MilSpouseFest hosted two MSF Casts in June on two of the most significant topics within the military spouse community, employment, and entrepreneurship.
Presented by USAA, MilSpouseFest hosted all-star panels for each event day to tackle questions on employment and entrepreneurship for the military spouse community. MilSpouseFest delivered these events using Whova, a mobile-friendly app, which encourages attendee engagement and allows for spouses to connect with each other and the resource exhibitors.
“At MilSpouseFest, we use the Blue Star Families annual military lifestyle survey to guide our content,” said MSF Director, Julie Shepard. “The 2021 results showed that the highest area of concern for spouses, coming in at 47% of Active Duty spouses, was the struggle to find employment. We know that spouses need to be connected with free resources focused on employment readiness and community partners. We also know that entrepreneurship is very popular for military spouses as a career choice because it fits their unique lifestyle with frequent moves and service members who are often deployed or work long hours.”
June 2nd focused on military spouse employment, you can watch the recording here. The panel included Military Spouse Chamber of Commerce Co-founder and COO Jaime Chapman, USAA Talent Strategist Chryssy Johnson, VetJobs and Military Spouse Jobs Senior Lead, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Director and Outreach Specialist Denise Lewis, Hiring Our Heroes Military Spouse Professional Network Coordinator Kyra Seeley, Blue Star Families Sr. Manager of Workforce Development Laura Torres, and Pioneer Utility Resources VP of Digital Solutions Melissa Shaw. All-events sponsor, Tutor.com, also took time to highlight employment opportunities for military spouses.
Advice from Lewis during the cast for attendees was to “stay engaged, stay relevant, even if you have been out of the workforce. Stay relevant by volunteering at an agency you are passionate about. Sometimes it is hard to find that ‘unicorn job,’ but be open to a variety of opportunities because you never know where that’ll take you.”
June 16th was all about military spouse entrepreneurs, you can watch the recording here. Panelists included Jaime Chapman, Military Family Personal Finance Expert and Accredited Financial Counselor Kate Horrell, and Tiny Troops Soccer Founder and Director Amy Schweizer.
“It’s important to have your values established and to hire by those values,” said Schweizer while discussing working with employees entrepreneurs may hire. “Think about what is important to you and your business and apply it.”
For more information on MilSpouseFest events, click HERE. The next MSF Cast will occur on August 25th at noon (ET), and the topic is military spouse education. Subscribe to the MilSpouse Youtube channel to stay up-to-date on what MSF is up to.