented veterans in the form of both development to succeed and opportunities to apply the skills acquired through experience.

Emerging Leader Retreat

The MVA Emerging Leader Retreat is an annual three-day leadership training designed by and for minority and underrepresented veterans that brings together 25 leaders and facilitators from around the country. The retreat focuses on leadership development and creating tools for minority veteran leaders to take back to lead in their communities.

The Emerging Leader Retreat is open to chapter leaders, members of the MVA leadership team, and MVA members (when space is available). The focus areas for the training includes:

Cultural Competency – To be successful at growing a minority veteran community, leaders must have the knowledge base to understand the unique needs and lived experiences of the community they seek to lead.

Vulnerability – Many think that vulnerability makes us weaker as leader but to be vulnerable as a leader is bold and reimagined as a strength we can all tap into.

Resilience – Resilience isn’t a moment, it’s a mindset and it requires that we accept that life is not a linear process. We learn to be resilient through our experiences and hearing the experiences of others.

Self-Care – Leaders often fail to care for themselves and end up encountering burnout. Self-care is imperative to sustaining ourselves as leaders.

Healing – Many leaders in the minority veteran community have experienced significant trauma either while serving and/or in their lives. ELR places a focus on and facilitates connection around healing from past trauma.

Organizational Management – Leaders, especially chapter leaders, will learn strategic planning, budgeting, community organizing, and organization management principles to successfully manage their local chapters and communities.

Applications

Applications for the Emerging Leader Retreat are accepted annually on a rolling basis. The deadline to apply for the August 2020 retreat is June 15, 2020 at 5 p.m. EST.

People To People (P2P)

People to People (P2P) engages members through community-based programming. The program provides human-centered case management services for minority and underrepresented veteran communities. This is accomplished through our three focus areas of Social Engagement, Financial Stability, and Systems Access & Improvement. Each focus area has identified strategies that offer different, innovative interventions for the member participant.

P2P takes a holistic approach in meeting the veteran where they are in space and time resulting in enhancing a greater sense of belonging and reducing barriers to accessing services and systems for our communities.

 

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