The United States of America has a complicated history with her veterans. Those who serve deserve praise and support for their willingness to put their life on the life, but such sentiment often does not help individual veterans when they leave the military and begin the challenging transition to civilian life. TakingPoint offers the promise of several amazing opportunities: providing a safe online network where veterans can speak freely about their experiences; connecting veterans in transition to other vets who have already established themselves; and unlocking the sea of goodwill from the American people by bringing together veterans so their voices can be heard.

Mismatched Cultures

As military personnel return to civilian life, many issues can come up bills, employment, health care, education but underlying cultural differences make all aspects of the transition more difficult. Veterans often find themselves feeling isolated from the civilians around them, sometimes even close friends and family. The increasing popularity of regular social media such as Facebook has helped veterans keep touch with each other in new ways, but a void remains. Cultural differences create misunderstandings, and even well-meaning civilians reinforce the sense of isolation. Traditional options are also ineffective: the official veteran groups of previous generations are quickly shrinking as the veteran population decreases and newer generations do not join. Veterans need a new place to go when they want to engage in comfortable familiar ways.

A New Type of Community

Online military groups have surfaced over the last two decades, such as Military.com, but they mainly serve as faceless sources of information rather than the flesh-and-blood support that is needed. Fortunately, advances in social media technology have unlocked other options for American men and women who served our country. TakingPoint is grasping this opportunity to connect veterans in the community that was simply impossible only a few years ago. Now we can offer individual veterans the opportunity to connect and learn from those who have already made the transition, greatly increasing their prospects for a successful civilian life. By building a veteran-only community and establishing strict privacy controls, TakingPoint has created a safe network for veterans of all generations.

Toward Veteran Success

There are times when the path ahead looks difficult to every veteran. Figuring out benefits, education, jobs, and other important parts of civilian life are often lonely activities. TakingPoint's CEO David Johnson felt that isolation personally when he left 10th Special Forces Group to attend college. His solution was to connect veterans with a platform for sharing practical advice for addressing these important aspects of transition. This powerful online network offers unlimited opportunities to seek advice from veterans who dealt with the same challenges. The draw of a shared veteran identity creates natural mentor relationships across the military and the country. And this is just the beginning for the company; more features are being added that will help veterans use benefits, connect veterans to their surrounding community, and give feedback to organizations designed to support them. A veteran takes a valuable step on the path to success every day thanks to TakingPoint.

Social Network Sites, veteran force