No Fear Allowed by Laura Herring

Author:Laura Herring
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781630474928
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing

Chapter 7

SERVING HEROES

At IMPACT Group, we are always grateful to serve any and all spouses and families who can benefit from our services. But when you have the opportunity to exercise your purpose to help the people who need you even more than most, it elevates your passion for what you do to a whole new level.

We were already serving hundreds of corporate clients at the Fortune 500 level, nationally and globally. Then, through a serendipitous series of events, I identified a new target demographic in need, a demographic I felt absolutely honored to be able to serve: military families, who move on average every two years. We wanted to provide those military spouses with mobile careers that would allow them to maintain their integrity, their dignity and their career (certifications, credentials, skillset, education, etc.) so they could support their spouses serving in the military. What was happening, as I discovered, was after four to eight years of relocating around the world and back again, the spouses were saying, “I’m not willing to move again because I’ve given up my whole career for you. I’m done.”

Remember I shared with you the value of networking and giving of your time to your community? I had been on the board of the St. Louis RCGA for about ten years. During that time I made many friends in the major corporations and they referred me to be on other community boards. One of my favorites was the Scott Air Force Base Corporate Advisory Board, where I served for about fifteen years. The goal of this board was to integrate Scott Air Force Base leaders into the community and to help them in any way we could. There, I came face to face with a lot of military leaders and their spouses and, in doing so, really identified a need for our services. I asked spouses, when I would discuss issues of importance with the high-ranking military, what it was like being a military spouse. Their first answer was always, “It’s been an honor to serve our country.” Their second was, “The relocations have been difficult.” That was all I needed to hear. Now, in all fairness, the military was doing its best to create solutions for this need within its own parameters, trying to set up the necessary services at each base to make relocation less difficult. This included working with family-focused centers set up on the bases to ensure there were child care, educational and resume services. Unfortunately, the base personnel were already so overwhelmed by every other family need, like traumatic care and emotional support, that there just wasn’t the capacity to employ mobile career specialists. The other overriding reality was that most funds in the military need to be allocated to support the men and women who are on the ground protecting us and fighting our wars.

I served on the Scott Air Force Base Corporate Advisory Board and worked with these families through several generals’ assignments, and I always took

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