Honoring Veterans by Investing in Their Next Chapter

This Veterans Day, The BlackRock Foundation is supporting organizations helping veterans and military families build financial security and navigate the transition to civilian life through over $2 million in new grants.

For the millions of Americans who have served in the military, transitioning to civilian life can bring both new possibilities and new challenges. This Veterans Day, BlackRock is honoring their service and highlighting organizations helping veterans translate their experience and skills into meaningful careers and greater financial security.

Through partnerships that expand pathways to opportunity, The BlackRock Foundation is proud to support veterans as they move from serving our country to building what comes next.

Creating pathways from military service to skilled trades careers

Through BlackRock Future Builders, a $100 million philanthropic initiative funded by The BlackRock Foundation, two organizations focused on the veteran community were recently selected as part of the initiative's first national cohort: Helmets to Hardhats and National Veterans Transition Services Inc. (NVTSI).

Helmets to Hardhats was awarded approximately $1 million through BlackRock Future Builders to help transitioning service members, veterans, National Guard members and reservists connect with registered apprenticeships and employment in the construction trades. The funding will support three dedicated case managers serving 14 states across the Midwest and Ohio Valley, connecting participants with assessment and career guidance and opportunities through a network of more than 500 affiliated training centers.

National Veterans Transition Services Inc. (NVTSI), operating as REBOOT, was also awarded approximately $1 million to expand skilled trades career pathways in San Diego. The grant will support the launch of Operation Future Builders, a program to help participants translate military experience into trades-readiness profiles, then connect them to apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, college programs and employers.

Supporting veterans and military families in the workplace

The BlackRock Foundation is also proud to support the Bob Woodruff Foundation through a new $250,000 grant. The grant builds on BlackRock's longstanding support of Bob Woodruff Foundation, which works to address challenges facing veterans, service members and their families through grantmaking, research, community building and public education. The foundation brings together hundreds of veteran-serving organizations, which help identify community needs, direct resources and advance solutions for veterans and military families.

Partnership in action

Last week, at the Bob Woodruff Foundation's Veterans Employment Symposium, John Kelly, BlackRock's Global Head of Corporate Affairs, participated in a fireside chat with Martin Helms, the Executive Director of Helmets to Hardhats who has twenty-two years of service in the Army National Guard and experience as a Training Director with IBEW moderated by Anne Marie Dougherty, CEO of Bob Woodruff Foundation. The conversation explored the skilled trades gap, why veterans are particularly well positioned to help meet that need, and how employers can invest in pathways that translate veterans' skills into long-term careers.