The VetsConnection Podcast

Ep. 46 - Talking with Sean MacPhee from Mission United, Broward County. We Discuss Navigating Veterans Services: Mission United's Comprehensive Approach

• Scott McLean • Episode 46

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Scott McLean:

Welcome to the podcast. I'm Scott McLean. My guest today is Sean McPhee. Sean is with Mission United, Broward County, Florida. You notice how I said the McPhee, not McPhee. Yeah, because I'm Scottish. That's right. See, I know this. Us Irish guys know the difference. Welcome to the podcast, Sean.

Sean MacFee:

Well, thank you for having me.

Scott McLean:

Welcome to the One man, one Mic Foundation studio, donated and sponsored by Willow and Palm Construction. Willow and Palm Construction, south Florida's premier builder, located in Delray Beach, florida. Willow and Palm Construction. If you need it, they'll build it, from driveways to roofs to buildings. Willow and Palm Construction Find them at willowandpalmcom. I have to throw, you know, I have to throw that in there. Sorry if that was rude.

Sean MacFee:

Same with the other podcast I'm in. That's it. Let him get his spit into it.

Scott McLean:

Got to get you people and welcome to the big pink couch.

Sean MacFee:

Oh well, thank you. Definitely won't go with my stuff in my house, no no, it's different, right? Yeah, so all right, you're a veteran, right yeah, spent about 24 years in the Navy.

Scott McLean:

All right, and what do you do for Mission United Broward County? What's your job title, your position?

Sean MacFee:

The job title is a community engagement officer for veteran services. Well, the job in whole is basically is to advocate for the programs of United Way and Mission United anything that has to do with veteran services.

Scott McLean:

Okay, so how long? All right, let's go back to your military. When did you go? In March of 94. 94.

Sean MacFee:

Okay, and you're in for how long? 24 years. So I retired at the end of March in 2015. 15. Talk because you forget. Time goes so fast. So it was March of 2015.

Scott McLean:

So anything interesting happen while you're in any out in the ocean?

Sean MacFee:

Oh yeah, I mean I have to say I was pretty blessed in my career. I got moved around a lot. My job in the Navy was called a quartermaster and those in the other branches quartermaster means something else, but in the Navy that means I was in charge of navigation. So it was basically I was the navigator, historian, slash and weather guy. I basically helped the ship get from point A to point B, wherever we needed to go. So my job is very important because, unlike some of the individuals you can get underway with, you can't get underway without a senior quartermaster on board. So I got to see a lot more places because over the years technology has taken over our job so there's less and less of us. So as our numbers dwindled they require us more to be.

Sean MacFee:

So I did a couple of counter drug ops on both sides of the Panama Canal. That was quite interesting to do, especially working with, you know, the Coast Guard. I did a couple NATO ops in the Baltic seas I was working with probably about like four or five different. You know nations, you know the British and you know a lot of them that we did a lot of operations. So it was very unique in a way. You know especially people. A lot of people don't understand is yeah, so, like I was doing operations in the West Pacific with a Japanese ship, we were still able to communicate even though we spoke different languages. There's a universal code book provided in NATO, so all I had to do was send them and they can convert it back over so we could actually have a full conversation without ever actually speaking each other's language.

Scott McLean:

All right, what was your favorite port that you pulled into?

Sean MacFee:

That has always been the question people have always asked me.

Scott McLean:

I know it may be guys.

Sean MacFee:

I will say that I enjoyed Kiel, germany. It was a very beautiful place. It's very clean, the people were very welcoming. We were down there what they call Kiel Week which here in the States we call it the tall ship events, where they brought in all these sailing ships and stuff. It was really great. I really loved the Caribbean. I mean the people down there are so super friendly. I mean I can't tell you, I mean, if we got lost, I mean it wasn't just me.

Sean MacFee:

Anytime you had a question, the locals were always more than happy to show you or point you in the directions of where you needed to go. You never have to worry about that. You walked up to somebody that they're going to give it a negative impact back to you, going like, hey, look, you know over there. But yeah, there's quite a few of them. I've quite enjoyed over the years Japan. I actually got to experience that in Japan, where you know, you see on the TV where those guys are on the platforms with the white gloves pushing people in there. I had to take a train ride and I thought it was just. You know, I thought it was over-exaggeration. But nope, they're out there shoving people in the train and you know I'm squeezed up next to people and they're like it's every day to them. It's like but we're packed in there like sardines. But they were super polite about the whole thing.

Scott McLean:

So you got out in 2015, I guess around that. Oh sorry.

Sean MacFee:

I'm losing track. It was actually because I got to my last desk job in 2015. I riot March of 2018. Okay, yeah, yeah. So March of 2018 is when I officially retired. My last job was a desk job at Spay War in San Diego. It was just. If anybody knows San Diego, it's right outside of Old Town. Okay, was a desk job at Spay War in San Diego. It's just. If anybody knows San Diego, it's right outside of Old Town. Okay, all right.

Sean MacFee:

And so you get out and what's the transition like? Well, I mean my last desk job, my collateral duty. I was a command career counselor. So it helped my transitioning out much easier because I spent my last three years studying the transition process, talking to BFWs, american Legions, the veterans and stuff.

Sean MacFee:

So when we were done in San Diego, as much as I love San Diego, it just wasn't cost effective, you know, for a family of four to live there, especially on retirement pay. So we decided that we were going to move to South Florida because that's where my wife's parents live. So I actually came out here first because the kids were still in high school and thought it would be much easier to job hunt here in Florida from Florida than versus trying to job hunt from San Diego. So I came out here and I ran the circuit. So I got out here and a couple of weeks after I retired and I tell people that you know, when you job hunt it's a full-time job, it's not like a fly job here, apply a job there. It's Monday through Friday, eight to five, nine to one, whatever you set hours and you got to put in the grind.

Sean MacFee:

Oh, yeah, so yeah between April to August, I figured I applied for 168 jobs. I went to 12 job fairs. I even submitted my resume to a couple of politicians to see if maybe they can help me out. I got three interviews Out of 100, I only got three interviews. One of them was for an insurance company, one of them was for WastePro as a dispatcher and the last one was CareerSource Broward, working for their.

Sean MacFee:

Was it Jobs for Veterans? State Grant, jbsg, okay, and you took that job. I took that job. It actually. You know, sometimes I tell people it's being in the right place at the right time. I had gone down because CareerSource is, in other words, is a brand name for the American Job Center, which is a nonprofit throughout the entire country. There's at least American Job Center within 50 miles of every major city and their job is to provide support for people looking for work. So I had already known that from my command career counselor. So I went down there and I sat down with my veteran rep and him and I were talking and he told me what his job title was. I'm like that's funny. He goes what? I was just on the state job board page a week ago and I applied for a job title that's the same as yours. He goes. That's really weird. He goes the program manager's in the building. Why don't we ask her if she ever saw your resume? She came over. She was a naval officer, navy guy. My career counselor, employment specialist, was the Navy guy. We all got to chit-chat and sharing stories and she goes. I think you'd be a perfect fit. So I had.

Sean MacFee:

I still, even though I knew I had the job in the bag, I still went through the whole interview process and that's where I was for for. For the last couple of years I was working with them. Primarily. My job was an employment specialist, helping veterans, you know, connect with nonprofits, helping them with their resume, showing them the proper techniques on how to apply for jobs, because it's just a lot more than click and there's a lot more skills involved in finding the correct job and applying for it properly.

Sean MacFee:

People just don't understand. It's a lot more than uploading your resume. There's a lot more into it. You have to really do your homework and take a look in there. And then I provided them with interview techniques. I usually do mock interviews with them.

Sean MacFee:

And then I got picked up for the employer side of the house, so they wanted me to work with the employer. So my job was to network with employers. Hey, I got vets. What type of vet are you looking for? Let me introduce you.

Sean MacFee:

There was no promises in it but I basically I was connecting veterans and employers together, trying to help them feel because, you know, hiring somebody is a lot difficult for a recruiter than a lot of people think. Because the thing that most people don't understand is 75% of all resumes are rejected by a software program with the IQ of a third grader. Yeah, and people don't understand that. It's like well, you fired off your resume, yet oh, how do you know that they got it? Because it only takes one item on a resume one item. It could be an asterisk in a wrong place or one wrong word in. That's why they're trying to do away with resumes in the next couple of years. That's why a lot of companies have gone to the video pre-answering questions. Just upload your resume and then they want to hear you answer some pre-questions.

Scott McLean:

All right. So how did you get from there to Mission United, Broward County?

Sean MacFee:

So, being in the veterans department for the JPSG program, I worked very closely with a lot of nonprofits and one of them happened to be Mission United. So we were very close, working hand in hand. They had veterans that they were trying to help that were, on you know, in desperate need of whatever they needed, and one of them was employment. So I worked very closely with them and they finally had a job that fit exactly what I was looking for. I mean they we chit chatted back and forth over the years Mission United about, you know, trying to get me to move from career source to them and they finally offered me a position.

Sean MacFee:

I couldn't say no. I mean working for the state. I had nothing against the state but state. You know a lot of bureaucrat, you know you have a lot of hoops you have to jump through. There's only certain people you can help. Mission United gave me a job where I do the same thing I was doing for, you know, careersource, but I don't have half the requirements and they let me do what I want to do and they support me in whatever I want. So I couldn't say no, so I hopped on over.

Scott McLean:

Great organization. So tell the listeners about Mission United Broward County. We had Jonathan Oakley on from Mission United Palm Beach County. We kind of went over the differences but having you here kind of give the listener a rundown of what Mission United Broward County does, because they are like the grandfather of Mission United, if I'm not mistaken.

Sean MacFee:

Yeah. So United Way, of course, has been around for 85 plus years. So about 13 years ago the United Way of Broward County was trying to think of there's got to be a different way to help vets. So they reached out to a lot of predominant community partners who were veterans of stealth like Stephen Moss was the founding member of Mission United and the rest of his team and how can we do a better job at helping vets, particularly those that are homeless? So they came up with a plan. They put it all together. United Way said okay, will you run it? So they did. They started off, they put it together, they put the team together and it's been going pretty good since then. They consider Mission United not as a Department of United Way but an initiative. Now, even coming up on 13 years, it's only in 29 United Ways have an initiative Mission United, which is not bad in a 12-year period considering the number of locations United Way is around. The world.

Scott McLean:

I was going to say do you know that number how many United Ways just in the United States there are? Oh, not off the top of locations. United way is around the world. I was going to say do you know that number how many united ways just in the united states there are? Oh, not off the top of my head, it's a lot they've been they want.

Sean MacFee:

They're one of the premier non-profits that have been around for as long as they have. Yeah, and, matter of fact, from what I understand don't quote me on it, but I believe somebody told me the other day they were starting a United Way in Australia.

Scott McLean:

Wow.

Sean MacFee:

So Miss United is in 29. Now they provide. They don't provide a lot. Of them will provide direct services.

Scott McLean:

This is where the difference is. Yes.

Sean MacFee:

Now the ones that are here. Now there's eight of us that provide direct services Palm Beach here, broward County, miami, a couple of the other places is they provide direct services directly to the vet. Basically, it means that a vet can come in and actually sit down with somebody instead of just being referred to somebody. And this year we're opening up Miss United in Okeechobee.

Sean MacFee:

We met with their town charter and they are very excited. So a lot of us have been working with our counterparts up there. You know helping them get on their feet, you know letting them so they don't have to reinvent the wheel. So they're very excited. So we're hoping to have that up and running anytime soon.

Scott McLean:

So Mission United Broward County, give the listener a breakdown of all the things that they cover in the veteran space, because there's more than just helping the homeless vets. So, and this is what separates Broward County from the rest, yes, it's because we set the groundwork.

Sean MacFee:

Our primary is housing. That's number one. Right Now there's a grant that comes. It's called SSVF, it's Support Services for Veteran Families. That's where a lot of our housing grant comes from. We get not only grants from the state but we get grants from the VA as well. Under that, the primary focus is to help veterans who either were first month, last month or security deposit. We can pay their rent up for the first couple months. After that, if they still need to stay, we can pay half their rent up for another year and a half. So, and then at that point, unfortunately, the grant doesn't allow us to pay beyond that. We actually have a group of individuals that work directly with landlords. We have an agreement with them HUD-VASH, ssvf so that way we can help mitigate to make sure that the rent is what they can afford, and also we can be a mediator between the landlord and the vet. So if either one are having issues, they don't have to talk to each other, they'll just call us right.

Sean MacFee:

Another one we work with is legal aid we provide. You know, again, make sure all these services are at no cost to veterans or their families whatsoever. We don't charge them anything and if anybody says otherwise, they're lying. So, like now, legal aid helps us provide legal advice to our veterans and their families, regardless of what the issue is. So and if we can't help them directly like my boss or James Heaton, a lawyer has a lot of connections in Broward County and a lot of the other Miss Uniteds that have you know connections as well that finding lawyers that are willing to work pro bono at minimum cost to make sure that there's no hardship on the veterans. So we have a great group of individuals.

Sean MacFee:

Depending on what the veteran needs, we can help them hopefully overcome that obstacle. We do have the medical side of the house. We actually have a veteran service officer and a VA rep who come to our site. We actually work directly with them. There are appointed contacts that if a veteran's having any medical needs or questions or they need help with their claims, or if they're having issues with the VA denying them claims or whatever, we can help them with that. One of the other things we help them also too, with is mental health services. We have a connection with Henderson Behavioral Health as a direct connect for us. We can help and all these are warm handoffs.

Sean MacFee:

We never send a veteran to anybody. We may call them directly or we will walk them there or whatever, but we're going to make sure that they get from point A to point B and they don't get lost in a shuffle. So we help them with that we actually have now. We're not an employment agency, but we do have an employment team. Their job is to help them resumes, interviews. We have a lot of community partners that have interview clothing that we can send them over for. One of them is a gentleman I used to work with at CareerSource, robert Pagan. He's the employer expert. It's his job to work with the employers to make that connection between them, as well as the veterans. There's a lot, yeah, there is a lot.

Scott McLean:

It's one-stop shopping. It's one-stop shopping.

Sean MacFee:

Yeah, yeah, because we pretty much we tell vets if there's any issues you're having, let us know. Yeah, let's take a run at it, and if we can't do it, we're going to find somebody that will do it for them you know, you just got stuck and that's usually in podcasting.

Scott McLean:

That's like right, but it's because there's so many things that you guys are doing like you got to think of all of them, which is a good problem to have yeah, I mean we even have an outreach team that goes out and talks to veterans on the streets.

Sean MacFee:

Yeah, miss United also works very closely with United Way and their programs as well, so we kind of even though our job is mainly is veterans, we still are integrated with them for their programs that we could connect best to them. Like one of my favorite programs that United Way has called the Next Generation Program, they're working with entrepreneurs that are 30 and younger, helping them peer-to-peer support, making sure that they understand that they're a young entrepreneur but they have support. A couple months ago at a chamber meeting met a gentleman I believe he was 17 years old, opened his own business. I connected him with our program and now he doesn't have to go along. His parents are a lot more happier because they don't feel like they have to do all the worker supporting, even though it's his business. So it's working well. But, yeah, we definitely have a lot of different communities and projects we work with so it's tough Sometimes I lose a little track of all of them we're working on.

Scott McLean:

No, there is a lot. That's lose a little track of all of them we're working on. So no, there there is a lot. That's why it's the it's very unique out of the other mission united's that are around. I know miami focuses on two specific things and you know palm beach county has their focus, which I think is it's really good because it's there's a lot of options. There's a lot of options for the veteran right. So is broward county mission united specific to broward county veterans that's one of the things I like about our non-profit.

Sean MacFee:

Uh, for for us is we're not contained by a county like a lot of non-profits like will take career force. For us they're only, they can only work with individuals who reside in broward. We're not not. We constantly support each other. That's the greatest thing I like is like if somebody needs help, I've gone down and did a veteran stand down in Miami because they needed somebody. We were there, they were there. We were there to support each other. When the hurricane ripped through the western side of Florida, we reached out to our Tampa group and said, hey, listen, if you need a home base, you can come here. So we were all set up and prepared that if they want to work out of our offices, we got them covered. So just the way those services were interrupted.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, that's great, because I know there's probably someone listening that was like oh, I live in Palm Beach County and but if you're a veteran, you're a veteran and I'm sure that you reach out to Broward County Mission United. They're not going to turn you away. None of the Mission Unites will turn you away. So if a veteran wanted to take advantage of the many programs that Mission United Broward County offers, how would they go about it? So say, I needed legal aid, like, is there a specific place they go to? Is it all in one building? Is it so? How would that work? If I'm a veteran that just heard this podcast, I'm like you know what I could use that. So how does my process work? Oh, that's awesome.

Sean MacFee:

Well, we always refer. There's a million phone numbers to remember. You know acronyms for phone numbers. We and phone numbers to remember. You know acronyms for phone numbers. We always tell them the simplest one is dial 2-1-1. 2-1-1 is an international, across the entire United States number. It goes by the tower.

Sean MacFee:

So if you're in Michigan, you know whatever dial 2-1-1, you're going to get the 2-1-1 helpline and that's what they are. They're a resource provider. Now we work very closely with them that if you call them, say hey, I'm a veteran, I need help, they're going to make sure that they'll start the intake process before you even step in the door. What is it you need? They're going to try to smooth all that paperwork right up front, answer all your questions and then direct you either directly to us or directly to the community partner.

Sean MacFee:

Now, I don't know about the other, Miss United, but here in Broward, Mondays and Thursdays, we have what they call we bring in all our community partners so they can see all of them in one building. You don't have to go A, B, they can come see us any time of the day of the week and we can set them up Monday through Friday and but if they come on Mondays or Thursdays. I mean, sometimes the VA will even bring one of those mobile medical buses to us so they can get their shots, they can get their examinations, whatever they need, right then and there, whatever happens, that's stood in a VA. So we try to minimize their amount of moving around, but we do most of the work to prevent them. So we will always advocate for them first, what is it you need, Okay, so so tell us what's neat, let's talk before we put you on the road. We're not going to send you anywhere, traveling anywhere until we make sure that we're minimizing the amount of time that you're spending in travel.

Scott McLean:

so mondays and thursdays, say I don't need to call 9-1-1. I'm just curious. I want to go find out about 2-1-1. What did I say? 9-1-1. Yeah, oh, okay, I won't even edit that. Yeah, so I don't need to call 2-1-1,. And now I just heard what you had to say. So I go down to where.

Sean MacFee:

We're just down the street from the courthouse. You can actually find the address In Fort Lauderdale. In Fort Lauderdale yeah, we're literally just down the street from the courthouse. I don't have the address memorized off the top of my head.

Scott McLean:

It's around Andrews right.

Sean MacFee:

Yeah, it's Andrews. Yeah, you can look it up on our website. You can go to Mission United and look up the address or call us. Our phone number is on there. You can always call us.

Scott McLean:

Yeah.

Sean MacFee:

I mean, even though I don't work in what they call our veteran resource centers, people call me all the time. Somehow they just punch numbers and they end up with me and I'm like I got no problem. They ask me all kinds of questions, like I don't have the answers. But let me tell you who can and I'll give them and let's make sure, let me call and make sure they're in the office before I transfer you and I always give them, like here's my number, here's my extension, just in case you didn't get it.

Scott McLean:

If you call me back, because I'm going to track it down and find out why they haven't called you back. And that's one of the beautiful things of Mission United in general, you do not get dusted off. You do not. If you're a veteran, trust me, they will not dust you off and be like, yeah, we'll get back to you. I know that it's action, it's like we're going to help you. I know that it's action. It's like we're going to help you and as quick as a time as they can, considering the situation, like, yeah, they'll handle you. They will not blow you off.

Sean MacFee:

That's because a lot of us who work in a Miss United department not all of us, but quite a few of us are veterans and we're disabled veterans. We've all been in different situations. It's a long story for another podcast. But I was a kid. I was homeless. I remember being homeless. I lived in a tent. I used to do my homework by firelight, you know, because my parents didn't have enough money for a place to live it's like. So I understand that. You know what it was kind of like to be homeless. You know scraping bottles. You know, for five cents of, you know, pop, so that we can, you know, have enough money for gas, yeah know. So we've all been through the process at one point or another. Some of us have, you know, PTSD. Some of us have other issues. So we can relate. The last thing we're ever going to do is leave a brother and sister and their family, you know, hanging dry. We're going to make sure and that's one thing I like about this organization, the people I work with, you know we all have that.

Sean MacFee:

One employee You're like why are you here? I mean, we all have that. We look at them like why I've been with this group. You know, like I said, I've worked side by side with them for the last six years. I've been working for them for almost a year now and I have yet to meet that one employee, I mean even our front desk guy. As soon as you walk into United Way, he's like what can I do? How fast? What can I get you? Can you get a drink of water? Everybody, right up to our CEO. I have never worked for a CEO that has more energy, passion than Kathleen. I mean, she's just wonderful to work for.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, james is an okay guy too. Yeah, james Eaton's an okay guy.

Sean MacFee:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know you just.

Scott McLean:

No, he's a really good guy. I was being facetious.

Sean MacFee:

But you know, I tell vets, like you know, one of the things that James is phenomenal about, as well as the CEO, is they're open to. Hey, have you ever thought about doing this? Yeah, and one of the things we, james and I, created was a survey what services do you not get enough of? James and I created was a survey what services do you not get enough of? So we sent it out to all the community partners trying to get back like tell us, tell us what we're doing wrong and what would you like to see more of, or what are we doing right, so that we can do a better job at what we're doing. And that's what I really like about this.

Sean MacFee:

I like I said I have yet to meet that one coworker going why are you here? I mean, everybody I work with is super passionate about everything we do. I mean you walk into some place and somebody's just like you were like how are you in customer service with that attitude? I have yet to see that in Mission United or United Way, even when I go over to the Veteran Resource Center to talk and visit, they make sure that every. Are you okay? Do you need some coffee you need? Are you okay, are you comfortable? I mean, they constantly were like, hey, listen, you know. Like, if you're, hey, you know what's taking so long. Hey, they need a couple more. They make sure that when the vets come in there they're not a number very welcoming.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, yeah, how many veterans do you know or do you think get served a month or a year through Mission United Broward County?

Sean MacFee:

I don't see the end numbers Right, but I believe somebody told me last year we were able to support 4,000 veterans and their families. I think I'll have to double check that number. I apologize if I'm wrong, but I know that we are constantly helping vets every day and the numbers grow. Sometimes they're a little less on some months, but I believe, if I remember, when we were talking about numbers about a month or two back, somebody said we had helped 4,000 veterans last year.

Scott McLean:

Wow, Wow, and there's a lot of veterans in the South Florida area, that's for sure.

Sean MacFee:

A lot of it is just people constantly ask well, if veterans have all these benefits and these resources, then why are they on the streets? Because it's all about communications. It's because you got to remember. A lot of them, prior to 2011, weren't told what their benefits were. They didn't know. I always tell people there's about 150,000 service members who leave service every year for whatever reason, whether they're kicked out their contract's up or they retire. You think about that is 150,000 members leave service before 2011,. Were given no information about it. I know I didn't, yep.

Scott McLean:

I didn't get anything, and that's another thing that a lot of veterans don't know about nonprofits and this is my listeners hear this all the time but I'm still frustrated and fascinated at the same time at the lack of publicity that nonprofits for veterans and I can only be specific to veterans because that's the world I'm in but nonprofits in general. But in our world, the lack of knowledge that these things exist, mission United, broward County exists. I lived in Hollywood for 20 years, 15 years. I didn't know you guys. I probably could have used you guys.

Sean MacFee:

Yeah, I even had that when I was working for CareerSource Broward. I mean, a common thing we used to hear all the time I worked out of their Coconut Creek office for a while. And the most common thing we used to hear I've lived here for X number of years. I didn't know you guys existed until unemployment sent me here.

Scott McLean:

It's unbelievable why this isn't a thing Like. Veterans don't know about these things. There's so many of them.

Sean MacFee:

Well, it's because a lot of the grants that a non-profits receive, there's only certain things you can do with the money, and marketing is usually the smallest part of that. Yeah, so it's very difficult to market it, because that's the question we're talking about, like how can we don't have tv commercials, yeah, you know.

Sean MacFee:

So that's why I'm trying to get out there on the podcast you know circuit, because a lot of people seem to be listening to those versus radio nowadays and try to get an understanding is, there is a ton of services out there. I mean even the va has a ton of services, but they don't talk about them. I mean, I found out right before I retired that the, the va, offers a reimbursement for travel. A lot of vets are not aware of that.

Sean MacFee:

I tell them all the time whether you drive five miles or you drive 50 miles, you get reimbursement for your travel yeah yeah, you know that there was all kinds of stuff like that and like they give like a I can't remember how much there was, like I think it was the last time I looked it was like 22 000 to remodel or purchase a new vehicle if your disability has an issue with your driving. Nobody knows these things they actually do. Where they have a clothing allowance, reimbursement.

Scott McLean:

Wow.

Sean MacFee:

That if you, like you have a medical device that ruins your clothes Like you're one of those guys that have, or gals that have one of those like you got to wear the injector for your back yeah, it ruins your clothes you can submit a travel. You can submit a reimbursement claim to be reimbursed because the medical devices that are service-connected are destroying your clothes. Yeah, the vets don't know that.

Scott McLean:

So what's an average day for Sean McPhee?

Sean MacFee:

You know, that's one thing about it.

Scott McLean:

Or there's no such thing as an average day. There's no such thing for men.

Sean MacFee:

When I meet with people all the time, like you know, like I go out to a lot of chamber and community events and they're like, oh hey, have you ever thought about being a chamber meeting? I mean member, and I'm like, well, it's very difficult for me because no day is the same for me. I mean, there was a time I was laughing. I went in at 8, 30, 10 minutes after I got there I got a phone call saying we needed somebody to be representing event and plantation and since I was in the office, could I grab a bunch of stuff and go? Oh sure, when does it start? 15 minutes, and you want me to get from fort lauderdale to plantation? All right, I'll do my best. Yeah, and I drove down there.

Sean MacFee:

There are some days where, from the minute I get up till the minute I get home, I'm going from one event to another or i'm'm meeting with one of our politicians or, you know, you know a few people don't know, a couple of our politicians are veterans themselves, which makes my life much easier to converse with them and advocate, you know. And they're more open, receptive. And there's quite a few other. You know our community partners, you know, especially, like I said, those in the politician realm that are open to helping vets.

Scott McLean:

So and Mission United, broward County takes donations.

Sean MacFee:

Yes, we actually. Even on our website you can do donations. Like you know, everybody gets the typical donations for holidays but we still get donations for all kinds of stuff. You know, I even had a community partner ask me like, hey, we're always looking for volunteer events. We have on our webpage unitedwaybrowardorg. You can look at it. We have a volunteer slot If you're open and you want to do some volunteer stuff with us. Great and hint hint for any of those out there looking for work. Some of the best people to meet is at a volunteer event, because not everybody is an employee or a volunteer. Some of them are CEOs, some of them are politicians. Can't tell you the number of vets that have helped find work that went out to a volunteer event and met somebody and got a job. So throwing that out there.

Scott McLean:

There you go. Good information, alright. Is there anything else you want to tell us about the website address, anything like that?

Sean MacFee:

Unitedway Brouwerorg is the website and Mission United is a backslash mission. Mission-unitedorg is in there as well, or you can just find everything right on the United Way page and we've updated it. We have events that are going on community events.

Scott McLean:

And anything coming up in the next couple of months that you know offhand.

Sean MacFee:

Well, we're always having events going on. One of the major ones that we're having come up we have a mental health summit that we put on once a year is coming up in May. We'll be hosting that at the Broward Convention Center Usually oh God, trying to think we had like a thousand people last year.

Sean MacFee:

I think so. It was very informative. A lot of talk about where things are going with mental health, the different things that we're doing, what they call it the chamber now, the different things that we're doing. What do they call it the chamber now? The Baramac Chamber thing. That seems to be a good way. Mental health of some of the community.

Scott McLean:

Oh, you're talking like the 22 Project, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, the hypergenic thing. Yeah, that's a big deal.

Sean MacFee:

That's a big deal that's been going on and they're striving in new ways of helping veterans, particularly for mental health issues. So it's a very great you know different ways of doing it. I met a community partner that where you know, kind of like Dr Phil's, you know doctors without borders. They kind of do the same thing for vets, you know, but it's an online, so you know, definitely a lot of stuff.

Scott McLean:

All right. Well, sean, thanks for coming on the podcast. My friend Glad you liked the big pink couch in the One man, one Mic Foundation studio. Here's my cheap plug for the One man, one Mic Foundation. Go to my website, onemanonemicfoundationorg. See what we're doing over there. We're helping veterans, we're teaching them how to podcast, because, well, there's been no point in the history of this country where a veteran has had more of an opportunity to be heard than there is right now in this moment. It's not TikTok or Instagram, it's podcasting, because you're not doing a 30-second clip or a one-minute clip. You can talk and we teach veterans from start to finish, from concept to publication. It's all free how to do it, and this place is charging a lot of money to do that.

Sean MacFee:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, and a little plug for podcasts. You know there's quite a few. You have one, I have one, plug it. Yeah, so mine is from Battlefront to Homefront. It's on Facebook, so that's talking about all the services that Mission United and United Way provide for services. But you know, podcasts definitely come away. We actually quite a few famous people on TV started out as a podcast.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, and I will get James on here eventually. Yep, I know, pinning him down is like trying to get a greasy cat.

Sean MacFee:

Yeah, him and I are different because even I have to pin down. That's why half the time I have to email him to let him know what I'm doing, because him and I are in different schedules. So, yeah, like half the time I'm like when I went into the office this morning I forgot what my password for my computer was.

Scott McLean:

Haven't we all? I'm going to do my outro and stick around. Of course You're sitting in front of me, so you're not going anywhere. Well, once again we built another bridge this was a very good bridge from county to county to county, mission United. Look them up, go to the websites Broward County, palm Beach County, Dade County. They're all doing great work for veterans.

Scott McLean:

If you're not interested, but you know a veteran or a family member of a veteran that might be interested in their services, let them know. And again I want to thank you for listening. Your support has been amazing. This podcast is it's already far exceeded my expectation. I appreciate people like Sean reaching out and wanting to be on the podcast and while you listeners are the engine that drives this machine. So again, thanks for listening. I think that's it. Stick around for the public service announcement. Yeah, the public service announcement at the end. It's a very informative one. It actually mentions 2-1-1 and all the services that 2-1-1 has, and 9-8-8. And it helps veterans, family members of veterans, friends of veterans or just general public. Take a listen. It's only 30 seconds long and it's my wife's voice, so it's very nice, soft, easy going. It's not my, my voice. It's worth listening to after my voice. So, and yeah, like I always say, you will hear me next week with a new episode.

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Scott McLean

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