At Dixon Center for Military and Veterans Services, projects under our Wellness Program integrates the different dimensions of wellness to promote overall well-being and pave the way for successful lives.
Wellness incorporates all of the eight dimensions shown on the poster shared by SAMHSA Wellness Initiative. Each dimension of wellness can affect our overall quality of life, because wellness directly relates to how long we live (longevity) and how well we live (quality of life).
Below is a sampling of the hundreds of Wellness Program projects since 2012.
Utility Workers Military Assistance Program: UMAP matriculated its 876th graduate in 2024. Since 2012, this successful partnership, that includes City Colleges of Chicago, Peoples Gas, and Dixon Center, provides training and guaranteed high-wage jobs in the Electric and Gas Industry to veterans in Illinois. UMAP’s sister program in Michigan with Consumers Energy has provided careers for 110 veterans. With Dixon Center’s assistance, UMAP partnered with Southern California Gas to train transitioning service members and veterans for careers in the utility industry throughout California.
Atomic Habits: Atomic Habits is a best-selling book by James Clear that provides a comprehensive guide on forming good habits, breaking bad ones, and mastering the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. Habits are key for wellness. Our habits affect what we do, how we feel, how we work, how we fuel our minds and bodies and how we spend or save money. Habits become ingrained, and we have to work consciously to maintain or establish good habits that contribute to our wellness, our valued roles, and our personal goals. Some habits (excessive alcohol, harmful drugs or chemicals, consumption of energy drinks, sugar and fat laden foods) can have immediate or long-term negative effects on physical, mental, and social well-being. Dixon Center initiated a campaign to make this book available to veterans and their families across the country, providing them the tools to maximize their potential and enhance their well-being.
Community Living: Dixon Center teamed up with Freddie Mac in a business-to-business relationship to help veterans, from all generations with disabilities better manage their finances and find housing options in their communities. Dixon Center created a collaborative of local organizations in Atlanta, Orlando and New Brunswick/Sayreville, NJ, who worked with Freddie Mac to provide credit repair and housing counseling and workshops to local veterans, caregivers and their families.
Coordinated Assistance Network: Dixon Center introduced the Coordinated Assistance Network’s model of comprehensive support services for veterans and their families to our partnered employers, unions, schools, and training providers. This collaboration addressed the financial, intellectual, emotional, and environmental wellness needs of the military and veteran community, increasing positive outcomes. Through Dixon Center’s capacity building, Coordinated Assistance Network has expanded its community partnerships and impact, created support networks that address veterans’ full spectrum of needs beyond just employment and education, and empowering veterans and their families achieve lasting personal and professional success.
Texas Veterans + Family Alliance and Easterseals Greater Houston Collaborative: Through Dixon Center’s leadership in the Texas Veteran + Family Alliance and Easter Seals Greater Houston Collaborative, Dixon Center, with our partners, transformed how veteran service organizations collaborate. By orchestrating targeted convenings of mental health providers, we are addressing the specific needs of organizations so that they can provide seamless service delivery across southeastern Texas. This approach empowers local organizations to share expertise, eliminate service gaps, and create lasting support networks that reach more veterans and families in need.
International Union of Elevator Constructors Veterans Assistance Program: At the 2024 International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC) Veterans Assistance Program Summit, Dixon Center played a central role in reviewing progress and sharing best practices since the program’s launch. Leading a panel on “Mental Health and Wellness,” Dixon Center highlighted critical issues impacting veterans’ emotional, social, spiritual, and physical wellness, fostering an open exchange of ideas and insights. Throughout the summit, Dixon Center contributed expertise on the unique challenges veterans face and the power of collaborative solutions, reinforcing its commitment to capacity building that empowers IUEC-VAP to better support veterans and their families
Pathways to Citizenship: Through targeted advocacy and outreach, Dixon Center is advocating for policy changes that affect non-citizen veterans. Non-citizen veterans, many of whom served honorably in the U.S. military, face unique and challenging circumstances that put them at risk for deportation. Deported veterans are often separated from their families, their community, and critical benefits such as VA healthcare, which are only accessible within the United States. For these veterans, deportation means a loss not only of their home but also of the support networks they rely on to manage service-related injuries or mental health issues. Over 700,000 foreign-born veterans live in the United States, out of which 94,000 do not have U.S. citizenship and are subject to deportation.
Angel Force USA: Suicide continues to be a persistent hazard to both active duty service members and veterans. To keep the spotlight on this intolerable situation, Dixon Center joined with Angel Force USA, to raise awareness and develop solutions to bring suicide numbers down by defeating SuiSilence. “SuiSilence is a call to action. It’s a word that when I heard it for the first time, it took my breath away. To me it is a call to action. It should remind us all that we can’t afford to have anyone sitting on the sidelines. Everyone of us needs to be involved in carrying out our major objectives and we need to understand the important role we each play in the lives of others. We will not tolerate another suicide. We will listen and we will encourage. We will participate and we won’t let those struggling with deep human emotions remain in silence”. The approach being used by Angel Force USA and Dixon Center to build public awareness, encourage community involvement and promote community-based services is the exact kind of leadership needed to stop suicides. The approach is leveraging the attitude of the American people who want to help but in some cases are waiting to be told what to do. Angel Force recognizes that we are stronger together than we are apart and they are using their voice to cause individuals to lose confidence in suicide as a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
Heroes to HealthCare (H2HC): A pilot program launched in Illinois for veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces, Reserve and National Guard helped them find gainful employment opportunities through no-cost training in health care industries. H2HC trained human resource professionals, in the health care field, in the essentials of transitioning medics from the military into civilian employment. H2HC also identifies career paths for those individuals with specialty training and skill sets to enable the employer and/or industry expert to bridge the gaps and impediments that a veteran may encounter in obtaining employment.
Honoring the Hurt and Their Heroes: This is an annual event sponsored by the University of Chicago that brings awareness to service-connected injuries and the impact it has on veterans, military families, and caregivers. In 2021, Dixon Center was asked to co-sponsor and leverage its experience and understanding of the challenges facing our wounded and disabled veterans and caregivers and spotlight solutions and best practices that allow all veterans to thrive in their communities.
Advocating on behalf of Veterans and their Families: As a member of both the Clear2Connect Coalition (C2C) and Toxic Exposures in the American Military (TEAM), Dixon Center advocates for solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing veterans. By engaging members of Congress or developing and promoting legislation, Dixon Center is ensuring that 2.7 million veterans who are hearing disabled and the 185,000 veterans suffering from exposure to burn pits have a voice in Washington, D.C.
Dixon Center and Burn Pits 360: Building upon our work with the TEAM Coalition in addressing burn pit exposure, Dixon Center also collaborated with Burn Pits 360, one of the leading organizations in addressing the debilitating and deadly impact of unregulated burn pits to service members deployed across the world. Through our partnership, we advocated to Congress and to the American public on the need for the VA to recognize now the connection between burn pits and respiratory disease and certain cancers.
