Project Veteran House
Project Veteran House is a non profit currently operating in the Washington DC area and is assisting veterans with transitional and housing insecurity issues, job training and certifications in IT as well as PTSD services such as equine therapy, music therapy and support groups. The founder, Army Veteran Joseph Barnette, is driven to provide veterans with housing, education, careers and therapeutic services through their certified partners. Their vision is, "one day all homeless and service -connected veterans that served this great country will have a place to call home, a successful career and better mental and physical health". Who could argue with that vision!
Battle Buddy Podcast Guest Links:
https://projectveteranhouse.com/
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EP 79: Project Veteran House
Transcript from Episode 79 with Joseph Barnette:
Keith McKeever 0:02
Welcome back to the battle buddy podcast. I've got the the founder and CEO of project veteran house with us today we're gonna talk a lot about what they're doing and some resources that they've got going on over there at Project veteran house you want to you want to say to, especially if you're interested in what's going on with the veterans homelessness and transitional housing, they've got some programs on IT development for some people, some pretty cool stuff. I'm excited to dive right in and see what they've got going on over there project veteran House. Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever. Welcome to the podcast job.
Joseph Barnette 0:40
Hey, thank you for having me, Keith, I really appreciate it.
Keith McKeever 0:43
No problem. I'm excited to dive into a little bit of what you got going on over projects that are in house. I've looked at your website and checked out some things but I'm excited to bring a little bit more to light what you're doing and share with the world. So while we do that, though, share a little bit with us about your military journey.
Joseph Barnette 1:02
Yeah, so 9095 I joined the joined the army I was a 14 tango, which is the Patriot missile crew member. I was I went to basic Fort Jackson, a it was at Fort Bliss. El Paso my first duty station was at Fort Hood. Then we had advanced party we moved to El Paso where the Patriot missile battalion was at that time, as far as homed and everything and then the toy overseas for six months as an NBC NCO had to cross train and 54 Bravo. So going to telling everybody to go to Mach four and 136 degree weather. It wasn't the I wasn't like to I wasn't like to well, so but that's all right. It's it's all about the the training and you know, getting better at it. So
Keith McKeever 1:57
yes, understandable. No, but that was one of the things I don't think anybody enjoyed about the military. Oh, put your MOPP gear on, or? Yeah, it was. For us in the Air Force. It was, Oh, crap. Get out the plastic cover all the pallets cover all the, you know, like this,
Joseph Barnette 2:15
like camo.
Yeah.
Keith McKeever 2:18
You know what, though? I'll tell you what, there was one time in my time in that I actually love those people. And it was during an operational readiness exercise, he sent us up to Pina Michigan, which I'm pretty sure it's probably more northern than the lots of places in Canada, where people live anyway, that part of Canada, but it was so cold. You know, we're out there doing this exercise, and of course, a part of any exercise, right? Gotta get some people throwing out some MOPP gear, you gotta test it. Yeah, of course. So I got this little heater in the tent. And it's also on the mopp gear, but they didn't have to do anything else. So we're just kind of sitting around doing nothing. And it was one of those things everybody's kind of looked around was like, alright, we're cold. We're tired. Or mop gear, right? You really can't tell what we're doing anyway, unless you get wrapped up in somebody's gas mask. So we posted one person at the door to the tent, and everybody else just racked out. Right. It was marvelous. We woke up. They're like, okay, you can take your mop, you're off. We're done with that part of the exercise. And we're like, you have to Yeah. Like, do we have to just turn around like this for a while? Sure. That's pretty sure. Good times. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't know about that. It wasn't too bad up there. You know, it was cold. But it was an exercise. So you got all the leadership run around? And yeah, definitely. cross your t's. Those kinds of things.
Joseph Barnette 3:41
Yeah, most definitely. My father was, he served in the Marine Corps. He was in Vietnam, he was artillery. So that's where project veteran house started, because he raised me and my sister to hold to the standard standards of the Marine Corps simplify. It wasn't a good conversation. When I told him I was joining the army. I can tell you that much. But, you know, this is probably a kid show. So I probably can't say what he's
Keith McKeever 4:06
Oh, no. I just got to mark it explicit on YouTube. I don't really care. There's been a few curse words that have been dropped before. But I understand you know, he's got to know he's got his own opinion. Right. What branch is the best he's entitled to?
Joseph Barnette 4:22
Right. Well, he's passed. So yeah, he was entitled to it. Yeah, right. Yeah. Hey, I'm with you. Yep. Yep.
Keith McKeever 4:31
There's a reason he didn't want to join the corps that do or follow his footsteps.
Joseph Barnette 4:35
When I did, I had enough. Marine Corps training. I mean, don't get me wrong. I have love for the Marine Corps. But, you know, I went into the army.
Keith McKeever 4:43
Yeah, let's not get it wrong. Let's not bash the Marines too much. We all love them. Alright. I follow my stepdad in the Air Force. You know, he was an Air Force to Vietnam. You know, your army actually called me first and talk to the recruiter for 45 minutes and my dad came home before my mom did it. She and he's he's like selling anything happened when I was gone to school. Yeah, the recruiter call Oh, recruiter called us What branch was his army? Oh, hi. I'm giving some advice for mom gets a keep quiet for a little while and be if you're really seriously thinking about this, do it? Because but think about where you went to sleep every night? What do you mean? He goes? Well, you can sleep on a ship, and kind of a bed or you can sleep in a very nice facility in the Air Force, or just sleep on the ground like the Army and Marines. I was like, No, Air Force doesn't sound that bad. That was smart. I was like, oh, you know, as I looked up to him, I was like, you know, seem to work out all right for you. You don't give it a shot. This doesn't sound too bad. So anyway, well,
Joseph Barnette 5:49
thank you for your service.
Keith McKeever 5:51
Thank you for yours, too. And so so that you said project veteran house was kind of had some influence from your dad? What, what actually started this project for you before we dive into everything that you're doing there?
Joseph Barnette 6:05
Oh, yeah. So I was laying in bed. And I kept telling my wife, I said, you know, this is what I want to do, I want to I want to provide different levels of tears or services for veterans. And at first, it was kind of like, okay, when you look at a house, like the living room, your family, you eat you conversate you have entertainment. And that's what I was looking for. But then, when I really dug deep into what we wanted to do, I said, Hey, the first layer is your is your foundation, and that, you know, homeless veterans, that's one of the things that builds the house is that foundation, then, and then I went from there to education and career and then, you know, with the third level being in PTSD and TBI and mental health resources, so that, you know, these veterans that served our country don't have to take a handful of pills, like having other resources for their for their mental health. So that from there, it's this just my passion given back. Right now. You know what they are? Do you want me to go into the tears? Are you still so
Keith McKeever 7:12
what is tier one, I know that you've got it on your website is homelessness and transitional housing, stuff like that. So I'm gonna tell you I four so that
Joseph Barnette 7:20
the current status of where we're at now, so right now we help homeless veterans that are about to get evicted, that stay in extended stay hotels, extend them, extend their hotel stays, get them food, a couple of veterans have service dogs, we actually have one of our members and Alabama that she does PTSD training for the dogs, and the one veteran was going through her third round of breast cancer, and they're gonna take her service dog from her but married, took up, you know, a made it down there and went to Louisiana, picked Garth up, brought it brought them back. And now he's, he loves it. Like, it's just night and day. A, you know, it's all it's all about that. So, you know, and currently, we have many programs that we've looked into and partnerships, and just, it's all around with us. It's trying to find organizations that that will help homeless veterans and, you know, we're seven months old. So we're, you know, we're self funded. Me and my wife both work full time. So it's, you know, it goes back into nonprofit and, you know, everything goes to them. And then with with the tier one, one of our board members, he lives in New York City, he's a combat veteran. His name is Wil LeBron, he works for America works. And he's in charge of all the homeless veterans across the United States. For America works is the organization that's how he gets back. That's how he deals you know, with the things that he deals with as same as myself. That's one of the reasons was starting PVH was I got out nobody told us that anything about PTSD what's PTSD, you know, and I, my father, he was like, Oh, this just brush that shit off your shoulders? I guess it's nothing you know, and then people would tell him you know, you're not going to amount to nothing What is wrong with you? Why are you why are you crate Why are you so said like, in this and it took two times of trying to take my life and then multiple hospital stays. And then the final one was at the VA and they're like, Yeah, I know nothing about this. I was like, No, I Don't, I didn't. And then from that point on, I vowed I said I would that, you know, I would help protect veterans, transitioning soldiers, family members, spouses as much as I can. I mean, our motto is we help one veteran a day. And we're small. So it's only four of us four or five of us. So you know, we're passionate, we want to give back, we have so much stuff going on. So just so with the the tier one, we have the emergency assistance, but what our long term goal with Tier one is, is to build a tiny home community in the Washington DC area. So these communities will contain a camp that has one a community center, that any of the veterans that are transitioning to the center will have alcohol, drug treatment, mental health treatment, life skills, financial skills, they'll have everything that they need in one complex. So that is not necessarily a permanent state, but they do it all across the US. There's organizations in Kansas City everywhere, that that does this. And that's our goal, you know, is just to find partners and to find organizations that would help us plan this and get this put, you know, put into the ground and started. So
Keith McKeever 11:28
that takes a lot more than money. Oh, yeah. Cuz I'm in real estate, and you got to find the land, you got to make sure the zonings right, got to have the funds to do it got to make sure that, you know, you're meeting building codes, and then you got to find you know, and I love the idea, because I think that I think almost every major community should have something like this. Yeah. And those resources are right there and virtually are basically right on site.
Joseph Barnette 11:58
Yeah. And then they don't have to travel to the VA, they don't have to the VA will come to them, or their doctors or their therapists, everything, you know, because most of the time it's virtual now anyway. But the the one on one camaraderie, you're still you're building that bond. And that's, that's the whole goal is to get them back on their feet, and then transition them into a permanent home. And then kind of on that note, this this week, we've had two construction companies said that whatever they need to help build it, they will provide all the support we need, which was was amazing. They had I met a guy who owns a drywall company. He said, whatever resources that you need, we got you like 100% It's just, it's a lot going on. But it's exciting at the same time, because it's like, you know, this is a long term goal, we're like, we want to we want to break ground two years from now. And then just talking and, you know, presenting what we've done and what we're doing this, the support is tremendous. And we love it. And pretty much, that's how we're progressing. You know, one thing that we do do is get on a not really a personal level, but you know, a lot of the programs out there to help the homeless veterans, they don't know how to talk to homeless veterans. I sat in on a it was a meeting of the five boroughs of New York City, well brought me in to, to look over or just hear how they, how they approach dealing with veteran homelessness and, and to put it straight, they made it like a racy chart. So instead of making it more, you know, human being and what their needs are, they want to do it like a project management. And none of them were veterans. So you're telling me that a veteran who go up to somebody or somebody who has never served and I'm not saying that, you know, people have experiences but if you're if you're not a veteran, you haven't served them? You don't know.
Keith McKeever 14:10
It's not like connection. It may not be full trust, but there's there's instant trust as soon as two people realize that, oh, you're a veteran as well.
Joseph Barnette 14:17
Right? Correct. And as this comes down the respect you know, and we some of the other events that we do, we have, we have a equine therapy for PTSD, Miss Nicole's horseback riding and healing farm in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Our sessions are every Wednesday, five to six, I take them personally myself. The whole goal is to bring people along say, hey, we can heal together. You know, and it's hard. That's the hardest part is getting the veterans out there. And we want to provide anything that's going to cause an issues We want to provide rides, it doesn't matter if there's an issue, we want to take care of it so that you can have the services. And then we also volunteer there every two weeks, that has been busy lately. And we love the horses, because just the being around horses is very therapeutic. And you know, every time we go there, it's it's very relaxing. And one of the best programs that we do is we volunteer at the Charlotte Hall veterans home. And we love it there, where they are calling bingo, and doing bingo every Thursday, all their events led us at a car show last week, five of our volunteers were there and we just had a ball and
place to be Yeah. And
yeah, it was great. It was great to see the faces of the veterans that, you know, 86% of the veterans of the Charlotte Hall veterans home are from the Vietnam era. So the C cars and to see things that makes them happy or brings back great memories is always the plus. And because
Keith McKeever 16:07
I grew up right there in you know, in the heart of that muscle car era,
Joseph Barnette 16:11
yeah, yes, it was this awesome. And a lot of you know, I love talking to the vets at the home, just get to know them, this their stories. The great people, like, you know, it's like our family there. You know, we take pride and, you know, when we go there, it's like, Hey, thank you for your service, like we respect you like your voices, your voice needs to be heard. And we have you we you can use us for the platform. Because without them, we don't know where we'd be today. So it all comes down to respect, dignity, money in this, just treating people like people empathy, you know, the basics that doesn't take, you know, rocket science, you just have to be nice. You have to get to know, these veterans and, you know, and that's where, to me, then that's, that's the passion that we have given back to the veterans and want to do everything for them. You know, and I kind of jumped to the, to the, the top tier, but do you have any questions on?
Keith McKeever 17:23
For me one thing I was gonna say, I mean, I love the fact that you go into the home there. Because I think we saw during the pandemic, you're not just veterans homes, but just nursing homes, long term care facilities that people couldn't go in there. And I think sometimes when people put a family member or somebody has a loved one that's in a facility like that, don't get a lot of visitors. Some some will, you know, odds are some will, but a lot don't get excited, I took my I was able to take my boys to a local nursing home. The day or actually it was on Veterans Day. You had this little parade, little tiny place right here, my hometown. We went out there. You know, I volunteer with the Honor Flight. So they contacted us and said, Hey, we have somebody come out here. And my boys are off of school. So I've said hey, you boys are going with me? You know, you need to see this. And it was just just seven veterans in there and just a little tiny nursing home. No, not a huge facility. It just like lit up their world. Yeah, I couldn't get a couple of those guys to shut up. They just kept going and going and going because it was somebody new to talk to. And it was a fellow vet and somebody younger, just like this energy around it on Veterans Day, it just felt so honored. My speech was like four minutes long. I didn't give a big one like hey, you know, here's what it is, here's what we do whatever, you know, and then got them information on how to sign up, but they just loved it. They just
Joseph Barnette 18:48
awesome experience. We were with on Saturday, before the event, they had the final salute. So whenever a veteran passes away, everybody, all the staff lines up with flags. And when they bring the casket out, their family members are behind them. If you're a veteran, you get to salute. So it was a privilege and honor to be able to to do this and to be to experience this firsthand. So that was that was really neat. Not neat, per se but it felt good. It was it was you know something that they they deserve. So I'm trying to think so a couple things on some of the programs that we provide, so we bought Washington commander's tickets, and for the season two of them and we gave them out we're giving them out to veterans families. I think we've given out four sets so far. It includes free food, free non alcoholic drinks, gold club membership, and then free Parking, so they don't have to, they don't have to cover any charges or anything that's going to cause them not to enjoy the game. And then, if needed, I could provide transportation to their house from their house. You know, it's all about at the end of the day, having fun and being able to enjoy, you know, you might have bad days during the week. But if you can have this one day, it's like, Hey, I remember this the rest of my life, or I remember this. And that's what it comes down to. It's just providing services, transparency, we're going to be, we tell you how it is. And, you know, there's so many things going on. And it's very exciting.
We have so are.
So our second tier is the Microsoft. So our for profit JB cloud solutions as a Microsoft certified training organization, I'm an MCT. We have MCT trainers that have volunteered to give free certification trainings. And then we will pay for any certifications, we'll get vouchers. We've already helped three veterans with CompTIA, certifications, Microsoft certifications, and we just introduced the program yesterday on you know, online, but it's our view at at Project veteran house that we have a 360 foot view of what we want. So we help a veteran out. And they get on the right track, we want them to continue to help the other veterans I have in trouble so that it's a 360 degree view of, you know, we help you but we want you to stay on to make us stronger, so we can help more veterans and grow.
Keith McKeever 21:54
So try to turn them into like more of a mentor or the guys, guys and gals combined. Definitely. And then clever. Yeah, yeah, we there's no better way to learn and to teach. Right. Right.
Joseph Barnette 22:05
Yeah. And we have partnerships with two job organizations that do government contracting and, and have said that they've have special requirements, and they will go put the veterans resumes to the top and you know, it's it's awesome, because the way that this partnership works, and then from there, the mentor ships and then again, you know, if any training is not necessarily Microsoft, it could be compte can be project management, any anything that if you're a veteran and you want to pursue these certifications, we'll we're going to take care of you, we're gonna put you in a job, we're not going to just give you a certification to say, hey, we gave you a certification, I'm gonna pat myself on the back now, we're gonna give you a certification that you can transfer to a job. That's, that's it's going to be very important and gonna give them a little more stability in their in their career path.
Keith McKeever 23:06
Are you are you typically doing this? After you get people into a transitional housing and kind of getting them getting a roof over their head and his basic needs met? And looking at or does it just depend where they're at in that cycle?
Joseph Barnette 23:18
So so with the training, we wanted to focus on transitioning soldiers and veterans, but the the main focus is on transition soldiers because like myself, 14 Tango Patriot missile crew member I get on the streets like, I don't no, no job.
Keith McKeever 23:37
Yeah, I mean, I'll drive around see Patriot missiles.
Joseph Barnette 23:39
Yeah, exactly. So you know, military is good for letting you know, training. But when it comes to releasing and letting the veterans go, there's, there's a, there's a big space, there's a lack. So what we our future goals, our long term goals is provide a program that one year out from ETS, that the soldier gets trained, certified in a job, and then also with a with a mentor inside the military. So when he transitions out, he can transition to a civilian mentor, which is also a veteran, and they can help them, you know, get into a routine because I know it's one of the hardest things is transitioning from military to civilian. And we want to take the stress and you know, it is not a perfect world, but we want to take a little bit of the stress and the any of the anxiety that they might have, and again, you know, make the team bigger and spread it from there.
Keith McKeever 24:47
There's no doubt about it. I mean, it's there's a million different things that can happen during transition. You can't plan for all of them, but that that is a good one where there's some sort of skill set I think there's a lot of people to get out that just don't have whatever my time's up, I'm getting out. But I don't know, maybe I'll figure it out. Yeah, I'll get a job somewhere. Well, there's I mean, there's plenty of jobs in this country. But does it? Does your experience your resume? Qualifications matching you that? That's, that's a big one. That's more like these big pieces of advice to anybody going into military is choose your job carefully. Very carefully.
Joseph Barnette 25:32
Yeah, it's definitely it's It's crucial. You know, because when I went in, I just said, Okay, I got Patriot missile crew member open. I said, Okay, I'll take it. Yeah, exactly. Because, you know, it was so famous in the Gulf War. So yeah, and definitely transitioning out. There's a lot of, I guess, procedures that aren't really described and put in place that they understand. And it's hard to see, because when I first started PVH, I wanted to help every veteran, and I will said a job, not all veterans are good. And at first, when I started, I went from my heart. I mean, we lost all kinds of money, because we weren't doing our due diligence. But we've learned from that, to build processes and procedures that we have to follow to protect us and, and the veterans in the program, there's no
Keith McKeever 26:33
doubt about it, there's some people out there that will do anything to get your free handout or the statin, the other. You know, there's there's some people just attitude wise or whatnot are just not going to be in a place where their their mindset is ready to learn. Ready to do that? Definitely. You know, when you mentioned transition, one of the biggest problems is, in the military, you have you have orders, you have operations you have, you have a little bit of a blueprint, pretty much what you're supposed to be doing and your job is to get out There's nothing. There's no boot order for what you do on day one. Yeah, nope, it yourself.
Joseph Barnette 27:11
Right. Definitely. And that's, that's the hard part. You know, we get out. In the problem is, I'm not saying everywhere, but there's, you'll meet people, civilians that you work with, they don't want to help you. That's the last thing I want to do. Because they, they think you're, you're taking their job, or you're taking a position. But my thing, my theory is, you should always want to teach or should want to learn. And that's because you give somebody a script or something like that, and you're showing them how to improve their cells, that doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to take your job. I think that builds camaraderie. And I think that would help a lot as well. Oh, see that
Keith McKeever 27:53
because we served, right. Like, we know, like, you have to train your replacement, because you're going to, you're going to leave or you're gonna end up in a different unit, whatever. But you have to train your replacement. Everybody has to be prepared. Everybody has to be somewhat cross training, whatever, for the mission to happen. As civilians Archer, they don't have that mindset. They don't. You gotta look at you very suspiciously. If you offer any kind of, I don't wanna say anything, really. That's a value, or feedback, or, Hey, here's some piece of advice, or here's this, here's that. Are you trying to do something for free forum? They just kind of like, what, what's your angle? What's your game plan when you try to sell me? Yeah. All right. You know, there's no collaboration does not work all that well,
Joseph Barnette 28:37
it doesn't. And, you know, that's the hard part, too, is seeing a lot of these, you know, veterans struggling and, you know, they get out, it's like, what am I gonna do? Like, oh, we had programs while you're in like, okay, the tax program and different programs like that, okay. That's like you're only, you know, hitting the top, but there's so much underneath that. They don't tell you about
Keith McKeever 29:06
all I've always blows my mind about the taps program. And I learned this gosh, maybe maybe nine months ago, as a taxpayer program is not run by the by the VA. It's not ran by the DOD. It's run by the Department of Labor. That's what everything is about, get a suit, learn how to do an interview, get a resume, and put your profile on LinkedIn. When they when I got out 11 years ago, that's pretty much it in a nutshell, right? It's like okay, that's That's great. That can help you get a job. Nobody's talking about your personal finances and now you got to pay for insurance and life insurance and all these other things that you didn't have to pay for your or you lived in base housing and you know, I forget how that works. But like, if paid for, then they pay you but it just goes right to housing, like you don't really see the money. It doesn't hit your bank account and you don't have to be responsible for managing those funds. given to you, and then all of a sudden, you're just out with no plan, no order.
Joseph Barnette 30:07
Nothing to sit out? Well, you know, and it's funny how we felt about 10 veterans with updating their resume, getting them interviews. And the thing that upsets me the most is these recruiters and these, you know, organizations, they don't have no respect for the veterans. My thing is, I had a cybersecurity like one of the best resumes I've ever seen on cybersecurity. And that's, that's not me talking, because I felt them. And he had two interviews, organization like them, he said, Two thank you notes, they did not send nothing back to him. That's disrespectful. And on any level, it doesn't matter if you're a veteran, or if just regular person, you know, it's, it's disrespectful, you know, they don't owe you as veterans and job seekers, it should be the opposite, they should be respecting you more, because all they're doing is going after a quota,
Keith McKeever 31:02
or at least enough to respond, right? To some degree,
Joseph Barnette 31:05
or to say this, say, Hey, you weren't qualified, thank you. We'll put your resume on, on hold on for six months, or whatever they say. You know, it, it's all about communication, too. And that's one of the thing you're talking about, resume. So I presented, we were presented at the Rotary Club in LA played in Maryland. And we met a lady the week before that owns a shop called hooks and hangers. And she says that she's going to donate three suits for veterans that go through the program. And then also, they provide volunteer work. And they said that they do well, they can pick and go into a full time job. So again, it's just little stuff like this, that we pride ourself on. And, you know, there's so much to talk about, I could talk about this all day and all night. But yeah, I mean, it's exciting stuff.
Keith McKeever 32:08
Yeah, so there's a lot of things to think about when transitioning out looking at jobs and what you got to do. Now, there's a million different angles you could take with it. Ya know, there's just part of the journey. We've all been there. Yeah. And thankfully that you and many other organizations have different ways of kind of help ease that burden.
Joseph Barnette 32:28
Definitely. And I'm just this week I was invited to a it's called warfighter advance. And it's I went three days. So it's has veterans active duty. First responders that are dealing with mental illness, PTSD, traumatic events, and it's all inclusive. It's they pay for your plane, plane flight there. They everything is included, there's cabins, there's a rope course they do team building, fishing dock, I mean, it's beautiful. You go on a dirt road, and then you come out, it's like, wow, that's awesome. And just the speakers. Dr. V, she's the one that runs the program is just her knowledge. And, you know, the tools that she uses is this, how's this touched? This and then meaning the different veterans and, you know, it's, it's awesome program. And it's, they only do six sessions a year because they're, they're funded by donations. And that says, that says many sessions as they can, they can handle what I was suggested, if if you know, anyone that you know, is going through some deep depression or an I hesitate, because when they when you go there, they tell you that PTSD is a bad word. You know, anxiety, depression. So it's, they're building you back up. And as she says, you know, as, as a veteran, you have superpowers, you got super skills. So some of the things that civilian will look at you and like, no, that's, that's a great skill. They, she just, you know, unwraps it in an a way that I was amazed, as you know, and just the everything that they provide. If you go to the one session, you can come back as many times as you want as an alumnus. It's, it's definitely a program that people should take advantage of. I actually signed up for the made that made session, because for all volunteers, they have to do a session to understand you know, the processes and procedures.
Keith McKeever 34:54
That make sense. I mean, you should have a baseline level of knowledge of what's going on. helps.
Joseph Barnette 35:01
And definitely you know, and it's when I stepped on to the camp, it was like I was back in the military. I was talking bullshitting with people just like this, like when you're in the military just, oh, it felt good, because I never had that after I got out. I mean, a little bit, but nothing like the military, they people say to me all the time, like, what's the difference? That's the difference, the camaraderie like, it doesn't matter. What race sex, what gender you are, if you're beside me, I'm gonna fight for you. You're my brother, you're my sister, like I'm gonna fight for you doesn't matter about the other stuff. Because at the end of the day, we're going to protect each other. And that's, you know, that's our whole philosophy at PVH. You know, we want to help as many as we can.
Keith McKeever 35:51
Yeah, so that's one of the biggest things I think is overlooked, is that lack of community when you get out at a prior guest, Nick Valentine has said it many times, you know, moment, the moment you leave the army, or any branch, they don't give a shit about you anymore. You're you are a number you are a slot, you have moved on whether you get out even if you leave to another unit, that unit has replaced you with somebody else, right. And the mission must continue and that person now fits in. And the only thing that matters is how that person fits into the unit. You don't care anymore, that you're you don't matter to them anymore. You know, some connections, you may be friends on Facebook and all that stuff. Like you don't you don't care. But when you get out. You have to take it on yourself to find that community, that community is not just going to reach out and say, Hey, welcome to the veteran brotherhood, you know, come on in the doors open, it's nice Mormon here. It doesn't happen. And that's, that's one of the things that I noticed that that caused me to create this podcast in the first place. It was one of the five things that I guess I'll say the five five pillars is lack of connection to the community. And I don't know that it necessarily needs to be the veteran community, but veterans having a connection to their community. Right? It could be I don't think it's I don't think it's the same as like what you're saying. Of like that warmth and that friendly friendliness and that brotherhood sisterhood, whatever. But even serving your own community and and not in a nonprofit that's a soup kitchen or a food pantry or picking up garbage on the side of the road could give you a sense of community that can be helpful, but really like being around fellow veterans is huge. That's one of the one of the top five things that I think if that's not there, that eventually leads people down the path to substance abuse, suicide, or homelessness, along with close family, or close personal relationships, financial and legal issues, physical mental health. And another one that I think is big is typically referred to as employment but gainful employment and purpose of life. Not just are you making enough money, but does your job satisfying? Is it something that aligns with who you are, what you want to do? And do you wake up and have a little bit of joy in your day? Yeah, if you're going to McDonald's and flipping burgers, you're probably not. But you know, if you're doing your dream job or something like it or you're on that path, that that's going to improve your mindset. Definitely, definitely one of those the more those that are gone, man it No, I think if you really started interviewing people, and really backtrack people's stories, when people get to that that rock bottom, man, it's it's multiple categories of that.
Joseph Barnette 38:35
Oh, yeah, definitely. And then, you know, as veterans, we're very prideful. So we're not going to a lot a lot of the times like myself, like I never asked for help. I don't need help.
Keith McKeever 38:47
was not mentioned earlier that like you didn't notice if you had any problems. Right. So like, just like me, you know, for years just had blinders on. No, I'm fine. I'm good. Problems.
Joseph Barnette 38:59
My wife is funny. She says when you say I'm good, that means that's not good.
Keith McKeever 39:04
Yeah. That's, that's true. My wife listens to a lot of my shows too. So now she knows the secret. Thanks. She probably didn't already. My mother in law services she's read probably heard. Yeah, there's definitely something to that. Definitely.
Joseph Barnette 39:24
Oh, man, for this podcast was all night. I can talk to you all night this way. Just the how to work together as a community. Not you've talked about it before. I'm not saying necessarily like, veterans and transitioning, but the community together. You know, I can't just sit there say I want to help homeless veterans. And if I go to somewhere, it's like, oh, I'm only helping homeless veterans. Like if you're homeless, I want to help you as well. So it's not just Do you know what I'm saying? So that's, that's where we're at to it. We're not just for veterans. We're here to Help people, we're here to provide services. So we're just veterans and we understand some of the things and and what we can do to provide services for
Keith McKeever 40:10
them. Well, we definitely have different perspective of the world too. And what it takes, which is probably one of the superpowers that you're also just just this worldview. I mean, a lot of people don't leave their hometown, a lot of people don't get to travel across the states, or internationally or see the, the good and the bad in this world. But you need both you do and good versus evil. You know, it's in the Bible said, I think just about every religion out there is good versus evil, this this constant battle, you know, the angel and the devil on your shoulders, like it's really real out there in the world, and nobody sees it more than we do. Right? You know, a lot of perspective.
Joseph Barnette 40:52
Definitely. It's, it's crazy. It's very sad, and just hearing stories and seeing videos. And to me, it's all about communication. Like, listen, if you have a problem, let's talk, I got your back, brother, I got your back says, you know, whatever it is, but I think we have to do better, as well as just not the stolen up front. There's a lot of organizations like, Oh, I got you, I got you, I got you. Oh, no, you are our programs full. I mean, there's, that should never happen. You know, and if it is the case, there has to be some kind of backup programs. So it's like, Hey, say like wounded warriors, or somebody partners with somebody that's a little smaller. But they had the same functionality or the same type of funding or, you know, programs, you know, they can be referred to them. So they have other options.
Keith McKeever 41:47
Yeah, I mean, there's something like at roughly 50,000, veteran nonprofits out there, right. So what you're doing, there's there's probably hundreds, arguably 1000s At least in the homelessness space, but just the tech, you know, jobs and resumes and interviews. There's got to be hundreds, if not a couple 1000. You know, nonprofits spread out across the country that are doing that. But there's so many that it's impossible to know all of them. Oh, definitely. Yeah, that's what that's one of the that's one of the problems. There's good and there's bad. There's, there's small, there's big, and there's so many that you can't possibly know of I do. You know, I get people every now and then oh, well, you know, you got this veteran podcast. Have you heard of this organization? No. Oh, you haven't? Like, no, we're gonna hear this. And they're like, No, I've never heard of that. It's like, there's so many good ones out there. Oh, yeah, definitely. What everybody is limited by. I was told many years ago, I brought up a great what I thought was a great idea for honor flight. And the director, Phyllis, you know, she just looked at me she was Keith, just remember one thing, or two things. It takes people and money. We could do just about anything if we have enough money, but you got to have the people to run it to. And it's like, Oh, yeah. 100%, right. So I think I'll use that many times in different places. Somebody comes up with an idea. It's like, okay, great. Who's running it? And what's it gonna cost?
Joseph Barnette 43:11
Hey, you can't, there's not one organization, I don't care how big you are to say I can do everything. Now. We have to come together and build that community build that knowledge and that visibility as well.
Keith McKeever 43:23
That's one of the one important thing to keep in any nonprofit, I hope to help anybody else who's running one listens to this, or watches this at some time in the future. Don't get down on the fact that you're small, or that you only work in this area. You can't help everybody. There's no way. There's like something like 19 million veterans right now living roughly somewhere in there. You can't help all them. No, everybody has different needs. But whoever you can help today, so you can help. And you can help how you can help. Right? Like I I'm not a billionaire, I can't just go pass out money to help help veterans problems, right. I have a podcast. And through collaborative efforts, I have people like yourself and all the other 70 Something guests I've had before that, just by sharing their knowledge, we're putting it out there in the universe where people can find it and learn and listen and hopefully have the mindset to grab themselves by the bootstraps and press on.
Joseph Barnette 44:26
Definitely, I mean, that's what it comes down to.
Keith McKeever 44:29
Absolutely. Yep. So what kind of things do you guys have on the horizon? Any other ideas plans? Um,
Joseph Barnette 44:42
I mean, just what the tiny home community trying to get that going and started, but our ultimate goal is not necessarily to be in the metro DC area, but to be a nationwide build hubs across the US to focus on not necessarily the big cities, but the grassroot areas, because there's many veterans that live in these areas that don't have the services that they deserve. And then having someone to go out there and say, Hey, this is what you deserve this what you, you know, we can help you out. That's, that's the whole goal is to provide the services that they deserve, for fighting for our country, but not limited to just big cities. Because you got areas that are across the US, like, you know, Utah, north, North Dakota, South Dakota, that are wide, and there's, there's like a city here and a city there, but still within the cities, there's one or two veterans that you can get to and you can, you can change their life because that's, that's the ultimate goal was to get them in the right mindset and get them on a path to success.
Keith McKeever 45:52
Absolutely. Well, you got to reach people to know what their needs are. There's no doubt about it. Yep. So now, what about volunteer options? You're looking for volunteers. So he's listening to say, gosh, you know, I'd love to help somehow.
Joseph Barnette 46:05
Yeah, so we volunteer at the horse farm. It's getting colder, but we help her with the farm upkeep because her services are free with any veteran or you know, active duty that's suffering from PTSD or TBI,
Keith McKeever 46:22
profit or just a more profit, but she
Joseph Barnette 46:25
this is her, her gift back to the veteran community. And that's, that's our gifts as being veterans and taking the program like, Listen, you know, you get this program free to veterans. So we're going to come to your farm, and we're going to help you know, we helped her build a music wall, you know, the normal horse farm things, not the ones that everybody wants to talk about, but not the fun stuff like show. But it's good because it's all about giving back. And you know, she that's a that's a program that could cost 1000s of dollars a month. But she had an inner heart she's like, No, this is this is free and she's helped over 800 veterans with their mental health issues
Keith McKeever 47:08
with you know, that's that's a really powerful thing. I I didn't have my first interview with anybody and equine therapy thing until maybe, gosh, like a month and a half ago. And I've had to now they both kind of have slightly different approaches. But same basic thing, equine therapy, getting veterans to connect with horses. To me, it blows my mind. I just go through the nonprofit route here, because I've told both of them private. Well, like I said, Have you been on the show? I was like, I just want to really want to see this. Like, I want to go there and just sit back and watch this process unfold. Yeah, of a veteran connecting dropping their guard and connecting with this animal in this nonverbal way. I just I really want to see it in person.
Joseph Barnette 47:48
Yeah. And that's one of our hardest struggles, is finding the veterans to do the program. You know, to me, it's worked wonders, just with what you're supposed to do with the horse, you know, you know, the different things but to accomplish this, and it's, it's a great feeling. And it helps with your anxiety. And just, it's an awesome, it's awesome thing. And some of our other volunteer, we volunteer at Charlotte Hall veteran home, on Thursdays, and then we go periodically different days to do visits. But then we have we have events coming up. But actually for this year, oh, I think all we have left is different Thanksgiving events, feeding community and things like that. But we're definitely looking for volunteers, if not necessarily say, Hey, show up here. But we could always use somebody that like an assistant or something like that, that could do some paperwork or, or help us find veterans in different areas. So we're always looking. And again, we just logged monster website last week, so I'm kind of tweaking it from there. But I will add all the information, the contact information for the different programs, how to do the equine therapy, so all you have to do is fill out the information and then it will be sent straight to us and then we'll contact you within 24 hours.
Keith McKeever 49:19
Awesome. I'll tell you what, those website tweaks they never end. Yeah, that's always good. You know, as long as you're, as long as you're expanding and add more resources and information. It's all good, but it never ends. Now, it doesn't always do it. You know, I always always mentioned that towards the end of mind, and I get this little screen in a pop up and we're done. And, you know, I was I always tell people, nobody, nobody's done it yet. I always tell people like I always say, if there's not a resource on my website, and you think there should be reach out and let me know. And I'll do what I can to put it on there. You know, it's funny about that though, is I get these random emails from these websites all the time. Would you be willing to put this resource on there for seniors? Like, and I've done a couple when it matches was Sometimes I'm like, How does this tie in with veterans? Right? Like, it's, you know, anyway, get
Joseph Barnette 50:06
mass emails out. It's like, oh, okay, you you hit the key word, so I'm gonna send it to him. And
Keith McKeever 50:11
yeah, so it's like, you know, it's just, it's not a clear fit, you know, like, okay, might affect veterans but not what I see is a huge number. Like, you know what, they probably have better SEO on their website than I do on mine. So Mazal leave it on that my goal was work in progress, but still, you know, if you're all some some big fancy doctors officer, you know, got this big fancy website. Oh, yeah. Anyway, you know, but the website stuff is always in transition. So anybody who's, who's listening, I've got a scroll across the bottom of the screen. As you know, I always put things in the show notes. So it'll be in there too. So I highly encourage anybody if they got an idea or thought, or want to volunteer or something like that. Go to the website, reach out. Like I got your Yep, I got I got your LinkedIn too. So feel free to reach out there too. And connect. We're
Joseph Barnette 51:04
on Facebook. Tick tock. That's kind of new to me, but I'll post our events and stuff pictures on their Twitter.
Keith McKeever 51:13
I mastered the TIC tock yet either. So
Joseph Barnette 51:15
videos, that's about it. Yeah. Yeah.
Keith McKeever 51:19
I haven't quite mastered actual filming of it. Like I could sit there and film all the way through. But any fancy effects? It's just not me. Yeah, that's you're just not going to see that straightforward. If you do see something cut up. It's probably a virtual assistant or somebody I paid to do it. Is what it is. Yeah. Ah, I feel young. But sometimes I feel old. I don't know how to do that. I've done that. I'm not that good. My kids do it. I can do that. Oh, yeah. That's smart. Yeah. So anyway, well, Joe, I appreciate you coming on the show and sharing with us what you're doing, man, I'm looking forward to see how you grow. You said, what, seven months? You've been doing this? Yeah. Awesome. Well, you know what, there's no telling what the next seven months can do. You might you might blink and look back on it and say, Holy cow, I've come a long ways. I've only been doing this podcast for two years. 7077 episodes out as Robert right now we're recording. Okay, you know, and I look back and it's like, man, I've come a long way.
Joseph Barnette 52:16
Yeah, and this another thing about PVH. We not only accept volunteers, but if you're an organization or you have an event, we you know, we're more than happy to help you volunteer. And it doesn't matter what the work is. So it goes both ways. So I hand my hand out and you hand yourself so we can build that community.
Keith McKeever 52:36
Awesome. Well, once again, I appreciate you being on. Thank you for
Joseph Barnette 52:43
all right, have a good one. You too.
Keith McKeever 52:46
All right. There you go. Folks, remember I just jokingly said a few minutes ago. If there's resource not on my website, and you think it should be seriously reach out battle buddy podcast at Gmail. Reach out, let me know what you think should be on there. And if you're struggling for any particular reason, we really want you to hear tomorrow. So call the suicide hotline number is now 988 Press one, or you can text 838255
Transcribed by https://otter.ai