Nashville Public Television (NPT) will contribute this fall to a new nationwide project titled Veterans Coming Home. Funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and led by Wisconsin Public Television, Veterans Coming Home harnesses public media’s strengths and reach to address the needs of veterans in local communities. Building on compelling national content, NPT and other local public television and radio stations will conduct their own local efforts that will communicate veterans’ stories through video journalism and online content. NPT will be collaborating with local organizations and community partners to better coordinate and publicize local services, facilitate dialogue, and acknowledge the service and sacrifice made by veterans and their families.
“In the next 18 months, as the US begins to withdraw from Afghanistan, Middle Tennessee’s population of veterans is expected to explode,” said NPT president and CEO Beth Curley. “This will create a pressing need to raise awareness about the issues that veterans face reentering civilian life. We hope to build a bridge between veterans and the civilians they served.”
Middle Tennessee is home to one of the nation’s largest army bases, Ft. Campbell, a massive military installation that housing the fifth largest active duty population in the army and the seventh largest in the Department of Defense. The 101st Airborne Division, one of the most deployed divisions in the U.S. Army and currently serving in Afghanistan today, is based at Ft. Campbell. As a result, Tennessee today is home to over 525,000 veterans, the largest percentage of which are veterans of the Vietnam War and the Gulf War.
VIDEO SERIES
In partnership with a coalition of veterans service organizations, NPT will produce a series of broadcast spots, and a more extensive online series, all available at Veterans.wnpt.org and our YouTube channel at YouTube.com/TnVeteransComingHome, that will drive veterans to existing community resources while educating the general population about issues facing veterans. The goal of the spots will be to normalize the idea of seeking help, while letting veterans know where to find resources in the community. They will also raise awareness in the community about difficulties many veterans experience when transitioning to civilian life, while acknowledging their service to the country. Community awareness engendered as an outcome of these spots will prepare citizens of Middle Tennessee to better welcome veterans home from Iraq and Afghanistan and connect them with vital resources.
The first one, available now at http://youtu.be/hSjliRkpxaw and pasted above, is “What War Feels Like.” Using a screening at the Belcourt Theatre of Sebastian Junger’s film, Korengal, as its framework, the segment focuses on the role that film plays in helping civilians understand the experiences of veterans, and in turn, how that attempt at understanding helps veterans.
Shorter segments will also be broadcast on-air on NPT.
WEB SITE / SOCIAL MEDIA / TN VETERANS COMING HOME WELCOME WALL
Veterans.wnpt.org, in addition to the videos and connections to local resources, will also include the Tennessee Veterans Coming Home Welcome Wall. We’ll be asking Middle Tennesseans to use Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to leave messages or photos of welcome, share stories, exchange resources and needs and more. By using the hashtags #TNVeteransComingHome or #TNVCH, on any of the three social media platforms, we’ll be able to aggregate them at veterans.wnpt.org/welcomewall.
Veterans ComingHome is made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
About Nashville Public Television:
Nashville Public Television, Nashville’s PBS station, is available free and over-the-air to nearly 2.4 million people throughout the Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky viewing area, through its main NPT and secondary NPT2 channels, and to anyone in the world through its stable of NPT Digital services, including wnpt.org, YouTube and the PBS video app. The mission of NPT is to provide, through the power of traditional television and interactive digital communications, high quality educational, cultural and civic experiences that address issues and concerns of the people of the Nashville region, and which thereby help improve the lives of those we serve.
About CPB
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,400 locally-owned and -operated public television and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television and related online services
Veterans Coming Home is made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
About CPB
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,400 locally-owned and -operated public television and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television and related online services
Veterans ComingHome is made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.