On April 12, 2011, the White House unveiled Joining Forces, an initiative designed to educate, challenge and spark action among citizens, communities, businesses, nonprofits, faith-based institutions, philanthropic organizations and the government.
Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth, who directs the Military Family Research Institute, was an invited guest when the White House launched the event.
This year, MacDermid Wadsworth asked Outreach Specialist Sandy Dye to attend the initiative’s first birthday celebration, where the focus was on the substantial commitments and contributions that organizations and individuals are making to show military families the support that they deserve.
Dye, a Chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force Reserve, recently returned from a deployment to Turkey. The White House celebration, which took place last week, was not about offering a pat on the back for the initiative and its supporters, she said; it was to honor the work that has been done by businesses, health care professionals, educators and citizens across the country who recognize the sacrifice that military families make each day.
It also afforded the chief master sergeant a “wonderful opportunity to meet with the First Lady and hear her talk about how important military families are,” Dye said.
“It was also inspiring to meet General Norton Schwartz, the Chief of Staff – Air Force,” she added. “He makes decisions every day that impact the lives of military people and their families across this nation and around the world. To talk with him, even briefly, about how these programs make such a difference in these lives, lives of my friends and military co-workers, was such a great opportunity.”
Mrs. Obama’s opening remarks focused on the work being done to support these families, including efforts to provide veterans and their families meaningful employment.
Last summer, the president pledged to promote employment and training of more than 100,000 more veterans and military spouses by 2013, At the White House gathering, Mrs. Obama announced that “more than 1,600 businesses that have hired more than 50,000 veterans and spouses, and there are pledges to hire at least 160,000 more in the coming years,” Dye said.
Mrs. Obama and Jill Biden, wife of the vice president, also traveled to the University of Pennsylvania last week to announce a Joining Forces commitment from more than 150 nursing organizations and hundreds of nursing schools. These leaders pledged to train more than 3 million nurses to have a better understanding of health issues impacting troops, veterans and their families, especially in the area of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).