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
Caregiving Heroes: The Elizabeth Dole Foundation's Impact
The unsung heroes of our military community often go unrecognized—even by themselves. Military spouses who manage their loved ones' PTS symptoms, administer medications, and coordinate care frequently don't identify as "caregivers," believing they're simply supporting someone they love. As COO Elizabeth Field explains in this powerful conversation, this revelation stands at the heart of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation's mission.
Field takes us behind the scenes of the Foundation's groundbreaking programs, particularly the Dole Caregiver Fellowship. This initiative transforms military and veteran caregivers into powerful advocates by providing comprehensive training, Capitol Hill experience, and ongoing support. With over 300 fellows nationwide who have helped advance critical legislation like the Elizabeth Dole Act, the program demonstrates how caregivers' voices can drive meaningful policy change when properly supported and amplified.
Perhaps most moving is the Foundation's focus on "Hidden Helpers" - the 5.5 million children living in homes with wounded, ill, or injured service members and veterans. These remarkable young people often assist with caregiving responsibilities while navigating their own unique challenges. Research shows they develop enhanced empathy and patience, but may struggle with mental health issues and school difficulties. Through specialized resources, awareness campaigns, and dedicated programming, the Foundation ensures these children receive the recognition and support they deserve.
The conversation reveals how the Elizabeth Dole Foundation continues to evolve, with strategic priorities focused on mental well-being, economic mobility, and systems improvement. Their emergency financial assistance through the Hope Fund provides critical support for caregivers facing crises. For anyone connected to the military community - whether as a caregiver themselves or knowing someone in that role - the Foundation offers a wealth of resources accessible through its website.
Looking for support or want to help? Visit elizabethdolefoundation.org to learn more about these programs or to contribute to their vital mission supporting military caregivers and their families.
Good morning. I'm your host, Larry Zilliox, Director of Culinary Services here at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run this week. Our guest is Elizabeth Field. She's the COO of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation. She joined the foundation back in February of 24.
Larry Zilliox:And before that she was a senior executive with the GAO's Defense Capabilities and Management Team, and the reason I mentioned that is many of our listeners may remember that we did an episode back in February episode 94, where we discussed really serious deficiencies and issues surrounding military housing, both on base and off base, with director at the time, Alissa Czyz, and it was a great episode and I encourage any of our listeners that come across any GAO reports about Veterans Administration or military housing or health care, things like that, to read them, because they're just chock full of amazing information and they do great work.
Larry Zilliox:And anybody who's been operating in the veteran service organization space for any amount of time recognizes that the Elizabeth Dole Foundation really sets the gold standard when it comes to caregiving for military and veterans, and so I'm really really happy that she's able to join us today and talk about their programs and what the future looks like as far as policy, all the issues that surround caregivers today, and let me tell you there's a lot. We're not going to be able to get to all of them. I have a few of their programs that I really want to highlight. But, elizabeth, welcome to the podcast. So, if you would, let's start with telling us a little bit about making the jump from government to private sector, and then what led you to the Elizabeth Dole Foundation.
Elizabeth Field:Well, it's interesting that you did the GAO and military housing, because that was a big part of the work that I did before coming here to the foundation, and one of the key things that I learned in that work was truly that an individual serves in our military, the whole family serves, and quite often, as I was uncovering housing that was well below standard. It would to come to the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, where we support families military families, veteran families who are, in some cases, dealing with enormously challenging circumstances because the service member has been injured or come down with an illness due to toxic exposure or what have you, and until Elizabeth Dole created the foundation, there was really no one dedicated to helping these families, and so I wanted to be able to be part of that in a more direct way than I could be in government.
Larry Zilliox:When you got to the foundation and you started your work, what surprised you the most?
Elizabeth Field:You know, I think it has been surprising how common it is for military family members to be caregiving but not recognize that they are caregivers. We are talking about military spouses who help their service member veteran manage symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and I can't tell you how many times I talk to a spouse who says I'm not a caregiver, I'm just doing what I'm doing because I love my spouse. Well, that person is a caregiver and what I try to do at the foundation is to help military and veteran family members and friends it's not always a family member recognize that what they are doing is really invaluable. It is part of continuing to support those who have served, but also that there are resources available for them that they deserve and that will help them.
Larry Zilliox:So the programs that jump out at me, and because here at the Warrior Retreat we're all about families and and families serve right alongside with the warriors, and we recognize too that our focus here has always been, and continues to be, to surreptitiously convince the warrior that their family's not better off without them. They very often come here in very dark places without them. They very often come here in very dark places. We've had a number of them tell us that, look, I was going to give a vacation sort of thing to my family and then I was going to take my own life. And they get this crazy thought in their head that if they just take their own life, then their family can go back home and be normal again. And that's just the most ridiculous thing. But it sounds normal and reasonable to them until we get them here and we focus in on the family and everything we do is family oriented, and what we notice is not only is it a stress relief on the warrior, but it's a stress release on the family too. The family gets to be a family again.
Larry Zilliox:And your Hidden Heroes campaign, which highlights the fact that there are all these spouses in this caregiving role that are not recognized that are not getting the help they need, and because they don't recognize themselves as caregivers, they don't understand that the resources are out there. And I think this is one of the most amazing programs that you have is to educate them that their role is that of a caregiver and to say, once they recognize they're a caregiver, then they're open, hopefully, to understanding that there's resources, not only within your foundation, but you know 50,000 other VSOs around the country. What is the? I mean, I know that Elizabeth Dole is a caregiver always, has been for quite some time, and that's the foundation. But what do you think is the number one way in which you all use this campaign to convince spouses and family members that they are caregivers and to utilize the resources that you have available?
Elizabeth Field:Well, let me first just commend you and your organization for that emphasis on the family and supporting families, because you're right, it is really just critical to do that.
Elizabeth Field:There are a number of programs that we run that are designed to raise awareness for caregivers and also to help caregivers understand that they are, in fact, in that role.
Elizabeth Field:The one that I want to highlight, though, is our Dole Caregiver Fellowship Program. This is a program that has been in existence almost from the very beginning of the foundation, because what Senator Dole realized and recognized was that caregivers are the best communicators to other caregivers. They help others in their community who are caring for a service member or a veteran recognize that they are in a role that they may not have realized, and they help them get resources that they need, and they also advocate for their community. There is a lot of advocacy work that we do at a foundation at our foundation, excuse me and being able to rely on the now 300 plus fellows across the country to help amplify our messages is really, really important, and so it truly is a family. We talk about it a lot like that here at the foundation that our fellows are an extension of the Dole Foundation family, and they truly are heroes to us.
Larry Zilliox:Well, that was number three on my list of your outstanding programs. Number two was the Hidden Helpers Coalition, which we'll sort of go back to here in a minute. But I do want to talk a little bit about the Caregiver Fellowship, because one of the ways that we see the fellows is out there on the Hill and out there advocating for the community and putting caregivers front and center, in front of legislators, not only on the federal level but state level as well. And that is a huge, huge benefit to the caregiver and veteran and military community, because it's one thing to call your representative and then talk to a staff member, it's another thing to write them a letter. But when you get in there face-to-face with them, they see you and you're a real person who has a story that they can't ignore.
Larry Zilliox:I can't thank you all enough for the work that you do in educating these fellows so that they can go out and lobby on behalf of not only the foundation but the community at large. I mean it's so important because without policy, without getting the word out about what the issues are and what's needed, nothing will happen. The PAC Act would have never happened without veterans advocating for it, caregivers advocating for it come to veterans and service members come because people like the Dole Foundation fellows are out there and they're in the community and they're the voice that says we need this, and so that's an amazing program and it's now, like you say, over 300. Are you planning on expanding it anymore, or is this? I know we know some fellows who've been here at the retreat and I know they sort of rotate in and out. A lot of times it's based on family issues and a lot of things but is there a plan to expand it at all?
Elizabeth Field:Well, we really do consider the fellowship program to be one of our flagship programs and what we do is we have a process where we allow caregivers from across the country to apply for the fellowship.
Elizabeth Field:If you're interested, if you're a caregiver and you're listening and you're interested, you can go to elizabethdolefoundationorg and you'll see a link there where you can learn more about the fellowship program and how to apply. But we will be continuing to run this program every year, starting a new class every year, and then each class runs for about two years in terms of intensive training. We bring the fellows to Capitol Hill, as you noted, and we give them resources that they maybe hadn't had before, and then we send them back out into their communities. But this is something that we will continue to do and really rely on well into the future, because we know, as you mentioned, that we've been really successful in working with our fellows to advance important legislation. I had the pleasure last year of joining some of our fellows on the Hill when we were advocating for the Elizabeth Dole Act, which ultimately was signed into law at the very beginning of this year, and the caregivers who spoke with our members of Congress were an instrumental part of that, so we will continue to do that.
Larry Zilliox:And just so our listeners understand too, if you're a caregiver out there and this sounds like something you might be interested in, could you just take a moment to describe the program and the sort of operational aspect of it? So I'm imagining that the foundation covers the expenses, so it's not like I'm in California and I want to do this but I can't afford to get to the training. How does the whole thing work?
Elizabeth Field:Well, you're absolutely right. We know that caregivers, on top of managing a lot in their day-to-day life, also just don't have the financial means to participate in something like this independently. We know, for example, that military and veteran caregivers really take a pretty heavy hit when it comes to lost income and having to take on a number of costs that they have to pay out of pocket for. So we go through, as I mentioned, the application process. We interview caregivers who have submitted applications that we think show that they're a promising fellow, and then, once caregivers are selected, we work with them, initially through a lot of virtual meetings, which is good because they can take those calls from home and they get a chance to meet one another and learn more about the foundation. And then that year we bring the class of fellows in to Washington for about a week, and it's a pretty intense week, but it is also one of the most meaningful experiences that we and the fellows have, where they are participating in, for example, full day workshops, learning more about our programs, but also learning about things like how to be an effective advocate, how to tell their story effectively, effectively, and we sprinkle in there some fun social activities, which is so important because, you know, for so many of them this is also an opportunity to do something for themselves and to have a bit of respite, which is so often really needed.
Elizabeth Field:And we have them participate in our annual convening, which is a huge conference that we hold every year, featuring leaders in the space but also caregivers, because we want their voices front and center.
Elizabeth Field:And then on the last day of that week, we have what we call our Hill Day, and that is when we head to Capitol Hill and have our fellows meet with members of Congress from their states, something that continues to happen. One of our fellows, david Meyer, just recently met with Governor Polis in Colorado, and certainly the training that he got in this intensive week-long program helped him be prepared for that conversation. And then we continue to support our fellows after that week of training and workshops and social activities through additional work online, whether it's helping them determine how to use social media to to tell their story, um, and one of the the most fun parts about the fellowship program is that. And one of the most fun parts about the fellowship program is that when a class graduates, they come and they participate in our Heroes and Historymakers Gala, which we do every year and it's a lot of fun to have a moment of celebration, because you know caregivers do so much and they deserve to be not just recognized but celebrated.
Larry Zilliox:Well, it certainly is an amazing program. And, listeners, if you're a caregiver and you think this is something you might be interested in, go to the webpage, which is elizabethdoublefoundationorg, and check it out, contact them, get more information and then decide if it's for you. If you know of a caregiver who you think would be right for this, certainly send them the link. For sure and my regular listeners know what I'm going to say right now you go to that webpage and you're going to see it up there in the right-hand corner, like every other VSOs, that red donate button. Go ahead and bang on that button and donate what you can, because these programs aren't free and they need all the help that they can get.
Larry Zilliox:And let me tell you, there's a lot of organizations out there that you can give money to, but I don't think you're going to find one where you can give money and get this kind of return on your investment and that really takes these caregivers and provides them with all sorts of support and programs. We're just talking about this one, which is the fellowship caregiver fellowship, but there's a ton of other programs and services that they provide to all the other caregivers who aren't fellows, and so this is, this is an organization that is is going to really use your, your donation, wisely for sure. My other favorite program that you have is the Hidden Helpers Coalition. If you would just tell our listeners a little bit about what that is.
Elizabeth Field:Yeah. So Hidden Helpers is the term that we use for children in military and veteran caregiving households. We know that there are about five and a half million kids in this country who are living in a home with an injured, ill or wounded veteran or service member, and quite often those kids help with caregiving, whether it is helping to administer a medication or something that we hear quite often helping their parent, who is the caregiver, manage their experience as a caregiver and what we know from research, which is really central to how we do our work. We always want to be evidence-based and data-driven. What we know is that these kids have some pro-social behaviors in greater spades than their non-caregiving peers, so things like being able to empathize or to make a connection with someone or to be patient it's something that they have learned from caregiving. But we also know that these kids can struggle, that they are more likely to have some mental health challenges or to miss school more often or to get into conflicts at school.
Elizabeth Field:And so we created this coalition, the Hidden Helpers Coalition to do a couple of things. One, just to raise awareness around Hidden Helpers we have an ongoing public awareness campaign right now as part of this coalition's work but also to galvanize energy around helping these kids, support children and often military children through everything, such as camps that are just for them to you know, workbooks that help child caregivers sort of process and understand what they're going through. It is one of our most exciting initiatives and we are currently actively planning to do more with this coalition and to do more for hidden helpers. We issued a new strategic plan at the beginning of this year and if you or your listeners go to our website and read that plan, you'll see that supporting kids and supporting military and veteran caregiver families is one of our three, one of our four strategic pillars. It's one of our areas of focus and so lots more to come in that space.
Larry Zilliox:Well, that's one of the things that makes the Elizabeth Dole Foundation so special is that there's been resources. There's the VA, there's state resources, local resources for veterans, for caregivers, but very, very little for children. It's not until recently that organizations such as the Dole Foundation and others have started to recognize the stress and the pressure that's put on children of wounded warriors, and their childhood is different because of the dynamic of the family, depending on the caregiver relationship, maybe the injuries that a parent has suffered, but it can be as minor as I can't come out to play because I've got to stay home to remind my mom or dad to take their medication. It can be as bad as a parent who is unstable and I can't have friends over because I don't know if mom or dad is going to yell or scream or a problem like that.
Larry Zilliox:For our listeners, we recently did an episode with the Azara Sisters I'd like you to go back and listen to that and they are 14 and 16.
Larry Zilliox:They were here at the retreat in 2018 with their father. They've now gotten older and they started their own nonprofit called we Signed Up Too, and it's an online community and meeting space for children of wounded warriors, so it's a great episode to give you a little bit of insight of what it's like to be a child of a wounded warrior and a veteran who needs help, and so it's just an amazing program. The work that you all do is really, really incredible. And listeners, go to the webpage, check it out, look at all the different programs, the resources, find a way to hit the donate button and give what you can. And if you know a caregiver who's struggling or doesn't think they're a caregiver but you can see that a lot of their time is taken up in managing their spouse and their medical situation, then direct them to the Elizabeth Dole Foundation. Say, hey, just take a look at this webpage, elizabethdolefoundationorg. As we kind of wrap things up, elizabeth, where do you see the foundation in, say, five years, seven years?
Elizabeth Field:Great question. You know, we've been doing a lot of hard work internally and with our partner organizations, thinking through where our value add really is, where our time and our resources are best spent, and you're absolutely right that the more donations we receive, the more work we can do to help our community of more than 14 million Americans. What we know is that we want to make a real difference for military and veteran caregivers and their families by focusing in a few areas. One is on supporting their mental and emotional well-being. Another is on supporting these families so that their economic mobility is upward and healthy. We want to focus on supporting kids, as we just talked about the hidden helpers. And then, last, we really want to make sure that all of the different organizations or systems that caregivers and their families experience whether it's a hospital system or a school system or what have you that those systems are well equipped to identify and support caregivers who they interact with.
Elizabeth Field:One of the most exciting things that I am sort of really looking forward to in the coming years is that, as we continue our fellowship program, we will be leveraging that network of more than 300 fellows, and we have a fellow in every at least one fellow in every single state, leveraging them to help bring our programming into communities. So right now, we run a lot of programming that is online. For example, we have mental wellness workshops, we have support for families who need some help getting to the point of financial stability, and those programs have been very successful. But we want to make sure that we are really bringing them to scale and bringing them into communities. The other area that I am so excited that we are really amplifying and also expanding, and this is right now. This was one of our top priorities for 2025.
Elizabeth Field:Based on that strategic plan, we are building out our resource navigation and financial assistance program, and I really, just as much as we need folks to go to our website and hit donate, we also need caregivers out there who are experiencing a financial emergency to come to us, because we have, through the enormous generosity of the Bob and Dolores Hope Foundation, a very large emergency financial assistance fund we call it the Hope Fund and that is there to help military and veteran caregivers with expenses such as, you know, their car breaks down and they can't get their caregiver to a medical appointment or they're just having a hard time putting food on the table, we're here to help, and if you need a resource but you're not sure where to find it, we do that too, so for caregivers out there. When you go to our website, you'll see a tab at the top that says find help. If you click that, that will take you to information about all of the services we provide, including that emergency financial assistance, that emergency financial assistance.
Larry Zilliox:Well, I'll tell you, I can't thank you enough for coming on and talking about all the amazing work that you do there at the foundation and giving people a really better understanding of what the foundation does, and hopefully there's some caregivers out there that are listening to this that will say, hey, I need to reach out to them. I need to contact them because they may be able to help me. It doesn, I need to reach out to them. I need to contact them because they may be able to help me. It doesn't hurt to reach out and ask some questions and find out if there's something that you need that they might be able to help you with. So, listeners, please don't hesitate to go to the webpage and check out all the resources. Elizabeth, thank you again so much for joining us.
Elizabeth Field:Well, larry, thank you for having me and for sharing this information with your listeners, because we are here to help and we know that there's a lot of need out there.
Larry Zilliox:Well, listeners, we will have another episode next Monday morning at 0500. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can reach us at podcast, at willingwarriorsorg. You can find us on all the major podcast platforms. We're on YouTube's and Wreath Across America Radio. Until next time, thanks for listening.
