SkillsetGroup will participate in a golf tournament March 25 to benefit 42MM, a golf-centered charitable organization for U.S. military veterans.
“We’re working to match our business’s rapid growth with similar growth in our charitable activities,” said SkillsetGroup founder and CEO Clint Armstrong. “This year will be a banner year for our support for the veteran community, under-resourced kids in central Los Angeles, and families and orphaned children suffering deep poverty in Baja Norte.”
SkillsetGroup staffing and consulting firm also plans on partnering with 42MM to host its own charity tournament this summer to benefit these groups.
The company's corporate mission is to create a culture of employee retention, including among its veteran candidates. In addition to supporting veterans in its charitable work, SkillsetGroup specifically reaches out to vets to fill open job positions. Recruiters will be on-site at the March tournament to offer job interviews and resume advice to the veterans there.
The problems affecting U.S. vets are manyfold. On the extreme end, many vets are so traumatized by their combat experience or injuries, they find it difficult to hold down a job or keep a home. Many struggle with substance abuse to cope with their past.
Lots of veterans’ groups provide vital services to these struggling heroes, but not as many organizations focus on vets before the consequences of their struggles become so dire. Just because you can hold down a job doesn’t mean you don’t suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, from the emotional and cognitive effects of chronic concussion (CTE), or from a host of other serious problems endemic in the U.S. veteran community.
“Those are the veterans we try to save from falling down a deeper hole of drugs and alcohol,” said 42MM co-founder Manny Amaya. “We target vets who are having a hard time coping with life, as well as active-duty service members who deal with the same rigors and stresses. We try to provide a safe space to talk to other veterans who’ve had similar experiences.”
Amaya pronounces the name of the non-profit, “42 Mike Mike,” using the military’s phonetic alphabet name assigned to "M."
“We were artillerymen in the service,” said Amaya, a Marine corps vet who deployed to Afghanistan in 2009. “We used 155mm ammunition – 155mm refers to the diameter of the ammo. Now, we combat PTSD with golf balls, which are 42mm in diameter.”
The combination of camaraderie with other vets and the idyllic outdoor settings unique to golf courses means the outings and tournaments 42MM organizes can be immensely healing – an antidote to the isolation many vets feel upon leaving the service.
