I am Rick O’Brien with the Department of Workforce Development, Office of Veteran Employment Services. I wanted to reach out to you as we have a new subsidized employment program for Veterans; Hire Hero’s (HH). This is to help eligible Veterans return to the workforce, provide immediate income, create a positive work history, increase future employability by developing the Veterans work ethic, responsibility, dependability, punctuality and encourage longer-term career preparation.
Veteran’s Eligibility:
- Be at least 18 years of age.
- Be a veteran, as defined under s. 45.01 (12), who is verified by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
- Submit an application to the program no later than 7 years after the date of discharge from military service.
- Be ineligible to participate in the Wisconsin Works program under ss. 49.141 to 49.161.
- Be unemployed for at least 4 weeks.
- Satisfy all of the requirements related to substance abuse screening, testing, and treatment under s. 49.162 that apply to the individual.
This program will subsidize the Veterans employment by reimbursing the employer for:
- Minimum wage ($7.25), we encourage the employer to pay more.
- FICA (SSA and Medicare)
- SUTA (State Unemployment Insurance)
- FUTA (Federal Unemployment Insurance)
- Worker Compensation premiums (if any)
The program is for up to 1040 hours (26 weeks/6 months) of subsidized employment. We currently have relationships with many employers, but we are always looking for new ones. The eligible Veteran can work with a Disabled Veteran Outreach Program (DVOP) specialist and our Local Veteran Employment Representative (LVER) who are part of the Job Center Wisconsin (JCW) Business Services team.
The program is new, it was rolled out on 04/01/2019 and we are always looking for Veteran referrals as well as employers. Please let me know if I can answer any questions you might have. You can send referrals to myself richard.obrien@dwd.wisconsin.gov or HireHeroesTJ@dwd.wisconsin.gov. Thank you and please feel free to pass along to others.
Best Regards,
Rick O’Brien
Rick O’Brien, MBA, MPM
DWD Office of Veteran Employment Services
201 E. Washington Ave. Madison, WI 53703
608.266.3252
