Herren Associates’ recieve invitation to attend VOW to Hire Heroes Act signing ceremony
Invitation due to outstanding work of Herren Associates' in support of our Armed Services and veterans.
In early August, President Obama addressed several service members at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, DC as he delivered his commitment to employing America’s veterans. This commitment proposed a tax credit for returning heroes and wounded warriors, a challenge to private sector to hire veterans, establishment of a DoD/VA Veteran Unemployment Task Force, and improvement to transition services.
In recognition of Herren Associates’ excellent support of administrative veteran unemployment efforts, several members of our team were invited to attend the signing ceremony of the VOW to Hire Heroes Act.
In addition to the President, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden, all attended the ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building South Court Auditorium, Nov. 21, 2011.
This law created tax credits for private business that hire veterans and made transition workshops mandatory for separating service members. This bipartisan Bill establishes a series of tax credits for businesses that hire Veterans in need of employment, mandates publication of employment assessments for all military occupational specialties, and expands on-the-job training/apprenticeship programs for veterans.
Herren Associates’ engagement team, as part of their ongoing contract to support the Performance Improvement Council, has the honor of participation in several initiatives to support veterans and their families.
Herren Associates efforts currently include:
- President Obama’s Presidential Study Directive 9 (PSD-9)—"Strengthening our Military Families"
- The First Lady, Michelle Obama’s Joining Forces Challenge
- The DoD/VA Veterans Unemployment Task Force established by President Obama in his commitment for employing America’s veterans.
Currently, the Herren Associates team is developing the first annual report for PSD-9 and is on track to be completed in February 2012. This report will review the successes of the 47 PSD-9 commitments in the first year since the study was released and will include recommendations for developing a PSD-9 Version 2.0. This updated phase of PSD-9 will continue to emphasize the work that Federal agencies are doing in support of military families, will expand on programs that are currently successful, and find new ways to bolster programs that might need extra attention.
Supporting our client’s active role as OMB representative to the DoD/ VA Veterans Unemployment Task Force, the Herren Associates team participated in multiple IPT sub-groups on veterans education, transition, unemployment and entrepreneurship, working with top policy and operations officials from the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Labor, Education, and senior representatives from the Executive Office of the President.
In addition, the Herren team’s efforts led to the stand up of an interagency data analysis working group which focuses on establishing authoritative data on demographics, throughput, services, and policies relating to the ongoing issue of veteran unemployment, to support top policy and decision makers working on this issue. Along with representatives from DMDC, VA, Army, OMB, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Data Analysis Working Group has to date developed four data one-pagers that provide a baseline for all senior level veteran unemployment discussions.
These data and analytics products frame the veteran unemployment current and future problem state, convey the current quality/throughput/utilization of services, and the financial impact that has already resulted from the problem. These current efforts have featured prominently in official DoD/VA Task Force deliverables to the White House.
