November was a busy month for WoVeN! From wrapping up groups in Charlotte, San Antonio, and Pittsburgh, to planning more groups, to attending Veterans Day events and conferences, we are so grateful that the WoVeN community keeps growing.

Charlotte’s peer leaders, Cat and Tina, attended two conferences for women Veterans. Over Veterans Day weekend, they attended the Women Veterans Leadership & Diversity Conference hosted by Women Veterans Interactive (WVI). WVI is an organization committed to improving the lives of women Veterans by ensuring that they have the knowledge and resources necessary to meet their physical, mental, and financial challenges.

Cat and Tina also joined Amy, WoVeN’s co-director, in Washington DC for the Service Women’s Action Network’s (SWAN) Annual Summit. SWAN advocates for the individual and collective needs of service women to ensure that all service women have access to the resources they need to reach their goals after service.

Cat and Tina commented on the sense of community they felt at these events. Tina said, “We all came from different walks in life, but soon we found that we all held a common thread: ‘We are Women Veterans.’” They were inspired that so many women from different service eras and parts of the country can come together to work towards the united goal of ensuring all women Veterans’ needs are met and that they receive the respect they deserve. Cat said, “It was such a pleasure to be in the presence of so many female Veterans from all over the United States. The feelings of belonging, sisterhood, networking, and collaborating to make a change in how female veterans are viewed and treated was impactful to me.”

WoVeN thanks WVI and SWAN for holding such important conferences and appreciates all the work they, along with all Veteran organizations, do to improve the community that women Veterans have collectively created. We can’t wait for next year’s conferences!