The Iowa Statewide Veterans Conference will be held virtually Tuesday as a way to show businesses, educational institutions, and community leaders how best to support veterans and their families.
The event is being co-hosted by Home Base Iowa, where program manager Jathan Chicoine says veterans are a very valuable commodity. “When you’re thinking about recruiting top talent into your businesses, recruiting from that community, there’s skill sets that veterans bring,” Chicoine says. “Certainly, this idea that veterans come from this collectivistic culture and are good team players and very often desire to be a part of something larger than themselves.”
Speakers during the six-and-a-half-hour event will discuss how to make businesses and communities more welcoming to veterans, and how Iowa colleges can best support those returning to civilian life. “We’re actually going to have a breakout session on how to become a Home Base Iowa community,” Chicoine says. “Some of those steps, like a community resolution. We are trying to get 10% of businesses in a local county onboard as HBI. Communities will develop unique incentives and programs to recruit and retain veterans.”
The theme for this year’s conference is “Our Vision Forward: Engaging All of Iowa” as Chicoine says it takes a collaborative effort to provide the best support possible to veterans, military personnel, and their families. He says the list of Home Base Iowa communities statewide is broadening every year.
“We have just over a hundred and we’ll be recognizing some new communities coming onboard at the conference,” Chicoine says. “We’re continuing to grow that support and look forward to getting all 99 counties onboard.”
The 11th annual conference is free and will run from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday on Zoom. To register, follow this link:
https://iowaworks.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vWp2xtguQH6SQ-GQjd867A? m_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery