Texanthropy Spotlight: USAA - 2017 Governor’s Volunteer Award Winner
May is Military Appreciation Month, which makes it the perfect time to tell you about one of the 2017 Governor’s Volunteer Award winners – USAA, which was given the Corporate Community Impact Award. This award recognizes a private sector entity for having community service as a core value and business strategy, and for implementing employee volunteer programs that will have a long-term impact in their community.
The corporate responsibility signature cause at USAA is to promote military family resiliency. Within that cause, one of USAA’s key focus areas is to support the needs of the 5.5 million military and veteran caregivers who care for wounded, injured or ill service members. According to the RAND Military Caregivers Study, these caregivers consistently experience more health problems, face greater strains in family relationships and have more workplace issues than civilian caregivers.
In 2016, USAA provided a $400,000 charitable grant to PsychArmor Institute to develop a free, online educational support program tailored to the unique needs of military caregivers. USAA further supported PsychArmor with the hands-on involvement of USAA’s Corporate Responsibility Team. The courses in the online school cover a range of subjects that were identified by military and veteran caregivers as educational needs. USAA’s funding also allowed PsychArmor to offer a support call center that complements the online training material by providing follow-up coaching and counseling services from mental health clinicians.
Within the first year, over 13,000 learners completed 36,000 training courses. Of that group, 86 percent demonstrated knowledge-gained and feel more connected, supported and confident; 92 percent actively continued with additional courses; and 90 percent of caregivers who engaged with the school said they would recommend the courses to others.
USAA and PsychArmor Institute are part of Hidden Heroes, a national coalition of more than 300 private, public nonprofit, and faith-based organizations that support America’s military and veteran caregivers by drawing attention to their unique needs and helping to fill the gaps in supportive programs. The school is a critical element of this national coalition. The school’s online education content is featured on the Elizabeth Dole Foundation’s Hidden Heroes website - www.HiddenHeroes.org - which provides a wide array of resources exclusively for military and veteran caregivers and family members.
USAA’s commitment to programs that recognize the sacrifices and address the needs of military and veteran caregivers and their families is helping to generate positive impact on the military community across the nation.
Congratulations to USAA, the 2017 Governor’s Volunteer Awards Corporate Community Impact Award Winner, which was also recently named one of the best companies to work for by Forbes, which should come as no surprise!
And God bless our military members and their friends, families, and caregivers. During the month of May, Greg and I encourage all Texans to join us in offering your appreciation and support to those who have served, for those who are now serving our country, for the families who have made so many sacrifices, and especially for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Theirs is an enduring legacy of heroism that will stand for generations to come.