Jacksonville is putting its military community at the center of its economic development strategy with new legislation encouraging companies receiving certain city incentives to hire veterans and active-duty military spouses.<\/p>\n
The Stand for Service Act encourages companies receiving certain economic development incentives to make a good-faith effort to have qualified veterans and active-duty military spouses fill at least 10% of new jobs created.<\/p>\n
Companies will also self-report the number of veterans and military spouses hired as part of the incentive process, allowing the city to track the results.<\/p>\n
Jacksonville City Council President Nick Howland, who sponsored the legislation, said the goal is to make Jacksonville the number one military and veteran community in the country while connecting the military workforce to the city’s growing industries.<\/p>\n
“This should be a goal that every company should want to aspire to,” Howland said.<\/p>\n
Howland said Jacksonville is looking to expand industries including aerospace, marine, defense, medical and logistics – fields he said can benefit from the skills and experience veterans bring to the civilian workforce.<\/p>\n
“A workforce that gives back to its community and a workforce that already stands for sacrifice and service that’ll serve the companies that they work for well,” Howland said.<\/p>\n
Rich Possert with Operation New Uniform, a Jacksonville organization that helps veterans and military spouses transition into civilian careers, said he does not see Jacksonville as a community where veterans generally struggle to find jobs.<\/p>\n
Instead, he sees the new legislation as another way to strengthen a community that already has a strong support system for its military population.<\/p>\n
“This community is one of the strongest military and veteran communities in the country,” Possert said.<\/p>\n
Possert said military spouses can face more significant employment challenges because of the frequent moves that come with military life.<\/p>\n
“Moving every three to five years or less, having to drop a career because of a military move,” Possert said.<\/p>\n
He said veterans and military spouses bring valuable skills to civilian employers, including adaptability and the ability to overcome adversity.<\/p>\n
“You know they’re able to overcome adversity. They’re well adapted,” Possert said.<\/p>\n
The legislation also recognizes Cecil Airport as a major driver of workforce and economic development in Jacksonville and Northeast Florida.<\/p>\n
Projects that benefit Cecil Airport and its associated spaceport will receive additional positive consideration when the city evaluates them for public investment.<\/p>\n
Howland said the policy is ultimately about bringing the city’s economic development efforts and military community together.<\/p>\n
“Veterans are people who’ve written blank checks up to and including their lives for our country. Now our community is coming together for our veterans,” Howland said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacksonville is putting its military community at the center of its economic development strategy with new legislation encouraging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[32234,116,4040,118,117,153939],"class_list":["post-384231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-howland","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-city-council","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-possert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}