The Pathway Home is a wonderful non-profit here in Napa Valley. The Pathway Home needs financial support to expand the amazing programs they provide for our post 911 veterans returning from deployment.
Many of our post-9/11 veterans are returning home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other mental health challenges that make it difficult to return to continuing their education, career and civilian life.
The Pathway Home, located within the Veteran’s Home in Yountville, provides veterans with mental health care, education, career services, and mentoring programs. The veterans live together in a 24/7 safe, structured, and supportive environment with clinical mental health care to help them reintegrate into civilian life.
At the Pathway Home, veterans talk freely with one another about post-deployment challenges, while trained professionals offer wrap-around mental health and case management services.
As brave as our veterans have been when performing their duties, many are hesitant to admit their struggles. The Pathway Home is a community that reduces stigma and provides support – and a hand up when it’s needed.
My dear friend, Dorothy Salmon, has been dedicated to supporting these veterans for nearly a decade along with other Rotarians, business leaders and philanthropists. Among all of the worthwhile nonprofit work Dorothy has done throughout her life, she says nothing has been more rewarding, daunting, or more powerful than helping these post-9/11 veterans.
One such veteran, named Adam Schumann, inspired Universal Studios Thank You for Your Service,” which opens nationwide on Oct. 27. With actor Miles Teller playing the role of Adam, the film tells the amazing story of this Iraq War veteran who served his country bravely but came home a broken man. At the end of the film, Adam arrives at the Pathway Home.
Today’s early intervention provided by The Pathway Home helps prevent common transition challenges from developing into chronic, disabling conditions. Left alone, struggling veterans often fall into a downward spiral of isolation and anger, self-medication, dropping out of school, losing a job, and sometimes jail. With early intervention, fewer veterans depend on emergency or crisis services.
As a 501(c)(3) private tax-exempt charitable organization, The Pathway Home is not underwritten by the government. They partner with the San Francisco Veterans Administration and the California Department of Veterans Affairs along with Napa Valley College, Rotary Clubs and businesses but they do not – and cannot – rely on government dollars to keep the doors open. The Pathway Home models the best of public/private partnerships that is the future.
The Pathway Home needs caring, committed individuals to step forward. The magic created there is the community partnering with them. This is your opportunity to truly make “Thank You For Your Service” powerful!
Right now, funding challenges are preventing The Pathway Home from unlocking its full potential. They need resources to get the word out to thousands of veterans who could benefit the most. They need specialized staff to effectively deliver services, and their facilities need modernization.
The 5-year plan is to facilitate replication of this program, initially throughout California and eventually, across the nation. By building a professional network of local and national corporate partners, the Pathway Home also hopes to connect veterans with higher education opportunities, apprenticeships, internships, and jobs. Developing and garnering commitments that can be co-branded with the Pathway Home is part of the 5-year plan.
I urge you to consider donating to The Pathway Home or assess your ability to provide opportunities for our veterans when they leave the program. Our veterans deserve your help. One year’s stay costs $60,000 – that’s $164.00 a day, and it makes a huge difference in our veteran’s lives.
Go to http://thepathwayhome.org/ to learn more about the Pathway Home and click here to see a sneak preview of Universal Studios film “Thank You For Your Service”, which ends with Adam Schumann coming to The Pathway Home.
