American Corporate Partners (ACP) is a national nonprofit organization focused on helping returning veterans and active duty spouses find their next careers through one-on-one mentoring, networking and online career advice.
More than 1 million veterans are expected to transition from the armed forces to civilian life over the next five years. ACP engages the American people in a unique volunteer opportunity to provide career guidance to returning military as they transition back into civilian life.
We believe that the biggest issue facing our returning service members is not unemployment – it’s underemployment. ACP focuses on helping veterans and active duty spouses find meaningful employment opportunities and develop long-term careers.
Founder Sidney E. Goodfriend launched American Corporate Partners on Labor Day 2008 with the help of six founding corporate partners who provided funding to ACP and volunteer Mentors. By the end of 2009, ACP had paired 500 returning veterans with Mentors. In November 2018, ACP announced it is expanding its reach and opening its program to the active duty spouse community. Currently, ACP has more than 4,000 veterans and active duty spouses paired one-on-one with mentors from more than 100 of America’s top companies, universities and hospitals.
Since its founding, ACP has focused on expanding its number of Corporate Partners, reaching out to a larger number of returning military and designing several new programs and initiatives to help an increasing number of service members, returning veterans and their families.
ACP now connects veterans with business leaders in a variety of ways beyond its original corporate mentoring program.
- ACP’s Women’s Veteran Mentoring Program launched in 2016 and connects female veterans with female entrepreneurs and business leaders for yearlong mentorships. Women veterans have access to exclusive networking events and career development workshops.
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ACP AdvisorNet is an online career Q&A community designed to assist an increasing number of veterans and current service members with networking and career advice.
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ACP’s Active Duty Spouse Program launched in November 2018 and connects spouses on installations nationwide with business leaders for customized mentorships.
More than 24,000 veterans and spouses have successfully completed the ACP Program.
AN INSUFFICIENT PROFESSIONAL NETWORK AND AN UNCLEAR PATH TO EMPLOYMENT ARE TOO OFTEN AN UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE OF MILITARY SERVICE. THIS MUST CHANGE.
65% of veterans are likely to leave their first civilian job within 2 years.
The Heroes Linked Story
Heroes Linked was conceived by individuals who had not served in the U.S. military and wanted to actively honor those that did. Servicepersons transitioning out of active duty military have overwhelmingly said that the biggest challenge lying ahead of them is navigating the civilian job market. And their ranks will swell in coming years. Defense cutbacks will push more than 100,000 servicepersons out of the military each year for the next decade, including tens of thousands who expected their service to be a career.
Heroes Linked rests upon the simple premise that Americans who did not serve in the military possess something that is of great value to Veterans and servicepersons transitioning out of the military – their career experiences and knowledge of the private sector job market. The question was, how could such knowledge be best imparted to the thousands that could benefit from it? Understanding the power of personal mentoring for both Advisor and Advisee, the challenge was adapting the model to fit the needs of the swelling Veterans community. The result became Heroes Linked.
Utilizing and array of cutting edge communication technologies, Heroes Linked is disrupting the personal mentoring paradigm to make it accessible, mobile, and scalable.
Heroes Linked recognizes that family is the heart of the U.S. Armed Forces. We welcome Gold Star families and the spouses of our veterans and servicepersons in transition. They deserve to receive the same level of assistance as their loved ones in uniform.
Heroes linked is
Industry Diverse – Geographically dispersed – Represents all levels of professional achievement.
The QCVN delivers a networking event series that meets monthly to connect transitioning service members, veterans, and their spouses to employers, mentors, and other resource providers in the Quad Cities area.
AMERICA’S MENTORING NETWORK FOR THE MILITARY
Join thousands of Service Members, Veterans, and Military Spouses in setting up free 1-hr mentorship phone calls with successful professionals. We’re the only Veteran Mentorship Platform to let you choose your own mentors and as many as you would like; our average member selects 4 mentors, and some mentees have 25+ mentors! Create a free profile at Veterati to get unlimited access to thousands of volunteer mentors: CEOs, recruiters, entrepreneurs, managers, Veterans & civilians alike.