United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County was proud to partner with the Bob Woodruff Foundation to host the Got Your 6 Summit on February 14. More than 300 representatives from military and nonprofit agencies convened to identify solutions to gaps in services for veterans, service members and their families.
The Got Your 6 Summit featured several guest speakers, including San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, Brigadier General Russell Driggers, Commander of the Joint Base San Antonio and 502 Air Base Wing. The objective of the summit was to spark conversations between San Antonio’s nonprofit agencies, local leaders and the military community in order to strengthen services available through collaboration.
“Resilience is a team sport,” Brig. Gen. Russell Driggers said during a panel at the summit. “Resilience is based on relationships, based on the different groups that you get to run with in order to fill your tank back up. We need to provide our service members and their families as many different opportunities to find different ways to fill their tank back up.”
We know from the Greater San Antonio Military Needs Assessment, which United Way commissioned last year, that our city’s military community deals with the same challenges that civilians face, sometimes amplified, with health, housing, food, employment and child care. In fact, one in five veterans in San Antonio fall into ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed), meaning they struggle to make ends meet, earn less than cost of living and are one setback away from experiencing poverty. We are using this needs assessment and data to increase understanding of the barriers that stand in the way of success for our military community.
“When you are living on the edge, it only takes one small incident or unexpected life event to set you back,” said Andrew Sasseville, Senior Vice President of Accountability and Community Services for United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County. “Once that happens, now you have missed work, you’re unable to pay a bill or you’re unable to repair your car in order to get back to work. It becomes more and more difficult to dig yourself out of that hole.”
The goal of this assessment and the Got Your 6 summit is to raise awareness of the evolving needs of service members, veterans and their families in “Military City U.S.A.” Bexar County is home to more than 80,000 active-duty personnel and over 250,000 veterans. That works out to one in eight Bexar County residents are tied to the military in some way.
We encourage service members, veterans and active-duty military to call our 2-1-1 Helpline for support. Available 24/7/365 per year, our Mission United call specialists can help you navigate the robust array of resources available for military families.
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Categories: Mission United |
