Our Mission

The mission of Veterans Across America is to ensure that those who have served our country in the  military are given equal access to compete for employment and business start up opportunities.

Veterans Across America (VAA) ™ is a nonprofit 501(c) (3) organization based in New York City that was originally founded in 1996. As other veteran employment programs have fallen short, VAA provides creative solutions to the problems of veteran unemployment and under-employment. The VAA Champion Mentor program, teams up business mentors, one-on-one, with unemployed or under-employed veterans seeking to start businesses, enter the business world or advance their careers.

In 1995, at the request of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Wesley Poriotis and his colleague, Barbara Mendez-Tucker, produced a landmark report analyzing the obstacles veterans from the first Gulf War faced in their transition from the military to civilian employment. In Sept. 1996, Mr. Poriotis met with President Bill Clinton to brief him on the study. Thereafter, Mr. Poriotis founded a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, The Center for Military and Private Sector Initiatives, to develop strategies for connecting American employers with the newest hidden talent pool -- veterans. In early 2002, Mr. Poriotis and his colleague Dr. Ray Healey co-founded VAA - a major employment initiative of The Center. In recent years, VAA has put a special focus on helping wounded and disabled veterans compete for quality employment or start their own businesses.

In VAA's experiences with veterans, the stresses of making a financial and economic life after military service can be just as daunting on the home-front as life in a battle zone. In September 2009 Veterans Across America launched its Champion Mentor program at a "Six Months to Success" conference, a program designed to mobilize business mentors and their networks to yield employment opportunity and/or a veteran-owned business opportunity within six months.