Causes

Human services Education Military & veterans affairs

Posted by

Ellie D.

Volunteer manager

Our mission

The mission of the Veterans Breakfast Club is to create communities of listening around veterans and their stories to ensure that this living history will never be forgotten. We believe that through our work, people will be educated, healed, and inspired.

What we do

Since 2008, the Veterans Breakfast Club (VBC) has gathered thousands of veterans together with their families, friends, and neighbors so that veterans can share their stories, and the community can learn from them. Our mission is "to create communities of listening around veterans and their stories." Through this work, we've educated and inspired thousands of civilians and have helped to heal the thousands of veterans who've attended our programs.

Each year, the organization holds over 60 storytelling events at thirty different locations throughout Western Pennsylvania. We average just over ninety people at each event. There are no membership dues or requirements, and everyone is welcome to attend, including non-veterans. In fact, civilian listeners play a crucial role in the program's success. Abundant research shows that storytelling is a powerful antidote to PTSD. Storytellers are compelled to find a common language to communicate their feelings and experiences, while listeners grow in understanding and, in hearing traumatic stories of war, carry away a small share of the burden.

Events begins with breaking bread - breakfast in the morning, appetizers and beverages in the evening--and then the program opens with an emcee asking veterans to talk a bit about their service and then guides and deepens the impromptu testimony to reveal, as one surveyed attendee put it, "the good and the bad, the truth of war unvarnished." The program ends with a deepened community understanding of the military experience and the drawing of the veterans present into tighter community networks.

We think our VBC model can benefit communities around the nation, and we seek to reach as far as we can. Every veteran has a story. We want to hear every one.