You are still figuring out what needs to be done and you are needing an assistant. Men have to be lead parents or fully equal coparents. For our complete schedule, go to cspan. Org. We have more on the u. S. Chamber of commerces summit on Job Opportunities for veterans. Up next, former first lady laura bush. She specifically focuses on Military Spouses and the challenges they face. Attendees also hear from congressional medal of honor recipient dakota meyer, labor secretary tom perez and joint chiefs of staff vice chair admiral james winfield. This is just under two hours. Good morning, im the executive director of the institute for military families and i would like to welcome my friend mark here from deloitte and ill i guess ill say first its humbling and honestly intimidating to follow president bush but is to spend just ten minutes talking about the collective and collaborative action. A recap of where weve been relative to vets em ploimt and also what may lie ahead. Challenge challenges and opportunities for our transitioning Service Members, veterans and families but also for the Employer Community that has been so supportive of this effort. Only because you expect it from me do i have a graph with a bunch of data and things behind me but i wont talk to it. Only use it as a way to suggest that we really have accomplished an awful lot over the last five to seven years in particular. Weve made Significant Impact on the vocational situation of veterans. We have learned a lot in the context of doing this work as well through the coalitions that the president mention ed the hundred thousand Jobs Coalition and i wont because the president did already list off some employers who have made remarkable contributions. It gives me an out not to mention any employers by name and therefore leave some out and get in trouble later on. But only to say probably at in point in our history since world war ii has the private sector stepped up in such a meaningful way to support the vocational transition of our Service Members. And collectively as a community we deserve credit for that. Weve built tools, put them into action, well hear more about some tools today that are positioned to move this effort and agenda forward. But we put up data like i have here it always begs the question and it has recently in the context of whats next for this community is there an employment challenge . Is there an employment crisis relative to our nations veterans . And i suggest suggest very delicately so as not to offend because these questions do sometimes make for good dueling opeds but at the end of the day i actually think the questions themselves are a bit of a red herring because the only answer that matters to questions like that are the ones that you get when youre standing in front of a veteran who has done everything that they need to do to position themselves for postservice employment and they tell you whether or not they have been successful finding a job. Ultimately, thats the only answer that matters and we can, as i learned in my first graduate statistics class, torture this data to death in a way that tells any story that we want it to tell. And hopefully pahu8j of what wee going to do and as i transition to mark and let him talk a little bit about a tool that deloitte and the ibmf have been working to build, well get to a place where were asking more nuanced and perspective questions about veterans employment moving forward. One of the things that seems to get us in trouble a bit as we focus on putting our inherently constrained resources to the first best use, serving the vocational challenges of veterans, is that we tend to paint this community with one single brush. And dont acknowledge the heterogeneity that exists across this community. Ill give you an example how you can frame that different to the employment challenges that some cohorts of this community may or may not face. What you see on this graph are two lines. The dark and top line represent a longitudinal view all the way back to 2000 of the employment gap between post9 11 veterans ages 20 to 24 and their civilian counterparts. What you see on the light blue line is the employment gallon between post9 11 veterans pos post9 11 veterans age 34 and above relative to their civilian counterparts. I could build 25 of these, 30 of these as i slice and dice up the Veterans Community but as i talked to really smart economists around the country about how we should be thinking about focusing our efforts moving forward, this idea of identifying and then acting on this idea of an employment gap relative to civilian demographic counterparts, whether its a function of ethnicity, gender, a age, skill, industry, etc. Because at the end of the day, the Value Proposition relative to volunteering for military service is one such that youre better off on the way out so every recruiting effort is based around that Value Proposition while here for example is one group that by the data it appears that were not delivering on that Value Proposition. There is lots of reasons to explain this and some are inhernt in who these folks are but that data does highlight that persistently over the course of the last 10, 12 years there has been an employment gap between that particular population and their civilian counterparts i use this i said i could build 25 of these. Im already over, arent i . I used this one because i wanted to share this chart. Is there cause for sustained action for us moving forward . Well, there are the projection separations, these are d. O. D. Numbers. Over the next five years and look at the cohort that is going to be separating in the highest numbers. So the idea is that whether or not we have this discussion about are there is there an employment challenge, what matters most is that were asking a different set of questions moving forward again so that we can focus our resources to serve the need where the need is greatest. What weve learned heres a quick summary as a way to transition this to mark. As we think about our research and the surveys of thought leaders we have conducted, the surveys of veterans. At the end of the day really the path forward is about institutionalizing a focus more upstream of transition. This initiatives but really got off the ground as a function of dealing with immediate crisis but as we talk and have conversations about the future of military force which secretary carter is having now this idea of a partnership becomes central to enacting that vision. But we need better data. The reality is we dont have great visibility into that upstream pipeline in such a way that it that it allows not for profits, private sector employers, et cetera, to position resources appropriately to support that vocational transition. Its also important to acknowledge that both the labor market and the demographic represented by this population is changing pretty dramatically over time. The population of veterans or Service Members leaving the military 2007, 2008 relative to today is an entirely different population. And we have to build therefore Dynamic Models of intervention, programs that can be adapted and evolve over time to serve that changing demographic. And also to be aligned with changing labor market demands. And ultimately finally my transition is to suggest that we have to start asking different questions. We have to start moving the level of analysis from a high Level National effort where were looking at veterans as a population to drill into cohorts and sub cohorts of veteran population. And importantly at the local and regional level. Because at the end of the day, one of the most powerful lessons that weve learned from the work that weve done with our partners at the bush center is where it matters most is local. Our Service Members are returning to the towns, villages, et cetera where the economies are local, the social networks with local, the Supportive Services are local. And if we dont start asking questions about how we can serve and support at the local level, i think we miss the opportunity to really institutionalize a focus on employment transition over the long term. With that, i can transition to mark to actually give him an opportunity to put that call to action, if you will, that i just suggested in to action, to demonstrate a tool that we have been building they have really been building it and weve been helping them see what to build. But that offers the opportunity to really dig in a much deeper way and more powerful way focus. Thanks, mike. And i have 1 03 to go through four slides, so i will do it quickly. The president mentioned smart policy and mike mentioned the community level. And thats the problem set that we began it work with as we began to aggregate the data and hone it into a dynamic model that we can yoe value eight at the local level. You can see there is lots of data here. The purpose here is to put the data to work for us to allow us to ask the probing questions to get at that regional construct. And i can go through this surely later on. This is an aggregation of the data nationally that can help us depict veteran unemployment down to the county level, it can help us look at the data by gender, by age, by disability status, by education. It allows us to capture all the data sets so now we can begin to ask the questions of how do we drill down and look at this information and start to reorganize our policy, start to reallocate resources from a National Level down to a community level. Let me give you a quick example. Here we look at two counties, 60 miles apart in texas. One is a rural community, one is an urban community, and you can see in grimes, the rural community, much higher levels of unemployment, much lower Median Income. 60 miles away in an urban community in harris county, you can see the Median Income much higher. You can see the employment much lower. Now, that doesnt necessarily give us an answer, but when we talk about how do we allocate resources and programs, one might ask is this an issue of transportation, simply making sure that 60 miles apart, how do we put together resources to get those folks in the Rural Communities to places where the jobs exist just 60 miles away. It may be a transportation issue. Or it may be a training and skills issue. The president mentioned you can train skills. Of course you can. Couldnt we leverage the skills in employment that is 60 miles apart to give Employment Opportunities to those veterans . And we can do this nationally now, at the county level we can drill down and look at any one of a number of dtel demographic. So it begins to allow us to peel back the discussion and most importantly it allows us to target resources and programs to where the greatest need is at the community level. One other piece of the model that we looked at was the highest industries. Youll see this chart really depicts the highest Growth Industries in the upper right hand corner by growth right on the x ax sis. And on the y axis, the total number of jobs available. The size of the bubbles represents the size of the veteran population. So you can see in education and health services, has the most jobs but the smallest number of veterans. In the lower left in the federal space has the greatest number of veterans but it has the lowest growth rate. So how do we use data to help us target where we can best allocate resources and target our opportunities for veterans. So these models allow us to ask questions and answer these in making informed decisions again to policymakers, for veterans, for employers and for community leaders. Were really thrilled and excited to be doing this with syracuse. I would say it will take a village and more information and certainly other partners. We welcome this and welcome other partnerships to make this work. Thank you very much. [ applause ] i was in denial of how bad it really was. The outer shell of him came back, but everything on the inside was dead. Its like it just died in rag. Iraq. Every day at least 22 u. S. Veterans commit suicide. Thats almost 8,000 a year. But a new program could save their lives. Its called save a warrior. This isnt broken. This is broken. And thats why youre in that chair i assert. Hes told me multiple times if this program doesnt work, hes going to kill himself. So im literally on borrowed time right now. How is the family situation when the booze and pills kick in . I see heads knocking up and down. Its not working for you, is it . Its only a five day program. How can a person in 5 1 2 days. Brotherhood is a lot to do with it. This is the last house on the block. I feel guilty because i have i feel like im back in a parachute. I got hurt in a parachute. They literally feel like in that moment that they will die. Love you, brother. Im learning how to love you guys back. 100 active duty members. How many would you you guess were suicides . Somewhere between 80 and 90. How many have killed themselves . None. A lot riding on this. My life is riding on it. [ applause ] thank you. And good morning. So that clip might lead you to believe that im going to share a sad story with you this morning. Instead ill tell you an optimistic story. I started working on this documentary in 2013. I had just left cnn fulltime to start a Media Company called starfish media group. And my very first assignment back for cnn was do a full length documentary on what happens to veterans and their Family Members when they return home but they are struggling with posttraumatic stress. So we embedded for five days with save a warrior, which is a Small Organization based out of Southern California that believed that soldiers who were returning home needed tools to specifically deal with some of the issues that they were facing. Depression, anxiety, anger, loss, issues that in the past might have been dealt with using prescription drugs or maybe nonprescription drugs or alcohol. And that in fact these tools were teachable like meditation and even just understanding that other people were going through, feeling a connection to other Service Members, a brotherhood if you will of sorts, undergoing challenging experiences, a ropes course, rock climbing, equine therapy, meditation, all art, all of these strategies that save a warrior utilized to create a connection between 13 guys who had never met before and yet this many ways shared a very similar struggle. Many of them were frankly suicidal and they couldnt figure out how to live in the world. You saw the africanamerican gentleman in the clip there, hes the one who ended as he jumped to the ropes course, he would speak very openly with his wife who you saw crying in that clip telling them that if this five day course didnt work, he was going to kill himself. And he described to me. The suicidal feel as being in a burning building. He said its like the building is on fire and you dont want to jump. Youre afraid to jump. But the pain is so intense, you feel like you have no other choice but to jump. So i spent five days embedded and then several more days interviewing the families. And as you saw in the clip, those five days were very emotional, very intense, some of those days were very miserable and some were thrilling. Garrett combs was chosen to be in our documentary because he was exactly the kind of guy who hates to appear in documentaries like this. His it is taken for the news media was very clear. He told me he did not trust that i would not screw up his storyi media was very clear. He told me he did not trust that i would not screw up his story and he challenged me to run unedited what he said because the news media always ran it wrong. He said the when the stories come can on tv, none of us, meaning veteran, watch. They were all bs. We never watch these stories because theyre just not real. And he challenged us to tell the real story and get it right. And so we did. I felt we owed to these 13 men and in this case it was men, they also do female cohort, to follow what happened. For good or for bad. For success or for failure, we would just tell their story. And in the end the program was life changing. We went in with no preconceived notions. Delon who was clearly an alcoholic, he was drinking several bottles of wine every single day. I by the end stopped drinking. Had reengaged with his wife and his small children. And hes been doing really well ever since. And garrett, whose anger lay just below the surface also changed and i learned much more about him, as well. Not just his experiences in war, which he spoke about, but also his hopes and his dreams for his life after the service. And i learned that his dream was to be a photographer. And with a little bit of shoving at times, i got to see some of his work. Instead of us shooting him, we got toe s see what he was shoot for us. I learned that he enjoyed hiding behind a camera which made him feel a little bit more secure in in conversations. And it also made him a wonderful student of human nature which turns out to a very good thing if if you have any desire at all be a photojournalist. His experience in the military being ultra observant made him a great and very valuable story teller and story recorder. The fact that he had wrestled with some demons successfully made him a good listener, people threat tick and sympathetic, all very good qualities in a journalist. Oh, and he had tremendous rawtal le talent. And i think because of his military training, the quality of excellence was built into what he consistently delivered. He was always working on his craft, always seeking feedback, never ever said no. And i wont talk with timeliness and showing up organized, et cetera, et cetera. So no surprise then that my company, starfish media group, has hired garrett combs after doing a documentary on him to be our west coast photojournalist for the projects that we do. And i almost hate to say it out loud because i feel like there are people in the audience who are going to steal him from me because he is that amazing, its like giving away a good secret. The media i think often frames the issue of posttraumatic stress as kind of a curse like some kind of crazy lets watch this explode sort of thing. And that is not the case. And what i learned in my reporting, th