The city of Jacksonville, Florida, and the PGA Tour continued their commitment to serving military veterans and transitioning service members today with a large-scale military fair.
Working in conjunction with the PGA Tour’s The Players Championship and Jacksonville Veterans Coalition, Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown discussed the city’s efforts to increase veteran employment and end veteran homelessness.
“When I came in, I elevated military affairs to a cabinet-level [and] appointed a two-star admiral -- Vic Guillory -- to head it up,” Brown said. “My whole goal is to put veterans back to work.
We’ve got over 250 companies putting veterans back to work. We created a ‘Week of Valor,’ and we’re also focusing on making sure we have no homeless veterans in Jacksonville.”
The mayor noted the city is “totally” committed to its military veterans. “We’re the number one city when it comes to military veterans, and that’s because we’re committed ‘1,000’ percent,” Brown said.
“My philosophy is this,” he added, “once you serve your country with distinction, you should be able to get out and get a job and take care of your family.”
Skilled Workforce
“It’s so important to have a good, skilled workforce, and companies are in the business of making money,” Brown said. “And [veterans] can impact the bottom line.”
The mayor cited qualities veterans possess as experience, being well-disciplined, focused, understanding the value of team work and leadership, being well trained.
“We train them,” Brown said. “We’re the best, and I think it gives companies an opportunity to hire the best. As mayor, I’ve appointed a lot of veterans to key positions -- not only military affairs, but my director of public works, federal affairs [and] state affairs.”
“The city’s doing extremely well,” he said, “because we have the best and brightest -- our veterans -- serving our city.”
TPC’s Job Fair Role
Brown said he was “very proud” of the Players Championship’s commitment to serving U.S. service members.
“I think the Players sets an example and raised the bar for other companies and organizations stepping up to the plate investing in our men and women who serve and our veterans,” he said. “It means a lot to our country. Without the Players, I think a lot of these well-skilled individuals would not be working today.”
Brown said he intends to continue working with TPC and promote veterans in the near term.
“I think the next four years as mayor,” he said, “I’m going to continue to work with the Players and all the private sector in our city, and really the northeast Florida to continue to support our veterans.”
Brown said he believes there will be more veterans working, and other cities will look for best practices on how to make that happen around the country. “I think it’s very, very important,” he said. “I believe … Jacksonville can be that model because of the Players and other organizations stepping up to the plate investing in our military veterans.”
(Follow Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone Marshall on Twitter:@MarshallDoDNews)