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'Our passion is to see veterans' lives healed'

Nashville Post - 6/27/2017

Evan Owens founded in 2011, with wife Jenny, nonprofit REBOOT Combat Recovery, which works with military families facing various challenges

The Post recently chatted with him.

After four years, you and Jenny transitioned to full-time work with the nonprofit in 2015. What type of progress has been made since and what goals remain?

What began with just people meeting in our living room spread onto three military bases, and we were beginning to get calls from people, just like us, all over the country who wanted to know if they could start a REBOOT course in their communities.

So in 2015, I left my role as the CEO of Centresource and shifted my focus to helping REBOOT expand. We finalized an updated version of our curriculum, and began partnering with clinics, churches and other nonprofits to offer our combat trauma healing course anywhere that military families were hurting.

Today, REBOOT is operating in more than 60 locations across 23 states with new locations starting every month. Of the nearly 1,700 people that have graduated from our courses, zero have committed suicide. In a population where there are more than 20 suicides committed per day, we don't take this statistic lightly.

What is Jenny's role?

While serving as an occupational therapist at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, Jenny saw firsthand that there was still a missing gap in the care and treatment models for military families struggling from post-traumatic stress and combat trauma. Patients would ask questions like, "Can my soul die?" They weren't merely seeking healing from their symptoms, but were seeking to heal their heart. While on a road trip to Cincinnati, she read a story by Nate Self, a war hero, as he described a group of "bridge people" who laid down their life to help him heal. We didn't know exactly how it would work, but we knew we could do that. We could lay down our lives and offer help, however that might look. From that seed of an idea, God began to open doors and soon we formed REBOOT.

Today, Jenny leads our expansion and outcomes efforts. We work very hard to ensure that our quality remains consistent at each location, so she assists with a vetting and onboarding process prior to each locations launch. She also oversees our outcomes studies. As a faith-based organization, it is imperative that we prove our effectiveness in the medical arena. In order to do that, we have partnered with Belmont University and are continuing studies at many of our locations.

To date, our courses have proven to lead to statistically significant reductions in anxiety, depression and fatigue. We have also seen statistically significant increases in characteristics that help prevent future moral injury (which is similar to psychological trauma).

You offer your 12-week course in 23 states, with the courses primarily held at churches and military facilities. Is expansion on the horizon?

As we have expanded, our mission remains the same. We help hurting military families heal from the spiritual and moral wounds of war. We will continue expanding in the U.S. and abroad in the coming years with a goal of launching 300 locations. Also, later this year, we will roll out a new program called Firstline Recovery, which offers a stress and trauma healing course designed specifically for first responders and their families. It will mirror much of what we have seen work in REBOOT communities.

The course focus is unusual within your industry. Why that approach?

If you would have asked someone 40 years ago, "Could your mind be wounded?" they would have looked at you with a puzzled look. However, today the answer to that question is a foregone conclusion. We are asking and answering the question, "Can your soul be wounded?" If the answer is "yes," then REBOOT is a practical solution to healing wounded souls.

Our course blends clinical insight and faith-based support, giving hurting military families "everyday living" applicable solutions for healing. We partner with many mental health professionals and greatly value the work they do. However, if we are composed of mind, body and soul, it is logical that attention should be paid to the soul of a person.

Each week, participants in our courses tackle a topic related to a wounded soul such as forgiveness of self and others, answering the age old question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" and how to overcome false guilt.

We find that many symptoms associated with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) are fruits of a deeper root. A person might be presenting the symptom of anger, but the root of that is an inability or unwillingness to forgive someone who hurt them. Or they might be isolating themselves from others, but the root is pride or a belief that no one can possibly understand what they have experienced.

You once served as CEO of Nashville-based software development company Centresource. Why did you leave?

Without my time at Centresource, there would be no REBOOT. Everywhere I go, I am asked how I am able to break the mold of "nonprofit mismanagement" and expand so quickly. I tell everyone who wants to start a nonprofit that they should go work at a small business for at least five years first. By 2014, REBOOT had launched several satellite locations and was experiencing significant growth. So, full of doubts and excitement, in November 2014, I announced that I would be stepping down from my role at Centresource and resigned the following March of 2015. Along the way, there were markers that indicated it was time for me to step down. And honestly, it had become too much to manage. With the support of Jenny, we took the leap. Even at that time, though, I never dreamed REBOOT would be what it is becoming today.

In March 2016, then-Wounded Warrior Project CEO Steven Nardizzi and COO Al Giordano were fired by the charity's board amid criticisms regarding lavish spending on parties, hotel and travel. Has the controversy with Wounded Warrior made your job more challenging?

It hasn't had an effect on our organization. Our courses are completely free to attend and led by volunteers within the community, many of whom are veterans who genuinely want to help the men and women overcome PTS.

You are not a military veteran. I would think that can be either a positive or a negative - or both. Thoughts?

I'm not sure if it is a positive or negative, but it is the hand I was dealt. You can't always pick what you become passionate about. My father is a Vietnam War veteran. And when my wife went to work for the Department of Defense, I began to see firsthand the "war" our military men and women faced when they came home. This war wasn't physical in nature, but spiritual. The enemies of this war wanted to devour the lives of these heroes financially, mentally, emotionally, relationally and spiritually. Seeing the battle they were fighting, I felt I could help. So I did.

There are times when the fact that I am a civilian hurts our credibility. But I am not the focus or center of REBOOT Combat Recovery. In fact, I don't even like to be the face of our organization, because it is the leaders who are stepping up to lead courses around the country that make us who we are. You aren't interviewing me because of the great work "Evan and Jenny" have done. It is because of the great work they have done.

REBOOT also assists, for example, police officers, firefighters and paramedics. Thoughts?

Veterans are not the only ones who experience PTS as a result of their careers. The situations that police officers, firefighters and EMS workers have to witness can haunt them for the rest of their lives. You'll often hear me say that the job doesn't end when the siren stops. That's why later this year we will launch Firstline Recovery, a course designed specifically for first responders and their families. It is so tragic that often the first to respond during our moments of crisis are the last to seek help during theirs.

What can you say regarding the fiscal health of the nonprofit. For example, are donations per quarter increasing at a certain percent.

I'm happy to share all of our financial information. We operate as a highly transparent organization to both donors and our board and staff. Prior to 2015, we existed on less than $50,000 per year that was donated by just a handful of people who believed in the vision. Once I began to focus on REBOOT full time, we began to see growth of our finances and they have continued to expand year after year. In 2015, $305,000; in 2016, $543,000; and in 2017, we anticipate receiving $700,000 of support.

How many paid staffers do you have, and is that a sufficient number?

We currently have four full-time staff. They work around the clock and, of course, we could always use another hand. We also have a small team of three part-time employees who help us in key areas of our organization. We anticipate hiring two to three more people in the coming year.

There are multiple nonprofits nationwide working with veterans suffering from PTSD. Is that competition good, bad or a bit of both?

Our passion is to see veterans' lives healed. We do believe that our courses have that power, as we've witnessed it firsthand. That said, we fully support other organizations aiming to heal and better the lives of veterans and first responders suffering from PTSD. When the average number of veteran suicides is cut down from more than 20 per day to zero, that is a good day and we know we've done our job.