Welcome to Kinder Mind, a compassionate and enlightening mental health podcast designed to guide you through the intricate landscapes of the human mind. Hosted by Dr. Elizabeth Barlow, LICSW, a multi-state licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker. Each episode of Kinder Mind delves deep into the realms of emotional well-being, self-care, personal growth, and more.
Exploring Service through Veteran Community Action with Tramashika DeWalt
•Dr. Elizabeth Barlow, LICSW•Season 1•Episode 7
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Ever wondered what the journey from military service to community service looks like? Tune in to our chat with Army veteran Tramashika DeWalt for an inspiring narrative of her life’s transformation. From her initial decision to join the military, to her subsequent establishment of a nonprofit organization, United and Service Coalition, Tramashika's story is a testament to the power of determination and the will to leave a lasting legacy. Discover the impact of her innovative initiatives, such as the Green Initiative and Drone Education Program, that equip veterans with new skills while serving underserved communities.
In the second half of our chat, Tramashika illuminates how the transformative power of community service has on the mental health of veterans. Hear firsthand about the remarkable success stories stemming from her programs and the positive changes they've ushered in communities through veteran service. We also explore the collaborations that make United and Service Coalition's work successful, and discuss how you can get involved. To close off, we delve into Trauma's vision for the future of her work. You won't want to miss this uplifting and informative episode!
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Welcome to the Kinder Mind podcast, where we're devoted to opening up conversations and destigmatizing mental health. We'll bring you interviews with practitioners in the field of mental health, researchers uncovering new knowledge and best practices for treating mental health disorders, and individuals sharing their mental health journey. Thanks so much for joining us on this episode of the Kinder Mind podcast, where we're Tramashika DeWalt and we are exploring service through veteran community action. Thanks so much for joining us today, trauma Shica.
Tramashika DeWalt:
Thank you so much for having me, Dr. Barlow. It is an absolute honor.
Dr. Elizabeth Barlow:
So you are an Army veteran and I'm very excited to talk to you about what it looks like to not only be a service member but a veteran that is really making an impact in the community. So, to kick us off, can you tell me a little bit about your military service and what inspired you to join the Armed Forces?
Tramashika DeWalt:
Okay, awesome. I am a United States Army retired veteran. I joined the service in 2004. After graduating high school in 2003, I had to turn 18 first. What inspired me to join the military was I truly wanted to build a life and legacy that I could be proud of. I know my parents did everything they could do to set me up for success, but there were things that I wanted to do after experiencing life in high school up to that point that I just wanted to take on, to amplify what was already passed down to me from them and to create something even better for those that would come after me, whether it was relatives or now my children. I just felt that I was made for more, and so I wanted to go out and do more, and the military was providing me with that opportunity.
Dr. Elizabeth Barlow:
So, can, you tell me what were some of the most significant challenges and experience that you faced during your time in the military.
Tramashika DeWalt:
Okay. So the first challenge that comes to my mind is lack of information. If you do not come from a military family, so for me and my family, I'm the first to come out of my mom's household. As a military service member, I relied on all the information I got from my recruiter who I do not hold accountable for nothing, and I'm greatly appreciative of him. However, I think if I had more informational knowledge, I could have made more insightful decisions when joining the military. So that was one of my challenges literally going into something blind and cold turkey, so to speak. Apart from that, I didn't necessarily have any other challenges, because I didn't know they were going to be challenges, if that makes sense.
Tramashika DeWalt:
That does make sense Okay, because I was going to give examples, because I was like some ladies say it was hard being a woman. I was like I don't know if it was hard being a woman or not, because I didn't know what my experiences was going to be like. So I just took them head on, or challenges that you think may have been challenges for me or not, because I didn't know they existed or they were going to happen. And as well. Each person's experience is different. Just because one person experiences the challenge doesn't mean that you're going to have that same challenge, so to speak.
Dr. Elizabeth Barlow:
That makes a lot of sense. It really does. So how has your military background influenced your decision to work with veterans in underserved communities?
Tramashika DeWalt:
So my military experience has influenced it a lot because, like I said, I went in blind to the military. So some challenges were not challenges for me, but the few that were impacted me in a way that it reshaped me as a soldier and as a woman and as a person overall. With those few challenges I had to go through them alone, so to speak, and I didn't reach out to my family, in which I should have done, but in hindsight I know better now. So I just wanted to be the change that I wanted to see and I also wanted to be the beacon of hope, that safe space or that person that I wish I had when I went through those few challenges in the military.
Dr. Elizabeth Barlow:
Okay, could you tell us a little bit about the specific programs or initiatives that you're involved with with veterans working in underserved areas, and what that looks like?
Tramashika DeWalt:
Of course. So I am the founder and chief executive officer for my nonprofit, which is United and service coalition. It is a veteran and community based nonprofit that eight veterans in their transition from Military back to civilian life through the transformative power of community service, social engagement and educational workshops. And what those initiatives look like is Utilizing our veterans and the skill sets that they gained throughout their military service in their life In general and using those skillsets to go and serve and under resource community. So United and service has a few programs. We have our green initiative and we have our drone education program, as well as our community service Initiatives where we train up our veterans or key community service members and then in turn have them to go back out into under resource community and educate the children or the community members within that community.
Dr. Elizabeth Barlow:
That sounds like a really great program and initiative. Can you share some success stories or examples of veterans who have really benefited from the program?
Tramashika DeWalt:
So for our drone education program, not only have we certified other veterans who's permission I did not get today to name them, so I will leave them unnamed but we have a few veterans under our belt that we have trained as certified drone pilots and in turn we provide them with opportunities at the elementary schools we serve throughout the Houston area to go back and teach the students how to be Safe, recreational drone pilots in their everyday lives. Now, once those students hit middle school, in high school, that's when they get on our pathway program to Become certified drone pilots after they graduate high school so they can go into the drone industry, entertain a job. That's 1 way we utilize our veterans and some of our success stories. Other ways we utilize our veterans for our community service initiatives.
Tramashika DeWalt:
Once a month at minimum, we try to host some type of community service project. A great example is we will go out into the schools and we will help enhance A need or assist with a need that the district might not be able to assist them with. Some of these needs are like gardens. We'll go and build a garden at a school and we'll have a veteran to oversee it. Sometimes they need benches, they need tables. We've renovated teachers lounges and teachers work rooms to help boost the morale of the staff Not only just the students but the staff and faculty and we'll have a veteran to spearhead that, or we'll have our veterans to come out and volunteer with us as we serve at those schools.
Dr. Elizabeth Barlow:
That's really amazing. So it sounds like you're making some really impactful changes in the communities through veteran service. Have you seen any positive changes in the mental health of the veterans that you work with as a result of your work?
Tramashika DeWalt:
Of course, united in Service Coalition, nor does trauma. She could do all claim to be mental health professionals, but I do see the impact that it has in the mental health of our veteran members as well as the community members that participate, because mental health affects everyone. It's not just limited to us as veterans and not only does it make an impact in their lives, it helps me with my mental health as well. I think that's why I always say the transformative power, because most people think that you need a therapist only or there's some type of mental health professional that you need, and not saying that you do not. I'm all for mental health professionals, but it's the subtle things that add value to it, like the community service projects that we do, or like the drone education certification program we have for veterans or our green initiative. It's those things as well that help add value to what they are already doing with their mental health, professional or whatever mental health capacity. They are doing the hard work and hard work on.
Dr. Elizabeth Barlow:
That makes 100% sense and from the realm of a helping professional or mental health clinician, I can definitely say it is a twofold process. So at no point in time can I do a session with a client and we can help them with their depression or their anxiety or their motivation just from talking for a session, even if we're having a session twice a week. It really is those other components like getting out of the house, engaging with other people, establishing and maintaining some community and really having those important positive interactions with others, because if you're isolating, then you're really not able to use those skills of having that connection and what it looks like to make an impact in the life of somebody else. And so I wholeheartedly agree that having something that gets you out of the house, gets you engaged, makes you feel good and connects you with other people is essential in positive mental health and really making progress towards getting to a good space.
Tramashika DeWalt:
Exactly yes, and those are the impacts. We want to make something meaningful, not only for us, because it's not about us, but for the veteran or the person that we're serving at that moment. So you hit the nail on the head.
Dr. Elizabeth Barlow:
So tell me about some of the other organizations or government agencies that you collaborate with to make United and Service Coalition so successful.
Tramashika DeWalt:
We try to take a national and grassroots approach because, from our perspective, yes, we are national, or that is our goal to expand to a national, even global, level.
Tramashika DeWalt:
However, it's the grassroots organizations that help, and so I say it in this capacity it's the little things that make the big picture as grand as it is.
Tramashika DeWalt:
So we work with a lot of grassroots organizations as well as national organizations. For example, in the city of Houston, one of my favorite organizations to work with is Northeast Houston Redevelopment Council. They are a grassroots organization and they strictly want to serve the citizens of Northeast Houston. So they're there on the ground, next to their community members, taking their concerns and writing them down and going to advocate for them. And when they have specific things that United and Service Coalition can collaborate with them on, we join our forces together so we could expand our reach. A part of our green initiative is done with them as well. United and Service Coalition will go around and help them establish gardens in food deserts or food swamps or food insecure areas, and they will come and provide the education, the seeds and the things to help maintain it, as well as the educational component. And now we've made an impact and we've addressed a concern of the local community. So those are the types of partners that we work with and that we want to serve with.
Dr. Elizabeth Barlow:
That's wonderful. So how can veteran individuals or civilians or organizations that want to get involved, to support your help, like how can they get involved?
Tramashika DeWalt:
Awesome. They can get involved by three methods of donation. Of course, they can donate their time, they can donate in kind and they can donate monetarily. All three can be done on our website at wwwuninservicecoalitionorg Again, that's wwwuninservicecoalitionorg. They can also follow us on our social media platforms, which is United and Service Coalition, htx for Houston, texas, on Facebook and TikTok I'm trying to remember them and say them at the same time it's United and Service Coalition, and on Twitter you can find us at ISEE underscore, so it's underscore the initials of United and Service Coalition, underscore from there. Following us there would be awesome because you'll see our up to date post with the events we have coming up or impromptu events we have coming up like such. So you will see that our in-kind mind podcast will be coming up there and it's not on the website yet, because this was a beautiful opportunity. You just provided it to me. So social media is to get the most up to date things. We also have a monthly newsletter that you can register for by signing up online as well.
Dr. Elizabeth Barlow:
Wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing all that with us. What are your future goals and aspirations for your work in supporting veterans and supporting underserved communities?
Tramashika DeWalt:
Awesome. That's a really great question. So for the next 12 months, if we're given our short term goal, our current goal within our five year plan is to continue to bring more awareness. We know that most people are still learning and discovering who United and Service Coalition is, what we do and how we serve, so we're going to continue with our outreach efforts, as well as our community service projects and our social engagement activities. That's part of what we're doing in the next 12 months while going around the United States to key places to bring more awareness and expand our reach.
Dr. Elizabeth Barlow:
That's so wonderful. I think you guys are doing really great work for getting veterans out and getting them involved in the community and as well as really benefiting the underserved areas of the community, like all the amazing examples you provided. Thank you so much for joining us today, charmeshika. It was definitely a pleasure and so great to learn about all the wonderful work that you're doing to our listeners. If you want to check out the United and Service Coalition website and follow those socials so you can see the great work that this organization is doing as they continue to grow across the country, maybe you'll see them in a neighborhood near you. Thank you so much, listeners, for joining us. Please stay tuned for details about our next podcast and our next release date and take care.
Tramashika DeWalt:
Thank you for the Dr. Barlow. It was a true honor, absolutely.
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