Participating in After Her Service

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Are you a Post-9/11 female veteran? 

Could you benefit from increased personal resilience? 

Are you ready to work on professional goals?

After Her Service (AHS) is a program for Post-9/11 women veterans aimed at supporting their professional success. AHS combines a skill-building retreat with up to 12 sessions of one-on-one coaching focused on setting and implementing career goals. Developed by the University of Michigan, the program is grounded in strategies known to be effective for increasing resilience, life satisfaction, and career success.

AHS includes 2 unique program components — a weekend skill-building retreat and up to 12 sessions of career coaching.

 

Weekend retreat 

  • Build optimism and positive coping
  • Reduce stress and social isolation
  • Challenge negative thinking
  • Practice new approaches to self-care

Professional coaching 

  • Identify the gap between where you are and where you want to be
  • Set and implement career goals
  • Learn strategies to overcome obstacles to professional success
  • Apply new skills to career goals

Participants can also receive up to $140 for completing evaluations of the program.

Program Eligibility

  • Post-9/11 women veterans with general discharge or higher and a minimum of 6 months post-military separation
  • Able to attend a 2-day skill-building retreat (all travel expenses covered for the weekend)
  • Can participate in one-on-one career coaching by phone (up to 12 sessions within 4 months)

Program Background

Very few programs currently exist which are specifically tailored for women veterans. In 2016, the M-SPAN team initiated a Needs Assessment to identify the key concerns shared by Post-9/11 women veterans. These included challenges in:

  • Reintegrating to civilian life
  • Finding fulfillment in the professional world
  • Building a supportive community of other women veterans
  • Managing stress in healthy ways

After Her Service addresses each of these areas through a skill-building resiliency retreat paired with individualized coaching that focuses on professional success.

Program Partners

The Mission Continues

Stand Beside Them

The program is funded by grants from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation.

PI: Michelle Kees, PhD
Study ID: HUM00120983
IRB: IRBMED Date Approved: 9/6/2019
Expiration Date: 6/4/2020