Wounded Warrior Project® and Team Rubicon Collaborate to Leverage Military Veterans’ Leadership Skills and Crisis Management Experience
New York (July 1, 2014) – National veterans’ nonprofits Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) and Team Rubicon are partnering to honor and empower wounded veterans by leveraging their skills and experience to serve communities hit by natural disasters with emergency response measures.
As part of the partnership, WWP will fund Team Rubicon’s Clay Hunt Fellows Program (CHFP), a leadership, growth and readiness program designed to provide experience in emergency management for veterans. Recipients will receive a stipend and a 12-‐month fellowship to serve in a leadership role in one of Team Rubicon’s 10 domestic regions.
“This collaboration with Team Rubicon reinforces Wounded Warrior Project’s mission to honor and empower Wounded Warriors by encouraging the continuation of service,” said Steve Nardizzi, CEO, Wounded Warrior Project. “Our grant recipients like Team Rubicon act as force multipliers by providing meaningful economic empowerment, education and career opportunities to wounded veterans, while allowing them to continue to serve their country in some capacity. By serving communities in crisis side-by-‐side with other veterans and first responders, they experience the strong sense of camaraderie they felt during active duty.”
The Team Rubicon and WWP collaboration will build on the success of both organizations in finding and filling gaps that exist in care and support of veterans. Other key initiatives will include helping Team Rubicon develop a peer-‐to-‐peer program modeled after the WWP Peer Support Program and creating a Warrior Assessment and Response Detachment (WARD) to identify and support WWP Alumni and their families residing within disaster areas.
"Team Rubicon is excited to partner with Wounded Warrior Project. We feel that this partnership will grow and evolve over time, leading both organizations to improve programs that serve our nation's veterans,” said Jake Wood, CEO and cofounder of Team Rubicon. “For Team Rubicon that means providing better leadership and mental health support opportunities for our volunteers, who in turn can then better serve communities in need.”
The partnership between Team Rubicon and WWP will empower wounded veterans to find new ways to serve. As many veterans search for a new unit, a new mission, and a new purpose, this collaboration will provide opportunities for this generation of veterans to serve together again while serving communities in crisis.
About Wounded Warrior Project
Wounded Warrior Project is recognizing its ten-‐year anniversary, reflecting on a decade of service and reaffirming its commitment to serving Wounded Warriors for their lifetime. The mission of Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) is to honor and empower Wounded Warriors. WWP’s purpose is to raise awareness and to enlist the public’s aid for the needs of injured service members, to help injured servicemen and women aid and assist each other, and to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet their needs. WWP is a national, nonpartisan organization headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. To get involved and learn more, visit www.woundedwarriorproject.org.
About Team Rubicon
Team Rubicon (TR) unites the skills and experience of military veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams. TR offers veterans a chance to continue their service by helping and empowering those afflicted by disasters, and also themselves. For more about Team Rubicon, visit www.teamrubiconusa.org.