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Organizations Team up to Help Women Veterans & Military Spouses Start their own Small Businesses
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Organizations Team up to Help Women Veterans & Military Spouses Start their own Small Businesses
National Association for the Self-Employed joins Business and Professional Women’s Foundation’s Joining Forces Mentoring Plus™
WASHINGTON – Today, The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) and Business and Professional Women’s (BPW) Foundation announced a partnership to help women veterans and military spouses start their own small businesses. The partnership is part of the BPW’s Joining Forces Mentoring Plus™ -- a program dedicated to helping military spouses and women veterans connect with working women mentors and subject matter experts (SMEs) to receive support, guidance, career development, and to ultimately obtain meaningful employment.
Related to these efforts, NASE and BPW Foundation recently partnered on a survey to gauge the current environment for women entrepreneurs and small business owners, including questions specifically targeted to women veterans and military/veteran spouses. The full survey summary results are available at www.BPWFoundation.org .
“It’s truly an honor for our association to provide these honorable, hard-working American heroes an opportunity to join the ranks of over 22 million self-employed business owners nationwide,” said Katie Vlietstra, NASE Director of Government Affairs . “Women veterans and military spouses who are starting their own small businesses are not just putting themselves to work, but also helping to rebuild our economy from the ground up.”
NASE members, since 1981, have received day-to-day support, including direct access to business skills education, experts in tax, marketing and more, and consolidated buying power to purchase products and services at discounted rates that traditionally had been available only to large corporations. Today, the NASE represents hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and micro-businesses, and is the largest nonprofit, nonpartisan association of its kind in the United States.
“Women veterans represent an important, and growing, segment of the U.S. labor force,” said Deborah L. Frett, BPW Foundation CEO . “Since 1980, the population of women veterans has grown 65% to 1.8 million and by 2020 women veterans will comprise 10% of the nation’s veterans. Capitalizing on their military training and skills they are uniquely qualified to start their own businesses. The important services NASE is offering will jumpstart and sustain their entrepreneurial efforts.”
Joining Forces Mentoring Plus™ is a FREE , ”High-Tech High-Touch national mentoring program using both one on one contact and a sophisticated on-line platform of resources for women veterans and military and veteran spouses. Joining Forces Mentoring Plus™ is based on a career development model intended for all ranks, eras, and skill levels. Mentorships and resources extend beyond job attainment to support job retention and career advancement.
The underlying principle of Joining Forces Mentoring Plus™ is “working women helping women work”, whereby working women share their experience and expertise to help veterans navigate and succeed in their personal development plan -- identifying career interests and goals, exploring industry opportunities, translating military experiences and training into civilian work skills, advancing education, networking, preparing quality resumes and job search strategies, and addressing those life challenges that get in the way of career access and success.
To learn more about BPW’s Joining Forces Mentoring Plus ™ or to sign up to take part in the program, please visit: www.joiningforcesmentoringplus.org .
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The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) is the nation's leading resource for the self-employed and micro-businesses, bringing a broad range of benefits to help entrepreneurs succeed and to drive the continued growth of this vital segment of the American economy. The NASE is a 501(c) (6) nonprofit organization and provides big-business advantages to hundreds of thousands of micro-businesses across the United States. For more information, visit the association's website at www.NASE.org
Business and Professional Women’s Foundation supports workforce development programs and workplace policies that recognize the diverse needs of working women, their families, communities and businesses. BPW Foundation is a 501 © (3) research and education organization. To learn more, visit www.bpwfoundation.org . To join Joining Forces for Women Veterans and Military Spouses Mentoring Plus™ as either a mentor, subject matter expert or mentee sign up on the JFWVMS Mentoring Plus webpage.