About Woman Veteran Strong FY22 | Others Over Self®

Hello friends and welcome to Selfridge Air National Guard Base. Hey, quick question for you: What do you get when a group of military women join together? That's right, you get out of their way. I'm Chaplain Shelley Rood and hands down that is my favorite joke. I'm a woman veteran and I'm also a small business owner. And today we're taking 3 minutes to learn about a program that focuses on meeting the needs of military women like myself. Huh, military women have needs? Yeah, we do. We'll just never say that we do. This program is called Women Veterans Strong, and we provide peer support and recreational therapy at no cost to our members. We focus on 3 things: reducing the stigma of what it means to seek support for mental wellness, advocating for ourselves and for other military women, and collecting testimonials of our shared life experience. The purpose of Women Veterans Strong is to safely bring military women together so that we can develop healthy social relationships with each other. Our emphasis on peer support is different from clinical therapy. We touch on important life skills. We work on ourselves as part of a group. During meetings, a trained facilitator, also a military woman, is always present to guide the conversation and to provide referrals as needed. Now, by the numbers, our Women Veterans Strong program supports 7 chapters across the state of Michigan. One of our meetings is even open to guests, so it's normal for women to find us online and pop in and say hello. We even see service members stationed overseas who just need a safe space to connect and share what they're experiencing. The second key part to this program is recreational therapy and advocacy events. These are a huge benefit not only to our members, but to the community at large. From award ceremonies to service projects, hiking, kayaking, watercolor painting— hey, we've even gone golfing with the LPGA. No kidding. We're talking about experiencing the goodness of life outside of our service time in the military. So that's the program. The free application and more information is online at womanveteranstrong.org. Now, two quick thank-yous. One, to Chaplain Brian Webb and the entire staff at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. They provide the framework for the program. And two, to the Eisenhower Center's Veterans Reintegration Center here on Selfridge. This is where the Women Veterans Strong headquarters is located. Now, before we say goodbye, I want to stay in touch with you. So if you hear the phrase "others over self," it's a registered trademark of my company. Others Over Self is a leadership mindset. We teach professional development, and we serve as the promotional arm for programs like Women Veterans Strong. Now, I'm always looking for public servants to develop and teach content. You can find me on social media @othersoverself and just do a web search for Shelley Rood, or you can call us on the hotline. Thank you for supporting military women like me and the Women Veterans Strong program. Your voice is highly valued and deeply needed. See you soon.