Walmart Celebrates Anniversary of Veterans Welcome Home Commitment with Announcement of 130,828 Veteran Hires
24 May 2016 - 10:00PM
Business Wire
Walmart Foundation announces $2.6 million in
grants to leading organizations dedicated to supporting
transitioning military and their families
Today, Walmart announced it has hired 130,828 veterans since it
announced its Veterans Welcome Home Commitment in May 2013*. Of
those veteran hires, 15,176 have been promoted to jobs with higher
pay and greater responsibility.
On Memorial Day 2013, Walmart introduced the Veterans Welcome
Home Commitment, which guaranteed a job offer to any eligible,
honorably discharged U.S. veteran who was within 12 months of
active duty. The initial goal was to hire 100,000 veterans by the
end of 2018. In May of 2015, Walmart announced the expansion of
that original projection, with the goal of hiring 250,000 veterans
by the end of 2020. Walmart has also changed the eligibility from
within 12 months of active duty to any veteran who has been
honorably discharged since the announcement of the commitment in
May 2013.
Despite unemployment among veterans being at its lowest in eight
years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, veterans from
the Gulf War era continue to be under- or unemployed.
“As a veteran, I know how critical it is for our men and women
in uniform to have a strong support structure when transitioning
back to civilian life,” said Retired Brigadier General, Gary
Profit, senior director of military programs for Walmart. “A job is
an important part of that transition, and at Walmart, we’re proud
to use our strengths as one of the nation’s largest employers to be
a part of that bridge back home by providing meaningful
opportunities for 130,828 veterans, and counting, to use their
unique talent and skills. Veterans are among some of our strongest
associates and we are pleased to see the growth and success they
have achieved at Walmart.”
“When I returned home from serving overseas, Walmart was there
for me with a job and when I was recalled to serve that job was
waiting for me when I was again stateside,” said Patrick Shannon, a
Walmart associate and fresh produce operations manager in
Indianapolis. “It meant the world to me to have not just a job, but
an opportunity that has allowed me to grow in my career and mentor
other veterans.”
Beyond Walmart’s Veterans Welcome Home Commitment, the Walmart
Foundation is also reinforcing its support for transitioning
military members and their families with the announcement of $2.6
million in grants to nonprofit organizations that support veteran
reintegration:
- American GI Forum National Veterans
Outreach Program, which stabilizes veterans through housing and
job assistance among other services, will receive a $1 million
grant for employment placement assistance. The program plans to
expand services to veterans’ spouses and veterans over 40, while
continuing to place an emphasis on female veterans and increase
early intervention efforts for veterans needing mental health
services.
- Swords to Plowshares will
receive a $1.6 million grant to enhance the California Veterans
Employment and Training Collaborative and the Texas Veterans
Employment and Training Collaborative’s ability to innovate
employment and training programs. Sub-grantees will be selected
through a rigorous RFP process. The total grant will be re-granted
to four to six organizations in Texas and eight to 10
California-based organizations. Swords to Plowshares provides
services to veterans, including employment and training, mental
health assessment, case management, transitional and permanent
supportive housing and legal services for the purpose of accessing
VA disability benefits.
“Veterans make great additions to the workforce, and we are
honored to help with their transition into civilian life,” said
Kathleen McLaughlin, chief sustainability officer at Walmart and
president of the Walmart Foundation. “Our men and women in uniform
should have easy access to services needed for a successful
reintegration. The American GI Forum and Swords to Plowshares have
a proven track record of streamlining services and we’re proud to
support them.”
Walmart and the Walmart Foundation have demonstrated a strong
commitment to supporting our nation’s military service members. In
October 2015, Walmart launched the Greenlight A Vet campaign to
help create visible and actionable national support for veterans
nationwide. Walmart invited all Americans to show support for
veterans by changing one light bulb in their home to green, raising
awareness on social media, volunteering and serving with veteran
groups in their community, or starting a mentor/mentee relationship
with a veteran.
While a job is a vital piece of transitioning from military to
civilian life for a veteran, it also takes a coordinated,
multi-sector effort to create healthy transitions to civilian life.
In 2011, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation committed $20 million
by 2015 to support veterans and their families with assistance from
programs that provide job training, transition help and education.
With the early completion of the commitment in May of 2014, Walmart
and the Walmart Foundation renewed their commitment, announcing an
additional $20 million through 2019 to support veteran job
training, education and innovative public/private community-based
initiatives that address the challenges many of our veterans face
when returning to the civilian workforce and their communities.
This includes $1 million in support for Welcome Home North
Carolina, a pilot initiative to strengthen regional collaboration
among veteran-serving organizations.
For more information about Walmart’s Veterans Welcome Home
Commitment, please visit: www.walmartcareerswithamission.com and
follow on Twitter @WalmartToday.
*Editor’s Note: These projections and reported hires/promotions
include veterans hired under our original and expanded Commitment
as well as other veterans hired by Walmart in this time frame.
While we think it is particularly important to support soldiers as
they make the transition to civilian life, Walmart believes all
veterans deserve our respect and support, no matter when they left
active duty.
About Walmart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world
save money and live better - anytime and anywhere - in retail
stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week,
nearly 260 million customers and members visit our 11,527 stores
under 63 banners in 28 countries and e-commerce websites in 11
countries. With fiscal year 2016 revenue of $482.1 billion,
Walmart employs approximately 2.3 million associates
worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability,
corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional
information about Walmart can be found by visiting
http://corporate.walmart.com on Facebook
at http://facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter
at http://twitter.com/walmart.
About Philanthropy at
Walmart
By using our strengths to help others, Walmart and the Walmart
Foundation create opportunities for people to live better every
day. We have stores in 28 countries, employing more than 2.2
million associates and doing business with thousands of suppliers
who, in turn, employ millions of people. We are helping people live
better by accelerating upward job mobility and economic development
for the retail workforce; addressing hunger and making healthier,
more sustainably-grown food a reality; and building strong
communities where we operate and inspiring our associates to give
back. Whether it is helping to lead the fight against hunger in the
United States with $2 billion in cash and in-kind donations or
supporting Women’s Economic Empowerment through a series of grants
totaling $10 million to the Women in Factories training program in
Bangladesh, China, India and Central America, Walmart and the
Walmart Foundation are not only working to tackle key social
issues, we are also collaborating with others to inspire solutions
for long-lasting systemic change. To learn more about Walmart’s
giving, visit http://www.foundation.walmart.com.
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WalmartTricia Moriarty,
1-800-331-0085news.walmart.com/reporter
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