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North Fulton Business Radio

Tony Kimbrough, Veterans Empowerment Organization

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North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 480)

A veteran himself, Tony Kimbrough, CEO of Veterans Empowerment Organization, was in the studio with host John Ray to highlight the work of the VEO in helping homeless veterans find housing and rebuild their lives. Tony shared some of the issues veterans face, the VEO campus on the westside of Atlanta, systemic cultural issues at play, the need for affordable stable housing, employment, and much more.

North Fulton Business Radio is broadcast from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.

An estimated 2000 veterans throughout Georgia have little access to the resources they need for daily living. There are many invisible wounds that affect veterans, including post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, depression, and anxiety – all of which can lead to homelessness.

VEO’s mission is to connect Veterans to vital resources that will assist in rebuilding their holistic well-being, and empower them to make positive changes in their life.

VEO offers a healing campus environment that allows veterans to rebuild their lives. Its mission is to empower veterans along their journey to self-sufficiency.

Veteran Empowerment Organization follows a Housing model. Their housing programs offer both temporary and permanent solutions to uplift low-income and homeless veterans. Through emergency beds, Veterans Empowerment Organization provides low-barrier access to ensure that veterans have a safe place to stay while procuring permanent housing placement. Veteran Empowerment Organization provides veterans with transitional housing as a way to garner permanent housing or independent living. Their residential site offers housing in a supportive, therapeutic community, with wraparound care including workforce development, mental health, and optimal wellness, and case management services to help veterans address their specific challenges and needs.

VEO’s Optimal Wellness program offers professional counseling from licensed clinicians and peer mentorship services with a focus on social reintegration.

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**Tony Kimbrough, CEO, Veterans Empowerment Organization**

Tony Kimbrough is Chief Executive Officer for Veterans Empowerment Organization.

Part of a family with a long military heritage, Tony Kimbrough joined the South Carolina Army National Guard during his junior year at The Citadel. His subsequent eight years of service as a military intelligence officer included a year with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan, where he led an embedded training team.

Tony was formerly the Executive Director of Atlanta’s East Lake Family YMCA. He was recruited to Atlanta as head of the Arthur M. Blank Youth YMCA in 2015 and took on that role in 2017.

A native of Kentucky, Kimbrough grew up in Metro Atlanta, where his father was an executive with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and his mother a development officer with the YMCA.

After college, Kimbrough spent four years with Mannheim Auto Auctions in Georgia, North Carolina, and Arizona before moving to the nonprofit sector, first with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and then with the YMCA.

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

What are the problems veterans are facing?
What is VEO?
Tell us about your military journey and how you became involved with VEO
What services do you offer?
How can others get involved?

North Fulton Business Radio is hosted by John Ray and broadcast and produced from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link. The show is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, TuneIn, and others.

Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has grown to become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions with over $13 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.

Special thanks to A&S Culinary Concepts for their support of this edition of North Fulton Business Radio. A&S Culinary Concepts, based in Johns Creek, is an award-winning culinary studio, celebrated for corporate catering, corporate team building, Big Green Egg Boot Camps, and private group events. They also provide oven-ready, cooked from scratch meals to go they call “Let Us Cook for You.” To see their menus and events, go to their website or call 678-336-9196.

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No One Left Behind - Arizona Nonprofits Work to Ensure Veterans Receive the Support They Need and the Opportunities They've Earned

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No One Left Behind – Arizona Nonprofits Work to Ensure Veterans Receive the Support They Need and the Opportunities They’ve Earned

Arizona’s veterans community is large, strong and active. Get insights into how several diverse nonprofits are assisting veterans and their families — and how you can help in this latest podcast.

Special guests Paula Pedene of Honoring America’s Veterans, Victoria Bellomo-Rosacci of Soldier’s Best Friend and Mike Phillips or Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve discuss some of the innovate efforts to support our veteran communities.

Honoring America’s Veterans (HAV) Mission statement is “To help Arizona’s veterans heal and reintegrate through recognition events and programs”. HAV’s signature and primary event is the annual Phoenix Veteran’s Day Parade.

HAV is passionately committed to providing a community event that ensures our veterans receive the honor and recognition they deserve and give the community the opportunity to publicly recognize and acknowledge veterans on their important day.

Paula Pedene, APR, Fellow PRSA, has a well-earned reputation as a public relations strategist and counselor in both government and nonprofit realms.

She currently serves as Executive Director of the nonprofit Honoring America’s Veterans and as Owner/Principal of her public relations firm Paula Pedene & Associates. In these roles, she provides strategic counsel to senior leaders and managers and builds trusted relationships between them and their stakeholders.

Pedene is a five-time PRSA Silver Anvil award recipient for Institutional Programs (2004), Reputation Management (2007), Community Outreach (2010, 2020), and Public Service (2020).

Her leadership awards include the Percy Award from the Phoenix PRSA Chapter, the Platinum Leadership Award from the PRSA Western District, and the Senator John McCain Inspirational Leadership Award in Arizona.

She is a member of the PRSA College of Fellows, a member of the PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards, and she earned distinction as a PRSA PR Pro of the Year (2015) for her ethical stand as a Phoenix VA Whistleblower. In this realm, she was able to help expose the VA Wait Time Scandal and call for change to legislation and accountability within the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Follow HAV on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

Soldier’s Best Friend provides U.S. military veterans living with combat-related Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) with Service or Therapeutic Companion Dogs, most of which are rescued from local shelters. The veteran and dog train together to build a trusting relationship that touches two lives at once and inspires countless others.

Soldier’s Best Friend is devoted to helping our veterans living with combat-related Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). A second part of our goal is to make a positive impact on the pet overpopulation problem. We are dedicated to pairing and training service dogs with veterans at no cost to the veteran.

Through his veterinary practice, our Founder, Dr. Burnham worked with veterans and cared for their pets. He saw how the interaction with the animals helped returning veterans interact more comfortably in civilian environments and an idea was sparked. With the support of his devoted wife and business partner, Jan, the organization was founded in 2011 and became a reality.

John’s goal was to create a nonprofit devoted to placing and training service dogs for our veterans, at no cost to them. He also wanted to acquire many of the dogs through local rescue organizations, thus helping Arizona’s pet overpopulation problem.

We offer training in Flagstaff, Prescott, Phoenix (East and West Valley), Tucson, and Sierra Vista. Using the owner/handler model, our professional Service Dog Trainers train the veteran to train their canine partner.

While our program is provided at no cost to our veterans, the average cost of a team from accepting through graduation (which takes a minimum of 6-9 months) is approximately $5,000. By the end of 2020, 302 veteran/dog teams have graduated from our program and over 183 dogs have been rescued from shelter and rescue partners across the state of Arizona.

To request an application or to find out more information, please visit our website.

Victoria Rosacci is the 2019-2021 Co-chair of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation Arizona committee and 2021 Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation 10th year Ball.

Victoria a tax attorney in private practice with her husband of 20 years, a US Marine Corps veteran.

Follow Soldiers Best Friend on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Our Special Guest Co-Host

Mike Phillips is a Marine Corps veteran and volunteer with the Foundation’s Arizona committee. He recently retired from a 40-year career in journalism and municipal communications.

Mike is a freelance writer and co-founder of the Arizona Baseball Legacy and Experience, an organization that celebrates the state’s rich baseball history.

Today’s generation of Marines have made unprecedented sacrifices. And while there are many ways to honor our Nation’s heroes, there is no organization closer to the intersection of real need and lasting impact than the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation (MCSF).

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve is a Department of Defense agency run almost entirely by volunteers. Its mission is to support Citizen Soldiers and those who employ them. It seeks to promote a culture in which all American employers support and value the military service of their employees.

The Foundation provides need-based scholarships to the children of Marines, Navy Corpsmen and Navy Chaplains who have served in Marine units. Every qualified child receives a scholarship.