Women Veterans Health Initiative:

Women veterans are a rapidly growing population that faces a range of complex challenges. Many are single mothers who have experienced Military Sexual Trauma (MST), and are now the fastest growing segment of the homeless population. These harsh realities have only recently started to enter the national consciousness. Despite the growing body of research on women veterans, there remains a woeful lack of services catered to their unique needs. The Thresholds Women Veterans Health Initiative raises the bar for women-designed, veteran-focused services. By providing a women-only one-stop shop for rapid housing placement, employment and education services, benefits linkage, trauma therapies, substance use treatments, child care resources, primary care, and psychiatry, Thresholds has the opportunity to provide unparalleled service.

The Women Veterans Leadership Program changes the narrative on what it means to be a woman veteran by leveraging their leadership skills and authentic selves to become change-makers, all while enhancing their personal and professional networks. By the end of this one-of-a-kind program, cohort members will have made lifelong friends and lasting connections with other women veterans. Everyone will feel empowered to lead the charge for gender equality in their communities.

• Providing immediate assistance for women veterans with special emphasis on at risk and homeless women veterans until they are attached to a long term service provider and ensure they are safe when dislocated, at risk or homeless.

• Encourage enrollment in VA Health Care Systems.

• Provide Peer to Peer support to assist women veterans who may be challenged with mental health issues of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Military Sexual Trauma (MST) to develop or reinforce coping skills.

• Provide Financial Literacy Training.

• Implement Domestic Violence Training.

• Intensify smaller programs where more intimate one on one entrepreneurship training will better prepare and deliver the tools needed to successfully accomplish the creation of small businesses, because in Illinois women veteran businesses are low in numbers.

• Develop mentoring programs with community girls by lending our leadership skills and the unique experiences of our members who have great achievements in various careers with a focus to thwart violent behavior, strengthen civility and empower them with moral values and citizenship.

The Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC) is committed to the success of veteran-owned businesses and works to ensure that veterans have technical assistance and resources to achieve their business goals. The WBDC VBAS offers various levels of training and assistance for start-up, emerging, and established veteran business owners in Illinois to support and accelerate their business development and growth.