LOUISVILLE, Ky. – April 24, 2017 — Where Opportunity Knox, a regional initiative to connect transitioning Veterans and/or military spouses to jobs and careers, announced today that its representatives will attend a Transition Summit and hiring fair at Fort Bragg, North Carolina on April 26 – 27, 2017 to recruit transitioning Veterans to live and work in the Greater Louisville region.
The two-day Transition Summit will feature seminars, panel discussions, recruiter training, and facilitated discussions focused on improving competitive employment for Service Members and Veterans in addition to networking opportunities for all involved. This summit features participation by and speakers from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes, the USO, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Department of Labor, The U.S. Small Business Administration, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Transition to Veterans Program Office, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local chambers of commerce.
Where Opportunity Knox Regional Veteran Connectors Whitney Allen and Linda Larson will attend the summit and hiring fair. Fort Bragg is the largest U.S. military base in terms of military population with 52,000 active duty members, 12,000 reserve military personnel and an additional 62,000 military family members.
Where Opportunity Knox, which launched in September 2014, is a unique regional initiative to connect 10,000 transitioning Veterans and military spouses to jobs and careers by the end of 2017. While numerous employers throughout the country have made the commitment to hire Veterans, there is no geographic region that has taken on this challenge. With approximately 100,000 Soldiers transitioning from active duty through the Army Transition Assistance Program (SFL-TAP) which is headquartered at the U.S. Army Human Resources Command located at Fort Knox, Ky. and with a significant number of transitioning Soldiers stationed at Fort Knox and Fort Campbell, Kentucky and Southern Indiana have a unique economic development opportunity to tap into this highly skilled Veteran talent like nowhere else in the nation.
This initiative is not a job placement service but instead is about developing a pipeline of transitioning Veterans who are looking for a post-military place to live and work – a place that values Veterans, offers a high-level quality of life and has a diverse and robust economy with available jobs and careers. Through a network of RVCs and a host of knowledgeable volunteers, Where Opportunity Knox is making the connections Veterans need to find the right civilian job and the right civilian community. Where Opportunity Knox also provides an online resource for transitioning families to get information about the overall quality of life in this region including jobs, schools and more.
Where Opportunity Knox is currently funded by the Cumberlands Workforce Development Area, the Duke Energy Foundation, the Gheens Foundation, the James Graham Brown Foundation, the Lincoln Trail Area Development District, and the Ogle Foundation. Three regional chambers of commerce, Greater Louisville Inc., the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce and One Southern Indiana, designed and implemented this initiative. For more information about Where Opportunity Knox, visit www.whereopportunityknox.com.