Women Veterans Support Group Grace After Fire Expands Outreach with Help of Veteran-Owned IT Services Firm

HOUSTON, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Grace After Fire, a Houston-based organization solely focused on helping women veterans, is now better able to serve its clients thanks to fellow veteran Jason Rorie and his IT services company, Elevated Technologies. Rorie (a U.S. Navy veteran) and Elevated Technologies provide free help to veteran-affiliated organizations through the company's Pay IT Forward program. Grace After Fire, a small nonprofit organization, has assisted more than 3,000 women veterans and their family members over the past three and half years, helping them to navigate the challenges of re-entering communities and adjusting to civilian life. The organization provides confidential peer-to-peer outreach, peer-bonding activities, and direct access to appropriate health and other support services.

"We're a small organization on a tight budget, and we needed an IT expert to diagnose our situation and help us find solutions to be more efficient and maximize our time assisting veterans," said Mea Williams, president and CEO of Grace After Fire and veteran of the U.S. Navy. "Fortunately, Jason Rorie was looking for veteran-related organizations to help through his Pay IT Forward philanthropy program, and we found each other. He listened, recommended solutions, and implemented them. Veterans have a special bond and can-do attitude, and together we U.S. Navy veterans got the job done."

In addition to needing an IT solution to gain back-office efficiencies, Grace After Fire also sought a way to optimize how it was training facilitators of its Table Talktm Color Me Camo peer support program. Helping women veterans address common problems associated with adjustments to civilian life after service, Table Talktm is a nationwide network of trained facilitators who use structured interaction and educational materials to address challenges women veterans face on the path to positive change.

"Jason has a huge heart and a need to continue serving. Now, we're operating more efficiently, and we've positioned our Table Talktm Color Me Camo peer-to-peer support program to take a quantum leap," said Tana Plescher, Houston outreach coordinator for Grace After Fire and a veteran of the U.S. Navy. "By using a new video-conferencing solution, we can now perform one training session for up to 25 peer group facilitators, each of whom will form a peer group of 12 women veterans, which ultimately can help as many as 300 women veterans. Before, we had to train facilitators in person, sometimes only one or two at a time. This is huge for us and the women veterans we serve."

Williams says the Table Talktm Color Me Camo peer-to-peer support system is a highly important and effective program which enables them to reach veterans all across the country. All that's needed is a professionally trained facilitator. The peer-group setting offers a comfortable, safe environment for women veterans to talk about personal issues they will only discuss among other veterans.

"All veterans are faced with the adjustment back to civilian life, but women veterans have challenges unique to their gender. They prefer to talk about their problems with someone who has shared similar or like experiences," said Williams. "Leaving the military ? which gave you structure and dictated everything you did during the day ? and transitioning to civilian life can be a little complex in the end and cause unnecessary stress. Now, it can feel like you're completely on your own, searching for a job to leverage your skills, and having to be a wife and, for many, manage families. Additionally, some of our clients are also dealing with other serious challenges, such as homelessness or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Our goal is to help women veterans help themselves. All of our programs and services are designed to surface three main pillars for women veterans: hope, connection and purpose."

"We are very thankful to Grace After Fire for the help they provide women veterans here in Houston and across the country, and we are especially proud to provide meaningful help," said Rorie. "As a veteran myself, I'm especially sensitive to the challenges veterans face when leaving the military, having to assimilate to civilian life and finding a new career path. I faced the same challenges, and they were tough. We all experienced it."

Grace After Fire is a benefactor of Elevated Technologies' Pay IT Forward program, which provides pro bono knowledge, resources and time to help veteran-affiliated companies and organizations. More information about the program can be found on the firm's website, www.elevated-tech.com.

About Elevated Technologies

Elevated Technologies, founded in 2006, is an established and trusted provider of comprehensive managed IT services, cloud solutions, data protection and network security solutions to clients in the Houston metro area. Specializing in serving small and medium-sized businesses, the company provides tailored solutions and support to meet each client's unique IT needs. Elevated Technologies is committed to helping businesses make informed decisions and leverage robust, powerful IT solutions to increase productivity, achieve cost savings and maintain safeguards. As a veteran-owned and operated business, Elevated Technologies dedicates a portion of earnings towards helping veterans, including its Pay IT Forward Initiative by which the company selects and provides 12 months of critical IT support to an upstart veteran-owned business or a veteran-related organization for each new "regular" client acquired by the company. For more information about Elevated Technologies, please visit www.elevated-tech.com.

About Grace After Fire

Grace After Fire, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is dedicated to helping women Veterans help themselves by providing the means to gain knowledge, insight and self-renewal. Grace After Fire guides women veterans as they re-enter their communities and the workforce and refines their roles for a successful future. Grace After Fire's services are designed specifically for women veterans of all branches and eras of service, regardless of discharge status, delivered at no cost. For more information or for women veterans seeking assistance, please visit www.graceafterfire.org or call 1-888-737-3112.

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SOURCE Elevated Technologies