Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Welcome Home is a Willing Warriors and the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run project. The program highlights activities at the Warrior Retreat and issues impacting all Veterans. For questions or feedback, please email us at podcast@willingwarriors.org.
Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Building Stronger Veteran Communities with GenVets
Join us for an engaging conversation with Jen Wagman, the visionary president and founder of GenVets, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering veterans and easing their transition into civilian life. Inspired by her father, a retired Air Force colonel and judge advocate, Jen made a remarkable shift from her Wall Street career to championing veterans' rights. Uncover how her personal journey and legal expertise have fueled her passion to mend the communication gaps and mistrust in veteran services. Jen shares her innovative approach to bridging divides between veterans, their families, and service providers, emphasizing the crucial role of effective communication in strengthening military community support systems.
Discover the collective power of collaboration as we highlight GenVets' initiatives and partnerships with key organizations like Blue Star Families and the Military Officers Association of America. From improving the benefits system to facilitating community events, Jen's insights shed light on the pressing issues veterans face and the relentless efforts to make the Department of Veterans Affairs more efficient. By spotlighting initiatives like the Virginia Veterans Network and Over Never Out, we underscore the importance of unified efforts to address mental health challenges among veterans. Tune in to learn how GenVets and its allies are creating meaningful progress and how you can be part of this vital mission to support veterans and their families.
Good morning. I'm your host, Larry Zilliox, Director of Culinary Services here at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run, and this week our guest is Jen Wagman. She is the president and founder of a nonprofit called GenVets and she's an attorney, and they provide awesome services for veterans, especially when it comes to helping them understand all the legal ramifications around claims and trying to get benefits and things like that. So, Chen, welcome to the podcast.
Jen Wagman:Oh, thank you for having me, Larry. It's an honor to be with you and have the opportunity to speak with you and your listeners today.
Larry Zilliox:Well, if you would, just we'll start with you talking a little bit about your background. I do know that you attended law school at Catholic University here in Washington DC and my brother-in-law went to school there Really liked it. It's a great school. Tell us a little bit about. I know your father was a colonel and a judge advocate, so I'm sure that had some influence on you. Tell us a little bit about your background and how you got started.
Jen Wagman:Yes, my father was a very big influence on me. He's nearly his entire career in service to the Air Force and he ended as the head of the Air Force Legal Agency at Bowling Air Force Base and a multitude of different titles, and even in retirement he has continued to consult with incarcerated individuals at Leavenworth and more recently volunteering with me prison here in Maryland. So we are actually working together a little bit when we're not to others. There's a reason. He does one side of veterans benefits and I do another. It is always a good time. But, yes, he had a huge influence on my desire to serve.
Jen Wagman:I was not brave enough and on the dotted line, and so this is the way I chose to do so. I worked for a Wall Street firm when I first got out of law school and towers were hit. They encouraged us to do as much pro bono work as we could. I worked for the Veterans Pro Bono Consortium, given a wonderful mentor through Paralyzed Veterans of America, linda Blauhut, and I have been doing it ever since I started VA at the Board of Veterans Appeals and then went to work for Paralyzed Veterans of America. Through contract work and then full-time for over 10 years and private practice. I've done a ton of volunteer work and then started with GenVets in June.
Larry Zilliox:What led to you deciding you wanted to start the organization and have it out there providing services.
Jen Wagman:Well, I found GenVets in June last year, following, actually, the dissolution of a professional relationship where I had been involved in what I believed at the time was a coordinated effort change what I consider to be sort of an industry-wide unproductive, misguided and often irresponsible narrative among the private bar nonprofit organizations, of which there are 45,000 nonprofit organizations, foundations, organizations that are dedicated to veterans service in one another. That's a lot. It's big business right now federal and state agencies and veterans, and when my professional relationship ended, the words of the person with whom I had been working were sort of all I could think about within sort of the 24 hours after, and it was something to the effect of Jen is the one to do this job and lead this effort. And I had not ever considered myself that way before. I have kids, I'm a mom, I'm a family person and I've always been just an attorney doing benefits work and claims work. But suddenly I became very clear and confident on what the 20 plus years of experience in the veteran space have prepared me for, and so I consider there to be a very pressing issue that affects not only our military and veteran communities but sort of the fabric of our society, and that's the challenge of miscommunication, misperception regarding the services, resources and benefits that are available to those who have served our nation, and that's because better care leads to stronger recruitment, which builds a more resilient force and drives sort of a continuous cycle that strengthens and secures the future of America's all-on-tier fighting force, and that is a big problem right now.
Jen Wagman:So I founded GenVets to be the next generation of veteran support and veteran support services, and to me, veterans represent the greatest part of generations, from baby boomers to Gen X, gen Y, gen Z. That's where Gen Vets comes from, by the way. So we love veterans and at Gen Vets, you know we believe that veterans and their families are the pillar of our local communities and states and their well-being and health makes America stronger. So our priority is to help the military and veteran communities and their families better communicate with those who provide veteran support services, to identify and address the roadblocks that are currently preventing veterans from utilizing or taking advantage of the many existing resources state and VA, federal VA, also the nonprofit organizations, the many medical programs that are out there that are already being offered and so, simply put, I think over the years there's been a major break in trust, understanding, willingness to listen on the part of both veterans, people coming out of the military and their families who are seeking help, and, in many instances, those who are providing the services.
Jen Wagman:So at GenVets, I think it's my privilege to be a part of their lives and to give back to those who sacrificed for their country, however great or small, and to optimize their journey through both service and the transition to civilian life. And I believe that a healthy balance of equal responsibility is sort of needed right now, and that's by all stakeholders in the process the veterans and the US Department of Veterans Affairs, state, county governments, nonprofits and the local community and civic organizations. County governments, nonprofits and the local community and civic organizations. You know I Does that answer your question.
Larry Zilliox:It does, yes, it does, and it makes me think of a conversation that I was part of yesterday. We have the Northern Virginia Veteran Suicide Coalition here in our area, and we had a conversation yesterday about the need to survey veterans and active duty and family members to get a better understanding of what they need, because I think you're right on target. There is that for too long, many veteran service organizations have come about and decided that this is a service that they want to give to somebody.
Jen Wagman:Give.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, without really knowing whether or not it's actually needed. And not to mention there's a lot of VSOs out there just duplicating. You know there's just 10 organizations doing the same thing and fighting for the same dollars and that kind of thing. But I understand where you're coming from, because unless you hear from veterans what they need to accomplish various things in their life, it's hard to pin down exactly what services you should provide and concentrate on and where you should direct your resources into helping those veterans. And so it sounds as though you know you guys have dialed in on that and I think that's huge. What are the different services let's say the top three services that you offer to veterans?
Jen Wagman:Well, I want to touch really briefly on what you just said, because I think you pinpointed exactly what I see is the need and that is the concept of hearing versus listening, and that is my entire sort of notion of what's going on. People say I hear you, and that is what I think and I think the big problem is here. People say to veterans I hear you, I hear you, yes, I hear you, but are you listening to what I'm saying? And for me and my clients over the years, I hear all the time they're waiting for me to die, especially my clients in the benefits situation, because the appeals take so long. The backlog is so great and I have my own, you know we could have a whole separate show on that and why that's happening. And, believe it or not, it is not the Board of Veterans Appeals fault that all of that's happening and, believe it or not, it is not the Board of Veterans Appeals fault that all of this is happening. And 10 years ago I might have had a different story for you. But I can tell you and this is also where some of the, where the creation of this organization comes from I work with and am friends with and love the people who work at these, at the Department of Veterans Affairs federal and state. They are working their butts off night and day to try and fix this, to make it better. When Secretary McDonough got up at his State of the VA in October and said it's a new VA 10 years ago if someone had said that, I would have been like, oh my God, really, really, he's not kidding. When he's inviting people back and begging them to say give us another chance. He's trying to save lives. He's actually trying to get people to come back. Deputy Bradshaw, tanya Bradshaw is one of the Appeals Constance Tobias, who probably is responsible for who I am today as an attorney working for veterans, because she was that inspiring. So when I tell my clients they're not waiting for you to die, I need them to hear me, listen, listen to what I'm saying, hear me, listen. Listen to what I'm saying, because when I tell you the things that you need to hear, when I'm telling you that, okay, you are telling me you need this benefit, this benefit, this benefit, you may not qualify for all of those things and you may not want to hear everything I'm saying to you, but I need you to listen to me. Listen, because there are other things that you might qualify and there are other resources and things that you don't know are other things that you might qualify, and there are other resources and things that you don't know are out there that I'm going to bring you to and when you tell me the things that you need and that you want, I can bring that back to the people that I work with that I've spent 20 years creating these relationships with. Now, not everybody can compounding, and you know there are certainly things that need to be fixed. That's without a doubt. But there are people who also want to listen and they want to understand on the other side as well. So we need to bring everyone to the table and sort of find a way to communicate better, find a way to listen to each other, and that's what sort of this is about.
Jen Wagman:But you asked about the services that we provide. This is about. But you asked about the services that we provide. Number one right now I do a podcast of my own where I bring guests from the agencies, from the nonprofits, and veterans themselves talking about their experiences, and that's something that I started in the fall. You can connect to it through my website, which is just doubly. I think it's HTTPS forward slash and then GenVetsorg. So all of those episodes will be there and they'll be picking back up again in the next couple of weeks.
Jen Wagman:And then claims assistance. I do a lot of pro bono claims assistance. You should never, ever pay an attorney or any company, these claims sharks you hear about. No one should be filing a claim and paying for assistance in doing it no one. That should not be happening and most of the things that you do shouldn't be paying for. I'm not saying there's never a time, because there are.
Jen Wagman:Things get complicated.
Jen Wagman:Medical opinions, things like that need to happen.
Jen Wagman:It happened.
Jen Wagman:There is a time and a place for attorneys, but most of the stuff can be done through veteran service organizations, and if you have a question as to when it's time to go to one, you can call me.
Jen Wagman:I can go over it with you. There are lots of other veteran service organizations who can do the same thing for you, but you should at least be talking to someone about whether it's time to do that or not, and any good attorney will tell you that. Any good attorney will say you don't need me right now, maybe you will in the future, and I'm happy to look at and tell you about that then. But that's how you know. So I do a lot of that and I like to do a lot of teaching, providing information about how to do things on your own so that you don't have to hire someone to do it. And then we do a lot of community events. We had a grant in December where our job was to spread Christmas cheer and so, through Blue Star Families, we were able to provide cookies and cocoa and books and trips to what is that dinner where you go watch dinner and the nights Some sort of medieval thing.
Jen Wagman:Yes, medieval times, that's what it's called. My kids love it too. So we were able to do a Christmas party with Blue Star Families and then we did a party for Military Officers Association of America. The Upper Potomac chapter had a wonder. It was their biggest attended event ever, which is wonderful because we need to bring, they need to increase their numbers and recruitment, and that was a wonderful.
Jen Wagman:Lieutenant General Kelly is also a retired Air Force person, so I love him and they're actually. His mission is turning people and impact into what counts. Moa's entire mission is about using people. You know, behind every mission there are real people with real challenges, from recruitment to retirement. So they're all about sort of the same mission that GenVets is about, and we work with them. We'll continue to work with them. Moa is one of the greatest organizations service organizations that's out there. It's, you know, something I love very much. So that's what we do. We also ended up. We supported homeless veterans. We purchased 50 backpacks through Linda's Legacy and delivered those on Christmas Eve. That's something else we did. So that's how we use our donations.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, it sounds like your plate is full. As Jen mentioned, the webpage is genvetsorg. I want all of our listeners to go to the webpage, check it out. You will see, on almost every other veteran service organization webpage there's a button in the upper right-hand corner that says donate. Now I want everybody to bang on that button and give what you can.
Larry Zilliox:Every bit helps, yeah, every little bit helps. You might not need legal services, but somebody does. You know some veteran out there needs help and your dollars will help. Genvets provide the services that will change that veteran's life. So even if you don't need help, go ahead and donate, because you may need help next year or next month, you never know. So I do want everybody to check out the webpage and the resources on there.
Larry Zilliox:One of the things, too, that you sort of hit on there which I've found from doing this podcast is when I talk to people with other veteran service organizations, I discover how deep their bench is and the type of services that they provide.
Larry Zilliox:So very often an organization is known for one type of service, but when you sit down and talk to them, you find out that they provide a host of services that you never even knew that they did. You know Blue Star Families is an example. They do a yearly survey of almost 15,000 military and veteran and family members, which is extremely useful to other veteran service organizations. You know Purple Heart has financial assistance program where they can give just a dollar amount to a veteran that needs help with their rent or their car repaired or something like that. So they're maybe known for one thing, but there's a lot that these veteran service organizations do that not everybody knows about. And that's where it's valuable to interact with you and GenVets, because you have this knowledge base about what organizations certainly in your area and even nationwide can provide services, because we rarely see a veteran that needs help for one thing.
Larry Zilliox:You know, if you've lost a job, it can very often be because you just don't have a working automobile or you have a substance abuse problem because of yourself medicating, because of TBI and PTS, and so being able to talk to somebody like yourself at GenVets and say, you know, this is the help I need, interacting with professionals is the way that veterans really get help, and very often veterans think the only people that can help them in the VA and they had a bad experience. Or years ago it took so long that they even forgot they had a claim or they got a zero rating. You know, oh yeah, you get the. I see that's a problem. You got an illness there, but it's a zero rating. But it's a zero rating. So just talking to you and just looking over the services that you all provide, I can't help but think how busy are you.
Jen Wagman:Well, one of the things that we focus on in particular is collaboration. I believe very strongly that, as you said earlier, I believe very strongly that, as you said earlier, there's an overlap of a lot of as I said, there are 45,000 different service organizations, so there is not a need to reinvent the wheel. Part of what I like to do is pull together my experience and my exposure to all of these different organizations I've come across over the years that I'm coming across now, learning and meeting at the different events that I go to. In fact, just today, I will tell you I entered into a partnership with Operation Honor, rural Veterans of America, michelle Lang, where I will be doing I will be serving as their spokesman for their subject matter expert for veterans benefits, and doing webinars and teaching about all of the things I just told you about. When it comes to how to file a claim, what is subject is service connection. For example, what do you need in order to be service connected for a disability? Simple things, and when we all help each other out and join together as service organizations, not replicating our different things, that helps. When it comes to, you know, doing too much. What's on my plate? Michelle helps me, I help her. Our different organizations help each other. Moa coordinates with. When there's something else that's going on, they will bring, I will help them, they will come in and that is sort of what we're all doing now. That is the climate that we're entering into as service organizations. It should not be one of competition and those that you see that will speak badly about one another or not work with each other. We don't have time for that anymore because those aren't the ones who are truly interested in moving the mission forward. The ones who are truly interested in doing that are the ones that are working together and actually getting something done.
Jen Wagman:Jason Houck is another one. In February there's going to be a big gathering of service organizations in Nashville for Over Never Out. It's a suicide prevention concert sort of I don't even know how to describe it. He's put together this conglomerate of mental health organizations to sort of raise awareness for veteran suicide. Everyone's coming together and it's sort of focused at John Bon Jovi's Bar in Nashville. But there's also going to be a component of it that is a seminar. It's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger and I'm going to go down there, probably be doing some podcasts and interviewing and things like that. I interviewed him on my podcast back in December, on December 13th. The amount of work he's doing to bring mental health issues to light and using all of us, all of the great organizations around, to spread that message, is phenomenal, and everybody's on board with him. So you can see how the network is growing and working for each other and we'll do anything for him because of what he's doing and so and part of part of all of us, I think, are starting to try and spread the message.
Jen Wagman:It's not just big VA, it's not the federal VA that should be taking on all of this either. State governments need to start getting involved. We're calling to action that veteran service organizations should be partnering with the states, because veterans live in states. States should be taking care of their citizens, and so we're calling to action states to start budgeting more for their citizens, start providing some of these resources and some of these things for them, so that it's not all falling on the federal government, because not everything should be on them. And some of the failures, some of the things that we're seeing, some of the backlog maybe we could be dealing with some of that better if they weren't doing everything. Just a thought.
Larry Zilliox:Well, our listeners are familiar with Michelle and we did a podcast with her in early December, episode 87, for anybody who wants to listen to it.
Jen Wagman:She's awesome, isn't she?
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, and I agree with you 100%. You know we're very fortunate here in Virginia. We have a very strong veteran service agency here. We just interviewed the commissioner, Chuck Zingler. He's a wonderful guy and they've just initiated the Virginia Veterans Network, which is an online resource network for veterans to provide them with services and handoffs to qualified veteran service organizations. So we're lucky. Here in Virginia we have a large veteran population over 700,000.
Jen Wagman:Maryland too. Governor Moore is amazing and Anthony Woods is amazing, so they're the model to me of what the rest of the country should be looking at. But the whole country isn't as lucky to have Governor Moore, to have Anthony Woods and to have the Virginia model either. But that's who they should be looking at.
Larry Zilliox:For sure. So, as we kind of wrap this up, what's the one thing you want our listeners to know, the most important thing you want them to know about GenVets?
Jen Wagman:GenVets is here to be open to talk. I want you to be able to come back, listen and listen to what we are talking about with respect to what the new VA is, what the new programs are, and be willing to listen to what it is that we're bringing to you programming wise. Listen to the resources that are available, listen to all of the benefits information that I'm providing. Come to the website as it develops, listen to the podcasts that are going to be coming out and write to me, ask questions. I'm here to answer them and it's me who's answering them For the most part. That's what you're going to be getting and I'm willing to be able to do that.
Larry Zilliox:Well, great Listen. Thank you so much for joining us. You guys are doing amazing work. Once again, listeners. The webpage is genvetsorg, and don't hesitate to reach out to Jen. Shoot her an email, give her a call and I'm certain she'll direct you. If she can't help you, she'll direct you to people who can.
Jen Wagman:That's the right way to put it.
Larry Zilliox:Thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate it.
Jen Wagman:I appreciate you. Thank you for the opportunity.
Larry Zilliox:Well for our listeners. We'll have another episode next Monday morning at 0500. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can reach us at podcast at willingwarriorsorg. Until then, thanks for listening.
