Press Release 11-10-2008

Change We Need:  In support of President-Elect Barack Obama’s call for community action, growing nonprofit ONE Freedom announces a new website designed to provide education and healing to America’s service members, veterans, families and care providers.

For Immediate Release – November 10, 2008

Contact:
Elizabeth Hawkins, Executive Director
303-444-1221
Or use our contact form

 

COLORADO—November 11, 2008—Incoming President Obama has called for both citizens and communities to step up and address the many issues facing America.  One of those issues is the reintegration of hundreds of thousands of veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  To answer his call and this powerful issue, the community-based non-profit ONE Freedom is stepping up to expand delivery of its reintegration training programs from the front range of Colorado to a national scale, by rolling out a new state-of-the-art website.  Elizabeth Hawkins, executive director of the veteran organization, said that the funding to launch this new site was provided by the Iraq-Afghanistan Deployment Impact Fund (IADIF), an anonymous, donor-sponsored fund that has supported over 52 nonprofits nationwide who are serving Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) veterans and their families.

For decades the nation has recognized the need to change how warriors are received upon homecoming. Today, the tides are turning as the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration find new ways to collaborate with vetted nonprofits and other NGOs.  For the past two years, ONE Freedom has been taking that journey and has served over 4,000 OIF and OEF veterans, family member and care providers in Colorado and nationwide.  The launch of their new website is a chance to reach more people, more effectively.
 
“Our website (www.onefreedom.org) is completely redesigned to power our mission of providing the best education, training and resources for supporting strength and resilience in all areas of military life,” explained Hawkins. “It contains listings of all ONE Freedom programs for military service-members, veterans, families and care providers with easy online registration. There is also a growing list of resources - information, organizations and individuals - dedicated to supporting our nation's military communities. These include articles, newsletters, videos, links, and listings that cover a wide variety of information. Visitors can sign up for our quarterly newsletter and donate to support ONE Freedom's programs and mission. The new ONE Freedom website is a portal for our nation's warriors and for everyone who cares about them to connect with a wealth of knowledge and new possibilities for strength and healing. With this in mind, we intend to take the message of hope and healing to a National audience and are calling on all Americans to get involved.”

We all know that the operational tempo for many Active Duty, Reserve and Guard has been high and the pressure substantial. This can lead to natural adjustments in the body and nervous system as well as changes in world view and behaviors.  ONE Freedom workshops and trainings focuses on the brain and body’s natural response to stress, and how to self-regulate intense life experiences, trauma and everyday stressors.  Backed by science, research, personal experience and a desire to serve, ONE Freedom offers  audiences progressive methods and simple life skills that promote strength through balanced living.

Marine Corps veteran and ONE Freedom trainer Dan Taslitz put it this way, "ONE Freedom is a powerful path to strength and healing for our military service members, veterans and families. It goes way beyond a yellow ribbon in supporting our nation's warriors by providing the knowledge and skills to integrate their experiences and create bridges of strength back to their families and communities."

If you know a current service member, veteran or family with a loved one deployed please refer them to this site.  If you want to make a difference in the life of a returning veteran then join our team, get involved, volunteer, donate your time.  As one of our most recent leaders of change reminds us, we can’t do this vital work alone. 

About ONE Freedom’s Mission:

ONE Freedom (www.onefreedom.org) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit public charity comprised of civilian, former military and family members who provide education and training to veterans and their families within communities in Colorado and nationally. The primary purpose of the organization is to offer basic and advanced understanding of the workings of the brain and body in response to stress and trauma while providing core self-regulation skills that work at the level of the individual service member and their families.  Education and skills together empower those who are affected by stress and trauma and give them a way toward re-balancing and re-claiming a balanced life.

Press Releases