Activision’s Call of Duty Endow­ment and Hire Heroes USA Launch Memo­r­ial Day Cam­paign to Sup­port Jobs for Veterans

 

3rd annual Face­book cam­paign raises aware­ness and sup­port for vet­eran employment;
For every image “share” on Face­book, the Endow­ment will donate $1 to Hire Heroes USA

 

WASHINGTON – May 24, 2012 – The Call of Duty Endow­ment today kicked off its third annual Memo­r­ial Day cam­paign to raise aware­ness for the issue of vet­eran unem­ploy­ment and engage the pub­lic in a week-long Face­book cam­paign.  From Thurs­day May 24 through Fri­day June 1, for every per­son who shares an image designed for the 2012 Memo­r­ial Day cam­paign, which reads “Honor Our Vets,” the Call of Duty Endow­ment will donate $1 to Hire Heroes USA (HHUSA), an orga­ni­za­tion that pro­vides job train­ing pro­grams and cor­po­rate engage­ment for US mil­i­tary vet­er­ans and assists them and their spouses with career place­ment.  Last year, the cam­paign raised $36,000 for Hire Heroes USA, and the 2012 cam­paign is set­ting a new goal of at least 50,000 “shares,” trans­lat­ing to at least $50,000 raised for HHUSA. 

To secure the dol­lar dona­tion from the Endow­ment, one sim­ply needs to “share” the Memo­r­ial Day image via their net­work either through the Call of Duty Endow­ment Face­book page or through another friend’s post­ing.  Fans have from Thurs­day, May 24 until Fri­day, June 1 at 11:59PM PST to share the image and add to the grant for HHUSA.

 

“This is a quick and easy way for the pub­lic to help sup­port our nation’s heroes this Memo­r­ial Day,” said Call of Duty Endow­ment Advi­sory Coun­cil mem­ber Colonel Alan Bald­win (USMC-Ret). “Our youngest mil­i­tary vet­er­ans face a dis­pro­por­tion­ately higher rate of unem­ploy­ment, and Hire Heroes USA has shown proven results in meet­ing its mis­sion to reduce the stag­ger­ing employ­ment real­i­ties fac­ing those in the Armed Forces return­ing to civil­ian life. We hope to beat last year’s num­bers and reach at least 50,000 image shares on Facebook.”

The grant awarded by the Call of Duty Endow­ment to HHUSA will allow the orga­ni­za­tion to pro­vide U.S. mil­i­tary vet­er­ans and their spouses with tran­si­tion assis­tance, job search assis­tance, and job place­ment ser­vices. Proven ser­vices offered by HHUSA include career work­shops, job fairs and job boards, and one-on-one coach­ing to match per­sonal career inter­ests and skills to the needs of part­ner­ing companies.

 

Brian Stann, UFC ®130 fighter, Pres­i­dent of HHUSA, and a retired Marine, wel­comed the cam­paign part­ner­ship for a third year in a row, not­ing, “Memo­r­ial Day is a national ded­i­ca­tion to all of the brave sol­diers who have defended this coun­try, and we are thrilled the Call of Duty Endow­ment again chose us to help honor the men and women of the Armed Forces. The con­tri­bu­tions and aware­ness raised over the past two years through this cam­paign have assisted us tremen­dously, con­tribut­ing to the sus­tained employ­ment of more than 400 vet­er­ans and their spouses. As a retired marine, I know first­hand how dif­fi­cult it can be to tran­si­tion into the civil­ian work­force, and a cam­paign that engages the pub­lic in rais­ing sup­port and aware­ness is piv­otal to solv­ing the seri­ous issue of vet­eran unemployment.”

 

Accord­ing to a March report from the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, the unem­ploy­ment rate for vet­er­ans between the ages of 18–24 was 30.2 per­cent in 2011, over 12 per­cent higher than the rate for non-veterans in the same demo­graphic.  Fur­ther­more, the unem­ploy­ment rate for vet­er­ans who served on active duty any time since Sep­tem­ber 2001 increased to 12.1 per­cent, well above the national average.

 

The Call of Duty Endow­ment was con­ceived by Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activi­sion Bliz­zard and co-chairman of the Call of Duty Endow­ment, in Novem­ber of 2009 in an effort to raise aware­ness for vet­er­ans’ unem­ploy­ment. Since that time, the Endow­ment has pro­vided more than $1.7M in grants and schol­ar­ships to assist US vet­er­ans with post-military career sup­port, which have directly con­tributed to more than 700 vet­eran jobs.

 

About the Call of Duty Endow­ment:
The Call of Duty Endow­ment is a non-profit, pub­lic ben­e­fit cor­po­ra­tion con­ceived by Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activi­sion Bliz­zard. The orga­ni­za­tion seeks to help orga­ni­za­tions that pro­vide job place­ment and train­ing ser­vices for vet­er­ans. For more infor­ma­tion about the Call of Duty Endow­ment, please visit www.callofdutyendowment.org.

 

About Hire Heroes USA:
Hire Heroes USA’s (HHUSA) offers tran­si­tion assis­tance, job search assis­tance, and job place­ment ser­vices to all who have hon­or­ably served in the US mil­i­tary – and to their spouses – in order to reduce vet­eran unem­ploy­ment. HHUSA pri­or­i­tizes vet­er­ans sta­tis­ti­cally most likely to be unem­ployed: vet­er­ans of Oper­a­tions IRAQI FREEDOM and ENDURING FREEDOM, and vet­er­ans that are wounded or dis­abled. As a 501©(3) not– for-profit orga­ni­za­tion, HHUSA’s ser­vices are pro­vided at no cost to the vet­eran. For more infor­ma­tion, visit the Hire Heroes USA Web­site at www.hireheroesusa.org.

 

ACTIVISION and CALL OF DUTY are reg­is­tered trade­marks of Activi­sion Pub­lish­ing, Inc. All other trade­marks and trade names are the prop­er­ties of their respec­tive owners.