We are a company that is helping our Nation’s Veterans in a very practical way.

Everyone sees the commercials, movies and billboards about combat PTSD, disabled Veterans that have lost limbs or homeless Veterans living on the streets. We are not asking for more money for these causes. Most Americans can’t help and honestly don’t want to hear about the gore of war.  This is understandable, it’s terrible. There are so many fundraisers for Veterans to give them charity but how much does this help them directly, how are you involved beyond writing a check?

Did you know for every Veteran that fits those categories there are 100’s more that are just normal people like you. These Veterans are struggling too, many to the point of giving up but for a different reason…they are unemployed. Not because they are unstable or even under skilled, they are simply unprepared for today's job market.

They don't want charity, they just want a chance to do it themselves, to prove to the world that they have something valuable to offer.

If you seen the movie, Pursuit of Happiness, you understand what we are talking about.

They left the military 6-12 months ago and had no idea they would be without an income for this long. Many have gone from having food, housing, medical, daycare and good salaries to the brink of bankruptcy. They often feel they have more in common with convicts than with the rest of us. This is wrong, because what they did for us is more than what most would do for them.

So many Veterans leave the military excited about the future but are so unprepared for today’s job market. To make it worse there is a multi-billion-dollar market selling degrees and training to them because they have education benefits they fought hard to earn. The end result is being out of work for 2-3 years, in debt and educated in skills with no market value. 

We are Correcting this Problem Every Day!

My name is Terry Jenkins and I am the Founder and CEO of ETAC.  During a recent conversation with a Veteran organization that is focused on Veteran suicide, I asked the question; how can ETAC help in their mission to prevent suicide? I explained we do not have counselors or services in that area. The gentleman I was speaking to responded, “Terry you guys offer the most important service of all, you offer hope and purpose, you let them see a future again!” This changed my life. I began this program as a new business line under a joint venture as a way to give Veterans a better choice over the companies that were ripping them off.

But that day everything changed.

Within 4 weeks of that conversation, I halted the joint venture. My two Veteran sons that were employees at the time and my father-in-law, a retired Navy Captain, joined me as owners. We restructured ETAC as a 100% Veteran and family owned company focused on solving this single issue.  As of November 1st 2017, we had 25 Veterans enrolled. Today, less than 90 days later, we have more than 100 enrolled and have already helped 10 of them into new careers.  Another 40+ are coming right behind them!

We are determined to do more than run a honest business, we want to eliminate this problem completely. We want to reach Veterans just before they leave the military so we can prevent them from ever going through this cycle of disappointment.

What We Do

First, we focused on a rapidly growing market sector, IT, specifically Network Engineering. Then we carefully chose skills based on the Veteran's return on investment rather than ours. We didn't choose high-margin, low-value skills, we chose skills that are in high-demand that will give them 10-20 years of career growth. These are the same technologies you read about; cloud, wireless, cyber security, etc.

Next, we developed a proprietary training platform that would allow us to deliver the training, tutoring and coaching they need at the lowest price possible. We wanted to make sure our focus was on ensuring they were actually learning and developing. Many of the lesser options in the market are conveyor belts, they run people through highly technical and complex training in a single week and then wish them luck. Some even take a basic course and stretch it out for weeks, months and years so they can bill the VA numerous semesters of tuition.  

We also wanted to bring together Veterans in a familiar community environment similar to what they were accustomed to while in the military. They need to be able to help each other.

One of our main goals was to create a program that we could encourage employers to pay for, we wanted them to invest in the Veterans. This allows the Veteran to save their education benefits so they can later complete a degree that will help them move up in an already established career. This is the benefit of being a for-profit company doing charitable work.  We are not so focused on government handouts or donations, we work to create the success. The Veterans can trust that we are fighting for them because if we fail it affects us too.

Real Innovation

Other programs take their money, train them for months or years and then offer a false promise of helping them find employment. We felt this was backwards, so we reversed the paradigm.

We help them get the job, get their income flowing again and then we start training.

This was the area we had to be the most creative. We have developed the PRE-IT Program to answer this part of the problem:

• We write their resumes
• We Spend 100+ Hours with them
• Interviewing & Job Search Services
• Behavioral Coaching-Corporate Culture
• IT Roles & Responsibilities
• Impact of IT on Business and Project Management
• Modern & Emerging Technology Uses
• We throw in the same 4 Certification courses the market charges them $40K for
• They leverage our proprietary ETAC Veteran Platform-they are part of a community, they help each other, study, share opportunities and regain their pride
  

We charge a one-time fee of $500 for this.

We have begun slowly working our way around the country talking to employers and presenting the value of hiring our Veterans. What we have found is because we spend the time with them and we mentor them, both before and during the entire 3+ years, the employers are eager to take a chance because we soften the risk of hiring them. Some of my Veterans joke and say we are the eHarmony of the Veteran IT world, we do match making.

Why We Need Your Help

Now that every aspect of the program has proven to be successful, we want to attack our goal of reaching 2000 Veterans before the end of 2018. The statistics show that 20% of the suicides that occur each year are attributed to unemployment. There are 8000 Veteran suicides each year, we don't want 20% of that to be because of something we can fix.

As a business we chose to charge a very low price for the first phase of the program because we know they are struggling. We are seeing roughly 20% of the Veterans that apply cannot pay the low fee of $500. This is the only time we ask for any money directly from them. We couldn't, in good conscious, make profit off of their vulnerability. In the second phase, the Veteran IT Program, we are charging the employers/corporations.  This is where the necessary profits come from for us to grow. Our problem is that this will take several months to begin with regularity and we do not want to wait that long to aggressively reach the number of Veterans we want to help.

We need funds to market and do outreach so we can get this in front of more Veterans.  We need to be able to continue grow and  pay our operating expenses so we can focus on the real task at hand, helping them. Without the additional funds we have to sacrifice one or more of these things to attack the problem.

We considered traditional investors and banks but the fees and loss of control scared us.

We do not want to risk bringing in people that are not as focused on Veterans as we are.  We need help but we don't want to loose our identity. So we are going to face this problem with the same ingenuity we have everything else.

We don't think outside of the box, we crush the box and start over. They deserve nothing less than a solution.

Our Goal With The Funds We Raise

• Spread our message to every US Military base and reach as many Veterans as we can. We want to reach them prior to completing the last 6 months of their military service. This is critical, if we get them through the PRE-IT Program before they lose their income they avoid losing hope. Our goal is to have a job waiting for them the day they get out.
• Spread our message to employers around the US, we offer this program in all 50 states because that is where the Veterans are. We need to ramp up our marketing to employers and potentially grow our team to make direct relationships with those employers. The more of them we reach, the more Veterans get hired.
• Offset our operating costs so we can focus on making sure they are being mentored and prepared. We don't want to be so focused on surviving and growing that we push too hard to sign up more just to keep the business going. If we have the funds to do the above two items, we can survive off of the current revenues. We need help to reach the balance between sustainability and rapid growth.
  

How We Will Reward You for Helping

We have created several perks that come with each contribution level. These give you something in exchange for your help to go along with the satisfaction that you are part of what we are doing to change lives. You will be part of our extended team, this is a way for you to be proud that you do more than just thank Veterans for their service, you support them.

Our goal is $250K in capital to reach our growth targets. To make this really interesting we are going to take it up a notch. If we reach that we will give 10% to Veterans in a very direct way and you will have a chance to be there in person when we do it.

When you make your contribution make sure it is not anonymous, we will collect the names of everyone who contributes.

First Gift to a Veteran - $5000 Family Vacation- Will be awarded when we reach the $100,000 mark

Some of the Veterans have been deployed for a long time and have missed birthdays, Christmas morning, etc. We want to be able to choose a family that has had an exceptionally difficult time and give them a chance to be a family again.

Second Gift to a Veteran - $20,000 Get on Your Feet Check - Will be awarded when we reach the $250,000 mark

Many of these Veterans are living on $20-30,000 so a check for $20,000 will pay off bills, pay for rent for a year, help to purchase a car, offset a child's education or just give them a life changing pat on the back.

  How you get to be involved

We will take applications from or on behalf of any Veteran family, not just those in our program. When we reach the thresholds above, we will award the package to the family our board chooses. At the same time, we will randomly select a name from the contributor list. This is where we want to make it fun. 

For every $100 increment we will add your name to a list. The more money you put in, the more times your name will be on the list and the greater the odds of us choosing you. $100 = 1 chance to be selected, $10,000 = 100 chances to be selected, etc.

This is not a raffle because you will not win anything. Instead we will give you the chance to have the gift in your name, not ours when it is presented to the Veteran family. We will fly you out and put you up in a hotel where the Veteran lives. We will notify local TV and radio and have the Veteran and their family meet us at the hotel. There you will be the one presenting the gift to them. We will write up a press announcement and post this on all of our marketing. 

Why are we doing this?

We get to experience first hand everyday what it feels like to impact someone's life so we are giving you a chance to be part of extending the good will as well.

We've all seen the commercials for Publishers Clearing House. Imagine how it feels to be the person presenting the check...this could be you. Don't worry, we will supply the tissue as well!

All of your contributions will be directly helping us help them and we have several ways to get you more involved as well as recognize you as part of the team. You will also get your name in the hat to be on the front lines when the magic happens. Our hope is not to be cheesy, we honestly need the help to reach our goals. We are serious about being a different kind of company, one people can be proud to be a part of.

Thank you for considering us and the many Veterans that considered you as they served!

-Terry Jenkins, Founder and CEO, USAF Veteran

 https://www.usveteranjobs.com