US DOL Awards $300k to Help Homeless Veterans POWER Up!

Honolulu, HI, June 30, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Beginning July 1, 2013, the US Department of Labor Veterans Employment and Training Service will award a $300,000 a year grant to theStrategist for its POWER Up! project that helps homeless veterans get jobs. “Veterans have the aptitude for high-demand, high-wage jobs in technology, healthcare and skilled trade construction,” commented Noe Foster, CEO of theStrategist. “It’s easy to forget that when you’re sleeping on the beach or in your car. POWER Up! helps veterans remember who they are and what they can accomplish.”

POWER Up! offers homeless veterans, in the urban Honolulu, Hawaii area, free job help that includes: pre-employment training, job matching, job placement and job retention coaching. Concentrated efforts are aimed at placing veterans in technology, healthcare and skilled trade construction jobs. Veterans may call POWER Up! at t: (808) 366-7394. The POWER Up! project is 100 percent financed through this federal grant award.

In all, the U.S. Department of Labor issued 121 grant awards across the nation totaling more than $28.7 million specifically to help homeless veterans with employment. “The Department of Labor, Veterans Employment and Training Service congratulates theStrategist on their selection as a PY2013 Homeless Veteran Reintegration Program grantee,” stated Ann Greenlee, Director Hawaii and Guam, Veterans’ Employment & Training Service (VETS), US Department of Labor. “theStrategist brings a track record of success to this grant; and we look forward to their providing expanded employment and counseling services to Honolulu’s homeless veteran population.”

In 2010, theStrategist, together with Mental Health America of Hawaii, jointly partnered on a similar grant focused on delivering employment services for homeless women veterans and veterans with families. “In the last three years, we have helped more than 205 veterans and 335 of their family members through our POWER Up! project,” stated Foster. “We meet veterans at one of the darkest times of their lives, defeated without a home to call their own. It’s exhilarating to see their transformation when they begin a new job and get the keys to their new home.”