The non-governmental organizations Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) and Operation Homefront have teamed up to expand emergency financial assistance to more wounded warriors.

Funded by WWP, the requests for assistance will be taken and fulfilled by Operation Homefront. Emergency assistance will be in the form of cash grants paid to service providers to cover Service members’ most basic of needs, including food, rent and utilities. Warriors will have to prove a financial need exists and can request assistance either by phone or online at 800-722-6098 or www.OperationHomefront.net.

In working together, Operation Homefront and WWP endeavor to cover wounded veterans and Service member’s needs while they recover. Operation Homefront traditionally offers provides emergency financial and other assistance to the families of active Service members, Guard, Reserve and wounded warriors. Similarly, WWP offers a number of programs to help Service members and veterans get back on track, offering services ranging from peer mentoring to financial assistance. According to Steve Nardizzi, executive director of the Wounded Warrior Project: “At WWP we set up our programs and services to ensure wounded warriors and their families are healing their minds and bodies for a lifetime, but we also realize there are times when an urgent financial need arises (…) We know other organizations like Operation Homefront provide important services and the path to fulfilling our vision of the most successful and well-adjusted generation of wounded veterans in our nation’s history lies in collaboration with these organizations.”

With more and more troops coming home, ensuring that veterans and Service members receive the best help possible is now more important than ever. The partnership between Operation Homefront and WWP has joined the ranks of such collaborative efforts as the GE Get Skills to Work Coalition in aiding Service members throughout their recovery and transition, from meeting basic needs to gaining fulfilling employment, enabling them to continue to lead full lives. A joint initiative between General Electric, Alcoa, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and the Manufacturing Institute, the GE Get Skills to Work Coalition aims to initially help 15,000 veterans leverage their military experience and gain the technical skills to secure employment in the rapidly growing sector of advanced manufacturing, with a goal of employing 100,000 veterans by 2015.

Jim Knotts, Operation Warfighter’s president and CEO also emphasized the value of teamwork in assisting those in the Services and veterans alike: “This is an amazing example of nonprofit teamwork, which plays to the strengths of both organizations (…) Nonprofits have to work smarter, work together more often, and find ways to collaborate with the public sector to ensure our wounded warriors receive the support they will need after the current deployments end. Our country has more than 50,000 wounded and injured from Iraq and Afghanistan, who will need support for decades to come.”

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