Children’s Minnesota is excited to share that we have received approval from the Minnesota National Guard to become a Beyond the Yellow Ribbon (BTYR) organization!
BTYR is a program led by the Minnesota National Guard that connects military service members, veterans and their families with community support and resources. Children’s Minnesota will soon join 81 other BTYR companies and organizations from across the state that have pledged to support and assist military service members and their families.
To become an approved BTYR company, a steering committee from our Military and Veterans employee resource group (ERG) spent several months developing and submitting an action plan commitment in the areas of leadership support, workforce recruiting, training, development and policy, community and employee outreach, and support infrastructure.
The BTYR steering committee from Children’s Minnesota’s Military and Veterans ERG includes:
- Dr. Emily Chapman, executive sponsor
- Mark Schumann, steering committee chair
- Will Hobart
- Linda Homme
- Ron Jarvi
- Ryan Shiek
- Jordan Vandervelde
“I’m so proud of the Military and Veterans ERG at Children’s Minnesota for their hard work and determination that led to us earning BTYR designation,” said James Burroughs, senior vice president of government and community relations, chief equity and inclusion officer at Children’s Minnesota. “In just 15 months of becoming an ERG at our organization, the Military and Veterans ERG immediately stepped up and took on this important work to show that Children’s Minnesota is an employer that supports our military service members and their families.”
“It has been a goal of mine since launching the Military and Veterans ERG at Children’s Minnesota to earn this honor as a BTYR employer. I’m grateful for my colleagues and fellow Military and Veteran ERG members on the steering committee for wholeheartedly supporting this goal and putting in an incredible amount of effort to become a BTYR organization,” said Ron Jarvi, senior organizational learning and development consultant and co-chair of the Military and Veterans ERG. “I’d also like to especially thank James Burroughs, Dr. Marc Gorelick and the rest of the Children’s Minnesota executive leadership for their unanimous support of our effort to become a BTYR organization.”
Children’s Minnesota will be officially proclaimed at a ceremony later this year.