Page 652 - Total War on PTSD

Veterans and to heal and empower through motorsports. The program allowed me to take 12 plus years of relationships and create this thing where the sum of the parts make a huge difference to those Veterans participating.
The program is about creating a culture where injured war-fighters are welcome, where we can provide them an outlet that shows them their self-worth and hopefully create an opportunity for them to succeed outside the program. We provide Veterans struggling to re-assimilate to civilian life the opportunity to work with professional motorcycle and auto racing teams. The program has become an award-winning, non- clinical outreach program that honors and empowers post-9/11 Veterans with service- related injuries through active participation in motorsports. It provides inspiration and motivation for participating Veterans by making them part of a new team and giving them a new mission.
We find the Veterans that are interested in participating as a nonclinical therapy and we connect them to the resources. It’s always a hands-on activity — mental stimulation, physical stimulation, creating teamwork. We’ll fund it, we’ll pay for their experience and lodging, food, and gas. What it does is gets them back into the environment of high adrenaline so they can understand that adrenaline rush is normal and also gets them to work in the civilian populations which they have a hard time integrating into.
We continue to do everything we can to try and reduce the Veteran suicide rate. Having the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and the SCCA Foundation work hand-
in-hand with us for a second year, to honor and empower these brave service men and women, is incredibly validating and gratifying. We can’t thank everyone at the SCCA
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