Team Rubicon is an American non-government organization (NGO) founded by U.S. Marines William McNulty and Jacob "Jake" Wood. Team Rubicon identifies itself as a veteran service organization that uses disaster response to help reintegrate veterans back into civilian life.
Video Team Rubicon
History
Team Rubicon formed in January 2010 following the Haiti earthquake, when William McNulty and Jacob "Jake" Wood led a medical team into Port-au-Prince three days after the earthquake. The first Team Rubicon was an initial team of eight. They gathered funds and medical supplies from friends and family and flew into the Dominican Republic. They rented a truck, loaded their gear, and headed west to Haiti. The team treated thousands of patients, traveling to camps deemed "too dangerous" by other aid organizations. They ventured outside the traditional scale of disaster response, focusing on those who would be overlooked, untreated.
The experience was the beginning of Team Rubicon. Team Rubicon wanted to solve two problems: (1) Inadequate disaster response which is often slow to respond, has an antiquated infrastructure, and is not using the best technological solutions or well-trained members and (2) inadequate veteran reintegration into civilian life, where military veterans, whose training, skills, and experience, makes them very effective in disaster response, can reduce suicide within their community and address integration issues by helping others in an opportunity to provide service to others.
The death of fellow Rubicon member Clay Hunt from suicide re-focused Team Rubicon's organizational mission on to veteran reintegration. The team's role in domestic disasters is both to provide humanitarian assistance and as an outlet to let veterans continue to serve. Similar to other veteran integration programs using models found in initiatives like Team Red, White & Blue and the Wounded Warrior Project, Team Rubicon shifted its focus on helping veterans - the organizations often work together.
The name Rubicon is from the phrase "crossing the Rubicon," an idiom to mean passing a point of no return. The red and dark gray logo is made up of a sideways cross, a traditional symbol of first aid but here on its side as a departure from the traditional, with a river running through the logo, as a symbol of the gap between disasters and disaster relief.
Wood and his work with Team Rubicon were profiled alongside fellow vet Eric Greitens and The Mission Continues founder as the subject of Time columnist Joe Klein's 2015 book, Charlie Mike.
J.J. Watt, defensive end for the Houston Texans, raised an unexpected $37 million towards the relief efforts, and so consulted SBP, a disaster relief organization based in New Orleans, and Team Rubicon for how to best spend the funds.
Maps Team Rubicon
Scope of work
Since the Haiti earthquake, Team Rubicon has deployed on over 175 operations including international operations in Pakistan (2010 Pakistan floods), Chile (2010 Chile tsunami), Burma (2010 Thai-Burma border conflict), Sudan, Ecuador, Nepal, Greece, and Turkey.
Domestically, Team Rubicon has responded to disasters such as Hurricane Matthew, Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Debby, Hurricane Isaac, Hurricane Sandy, and the tornado destruction of Moore, Oklahoma.
In June 2015, Team Rubicon completed its 100th disaster mission, Operation Five Points in Aston, Pennsylvania.
Leadership
In 2013, General (Ret.) David Petraeus joined Team Rubicon's Board of Advisors. Petraeus promoted the work of veteran reintegration, citing its importance to soldiers returning from war.
Three years later, in 2016, civil rights expert Ehsan Zaffar joined the Board of Advisors.
Additional high-profile advisors are General Stanley McChrystal, USA (Ret.) and former New York Stock Exchange CEO Duncan Niederauer, who serves on the board of directors. General James T. Conway, USMC (Ret.) and Lt Gen Russel L. Honoré, USA (Ret.) as well as private sector business people Andy Bessette from Travelers Insurance, Jeff Dailey, CEO of Farmers Group, Gregg Lemkau from Goldman Sachs, John Pitts from Kirkland & Ellis, Richard Serino, former Deputy Administrator of FEMA, and Jeff Smith from FedEx serve as advisors to Team Rubicon. Many are former military or have logistical expertise that helps guide Team Rubicon.
Additional high-profile supporters are former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Former President Bush included Team Rubicon as one of the case studies of as part of its research on veteran serving nonprofits (VSNP).
Partnerships
In 2012, Team Rubicon became a nonprofit partner of the Got Your 6 campaign which was supported by the U.S. entertainment industry.
In 2012, Team Rubicon used Palantir Technologies software for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts to assist with geo-spatial and temporal analysis as a way to leverage technology to make response more effective and more efficient. During Hurricane Sandy, a volunteer team of technologists from Palantir went on site with Team Rubicon, setting up a command station in a green school bus, creating customized software solutions that consolidated previous paper form systems into a cloud-based, data-driven support for volunteers to coordinate relief efforts.
In 2016, Team Rubicon was named Tough Mudder's official U.S. charity partner.
Clay Hunt Fellows Program
The Clay Hunt Fellows Program is a 12-month leadership development fellowship created by Team Rubicon. It is named after Clay Hunt, one of the original members of Team Rubicon who lost his battle with PTSD and depression in 2011. It was founded in 2013. On February 12, 2015, a veteran suicide prevention bill, the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act or the Clay Hunt SAV ("Suicide Prevention for American Veterans") Act, named in his honor, became law.
Awards and honors
- 2011: GQ Foundation, Winner, Better Men Better World, Jake Wood
- 2012: CNN Hero, Jake Wood
- 2012: Classy Awards, National Small Charity of the Year
- 2012: Grinnell Prize
- 2012: Chase American Giving Awards, "Heroes and Leaders" National Award
- 2015: Presidential Leadership Scholar, William McNulty
See also
- Veterans of Foreign Wars
- The American Legion
- The Mission Continues
References
Further reading
- Wood, Jake (2014). Take Command Lessons in Leadership: How to Be a First Responder in Business. New York: Crown Business. ISBN 978-0-804-13839-0. OCLC 985805914.
- Klein, Joe (2015). Charlie Mike: A True Story of War and Finding the Way Home. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-451-67730-0. OCLC 908108575.
- Serving Our Post-9/11 Veterans: Leading Practices Among Non-Profit Organizations (PDF). Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF), Syracuse University and The Bush Institute at the George W. Bush Presidential Center. 17 February 2015.
- Serving Our Post-9/11 Veterans: A Toolkit for Non-Profit Organizations (PDF). Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF), Syracuse University and The Bush Institute at the George W. Bush Presidential Center. 17 February 2015.
External links
- TeamRubiconUSA.org
- TeamRubiconGlobal.org
- Clay Hunt Fellowship Program
Source of article : Wikipedia
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