The mission of the Veterans Curation Project (VCP) is to provide wounded veterans with training and employment through the rehabilitation and preservation of archaeological collections owned or administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Beginning in October 2009, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Center of Expertise (CX) for Curation and Management of Archeological Collections (CMAC), St. Louis District, opened this first-of-its-kind project in Augusta, Georgia. At the VCP laboratory in Augusta, Iraq and Afghanistan returnees are taking part in archaeological curation training and employment in a collaborative program with the CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project, the Fort Gordon Warrior Transition Battalion, the Georgia Department of Labor and the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center. Veterans are employed while active duty personnel in transition are taking part in training. Wounded warriors are receiving training, pay, and highly rewarding employment, bolstering self-esteem and a sense of purpose, while providing them with a venue to work as a team with other veterans and service members. The skills wounded warriors are acquiring within the VCP can be applied to both archival and non-archival settings after their participation in this program has ended. The VCP won the President’s Council on Historic Preservation Chairman’s Award on December 4th, 2009.

These skills (such as document scanning and imaging, records management, inventory tracking, high resolution photography, digital image retention, and cataloging) are readily transferable to jobs in health care, law enforcement, rescue, administrative, government and engineering career fields. The Augusta VCP, working in collaboration with the CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project, the VA and the Georgia Department of Labor will assist VCP participants in job preparation and placement. To learn more about this innovative program, contact Dr. Sonny Trimble.

Ensuring full utilization of the Active Duty Rehabilitation Unit at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia. The gold standard of care given at the Active Duty Rehabilitation Unit (the only one in the nation located with a VA) was highlighted by Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) in a Senate VA Committee hearing. To read the transcripts from that hearing, click here: Senate. We are working to identify patients who would be served closer to home in Augusta, Georgia.

Dole/Shalala Commission Recovery Coordinators and the Clinical Nurse Leader at the Medical College of Georgia School of Nursing: the President's Commission on the Care for America's Wounded Warriors (PCCWW) calls for a new position to be created (Federal Recovery Coordinators) to advocate and coordinate care for severely injured service members. We are exploring whether the MCG School of Nursing Clinical Nurse Leader curriculum could be the national training program for Federal Recovery Coordinators, by adding a 6-month, post-Master's certificate. Clinical Nurse Leaders are care coordinators, who can advocate for severely injured service members so their families don't have to. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) asked the Secretary of the Army, Pete Geren about utilizing the CNL program at MCG to train Federal Recovery Coordinators. To read a transcript of that, click here (Chamblis Q&A). Also, Congressman Paul Broun (R-Georgia's 10th District) was joined by Congressman John Barrow (D-Georgia's 12th District) in asking the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Secretary of Defense to consider the School of Nursing proposal to train Recovery Coordinators. To see Congressman Broun's letter of support signed by the entire Georgia delegation and Congressman Gresham Barrett of South Carolina's 3rd District click here: (Letter)

In July of 2008, the CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project collaborated with the Army Chaplains and the Warrior Transition Battalion on Fort Gordon, GA on a community-based marriage enrichment workshop. The needs of returning Iraq and Afghanistan soldiers were assessed, and found to be: advocacy for care, family proximity, and vocational rehabilitation. A Vietnam Veteran wounded in 1968 shared his experiences on relationships after combat. In November of 2008, the CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project collaborated with the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center Chaplains and Morehouse School of Medicine sexual health and intimacy expert, Dr. Mitch Tepper, in a community-based marriage workshop for 6 couples, including Purple Heart recipients and multiple combat-deployed veterans. In February of 2009, we collaborated with the Charlie Norwood VAMC Chaplains, Dr. Tepper, and PAIRS (a Florida-based marriage enrichment program for at-risk couples) and delivered the first overnight retreat for 14 couples, all of whom had one partner who had been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, and some of whom were Purple Heart recipients. We are currently working with the VA Associate Chief of Research, VA Chaplains, the OEF/OIF Program Manager, and Dr. Tepper to identify research funding to measure outcomes for couples who take part in these marriage workshops and retreats. To support marriage retreats for combat-returned veterans conducted in collaboration with the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center chaplains program, you can make a contribution directly to support lodging and food for overnight retreats for at-risk couples. To do so, note in your letter the contribution is to support the Chaplains' Marriage Enrichment Workshops. Make your check out to The Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center and put GPF8007 in the memo line. Please mail it directly to Kim Hoge:

Kim Hoge, Chief of Voluntary Service
Charlie Norwood VAMC
1 Freedom Way (119U)
Augusta, GA 30904

Traumatic brain injuries are the signature wounds from Iraq and Afghanistan. The CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project has formed a Research Consortium in collaboration with Eisenhower Army Medical Center, the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center, the Medical College of Georgia and its School of Nursing, Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center-South on Fort Gordon, and Savannah River National Laboratory. The purpose of this consortium is to identify opportunities for collaborative research in the areas of traumatic brain injury, post combat stress and other post combat trauma and identify subject matter experts, clinicians and investigators for collaboration in research that will improve health care outcomes for service members, veterans and their families. This Research Consortium provides the platform to align resources, encouraging rapid and responsive research that improves health care.

The CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project has formed a Transition Roundtable involving the Army's Warrior Transition Battalion, the Charlie Norwood VA Transition Services Center, the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center case management and transition advocates, the OEF/OIF Program Manager, Georgia Department of Labor, and community organizations for the purpose of helping warriors have the best outcomes possible. One of the Dole/Shalala Commission recommendations is to have vocational rehabilitation begin as soon as the service member is able. We are working with vocational rehabilitation specialists to determine ways local, state and federal agencies can partner with each other and our community to better serve wounded warriors.

Since February of 2009, the CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project has been collaborating with the National Cristina Foundation, a non-profit that is dedicated to supporting people with disabilities, students at risk and disadvantaged persons. National Cristina Foundation matches computer technology donated from corporations and the public as it comes out of its first place of use to training programs such as ours. The Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center and the Georgia Department of Labor are our primary partners for identifying those Iraq and Afghanistan service members who are transitioning out of active duty and would benefit from access to both the technology and the training. If you'd like to learn more about this new collaboration, or to support it, contact the CSRA Wounded Warrior Care Project at: Folk.Susan@gmail.com or (706) 434-1707.