Augusta 'Operation PAVE' Gets Funding Boost to Help Disabled Veterans Reenter Workforce

Vocational Rehabilitation Center Receives Additional Funding Raised by Businesses and other Supporters to Ensure Ongoing Important Career Support Services in Augusta

AUGUSTA, Ga., Oct. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by Paralyzed Veterans of America:

WHAT: Paralyzed Veterans of America's Vocational Rehabilitation Center in Augusta, GA will celebrate the culmination of its first year of operation with a sizeable donation raised by over 40 businesses and other private sector supporters to ensure ongoing operations to provide unique training and support services to help unemployed wounded warriors secure careers with great employers.

Photo and Interview opportunity
A giant check will be presented in front of the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center, and senior officials of Paralyzed Veterans will be available to discuss the important role and future of the Augusta center.

WHO: Bill Lawson, National President, Paralyzed Veterans of America
Roger Hickson, Operation PAVE Career Counselor in Augusta
Rich Brooks, Vice President, Agility Defense & Government Services (lead private sector partner)

WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, November 3, 2011, at 2 p.m.
Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center
950 15th Street – main entrance
Augusta, GA 30901

Tackling unemployment is the biggest issue facing our nation right now, and the problem is especially severe for America's disabled veterans (nearly 85 percent are unemployed).  Paralyzed Veterans of America's Operation PAVE (Paving Access For Veterans Employment) aims to help unemployed wounded warriors in the Augusta area secure good careers with great employers.  

Based at Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center, Operation PAVE career counselor Roger Hickson works to empower veterans with the services and tools they need to move back into the job market—while matching them with businesses and organizations offering career positions.

Augusta's "Operation PAVE" office is part of a national network built by Paralyzed Veterans of America through an innovative public-private partnership. The Augusta private sector partner is Agility Defense & Government Services. Agility will be presenting a check to Paralyzed Veterans of America to fund its Operation PAVE program in Augusta.

Sixty-five years ago, Paralyzed Veterans of America was founded by a band of spinal cord injured service members who returned home from World War II to a grateful nation, but also to a world with few solutions to the challenges they faced. These veterans from the "Greatest Generation" made a decision not just to live, but to live with dignity as contributors to society. They created an organization dedicated to veterans service, medical research and civil rights for people with disabilities. And for more than six decades, Paralyzed Veterans of America and its 34 chapters have been working to create an America where all veterans, and people with disabilities, and their families, have everything they need to thrive. (www.pva.org)

SOURCE Paralyzed Veterans of America