Welcome to Grace After Fire

Grace After Fire provides support for and helps women veterans of the United States military who are returning from active duty so that they can re-engage as mothers, wives and daughters in civilian life.

The Woman’s Heart began operating in 2002, attracting hundreds of women in search of crisis support services. A significant data point was the frequency of women military veterans disclosing their chronic use of alcohol and drugs as a means of coping or self-medicating their symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and military sexual assault. The online crisis ratio trends show 8 out of 10 women veterans are in crisis at the time of contact.

This brought about a great initiative, Grace After Fire (“Grace”). Grace is designed to serve women veterans from all eras and branches of military service (currently 1.8 million), and is preparing to meet the high numbers of women (approximately 14 percent of the armed services) currently serving. Although women veterans represent less than 6 percent of veterans accessing VA healthcare, 71 percent of the women who do use the VA System have a mental health concern. Unfortunately, a challenge that can occur in offering VA services to women is providing accessible gender-responsive and trauma-informed care at all locations.

Grace is a virtual organization reaching across the nation, and is already engaging with women veterans still in theater as they prepare to come home. Grace’s Board of Directors is comprised of 80 percent veterans, managed by women veterans; and our Clinical Advisory Committee is comprised of 100 percent women trauma experts, researchers, and addiction specialists.

Grace in the News

Olson: Female Veterans Face Steep Climb

Thursday, 16 February 2012 13:54

Olson: Female veterans face steep climb back to employment when they return from war

By Kimberly Olson
Special to the Star-Telegram

Sara was living in her car in the parking lot of a local grocery store -- certainly not the place that this military veteran thought she would find herself after returning from two tours in Iraq. Unfortunately, hers is a story that unfolds for some women veterans.

If you met Sara today, you would scarcely believe that just four months ago her car was her home and that she was wondering where she would get her next meal. What happened during those four months was that Sara experienced outreach from a fellow veteran and found meaningful work.

Those of us at Grace After Fire who interact daily with veterans quickly discover a powerful truth: Work makes them well. After years of constant deployments and relocation, most veterans want work that sustains a family and is in a place where they can put down roots. Our veterans are smart, brave, tenacious and experienced men and women, and they don't want or need a handout. "Let me earn my way," or "I can do it myself" are common refrains.

SAVE THE DATE - March 3, 2012

Monday, 23 January 2012 06:57

First Annual Grace After Fire Women Veterans Summit

Discover Your Grace: The Power of Women Veterans

Experts will lead focused sessions on issues of importance to Texas women Veterans from every branch of service, all designed to facilitate successful transition from battlefield to families, workforce, and communities. Sessions will include small group discussion with experts in health and wellness, family resilience, gender-specific medicine, fashion, entering the workforce opportunities, the latest in brain research on post-combat challenges, avenues to access for care, and peer-to-peer model focused on women.

[ Register for the 2012 Discover Your Grace Summit ]