No one wades a stream without getting wet and no one comes back from war unchanged. This is a toughening process for some people – a self-awareness generation engine. The efforts of our troops may produce internal struggles, but those efforts also produce tested, accomplished people. Sometimes, people need a hand in slowing the internal disquiet and conflict that combat, deployment, military sexual trauma, or other abnormal situations produce. No one is better prepared to speak with a Veteran about her experiences than another Veteran, a peer. With the peer-to-peer network, veterans go through a training course that teaches them how to facilitate groups of veterans. Once trained, they are tasked with going out into their local communities and creating peer groups. Because members of the group set the rules, no two peer groups are the same. Military Peer Veteran Network (MVPN) began in 2010. Peers are trained to facilitate groups of veterans recovering from mental illness, substance abuse and/or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Veteran Peers assist veterans in finding community resources, driving veterans to the VA hospital, assisting with job searches, hosting forums and celebrations for veterans and their families and mentoring veterans in the Veterans Diversion Court. MVPN is an affiliation of service members, veterans and family members dedicated to establish camaraderie and trust with each other, identifying and vetting community resources and, collectively, contributing to the communities where we live.
