[May 29, 2015] Occasionally I present non-profit or volunteer organizations that help our military veterans. Today, I have the honor to present an organization made up mostly of veterans who are putting their military skills and experiences together to help others in need. Team Rubicon performs the unique role of rapidly filling the gaps in aid that normally happens in a disaster. They do this using rapidly deployable emergency response teams.1
Team Rubicon has an excellent website that lays out they do. Mostly the organization is about our military veterans helping others after natural disasters; whether overseas or right here in the United States. What the website does not tell you are that those veterans helping are often troubled themselves and by doing the difficult work of helping others after a disaster, they are helping rehabilitate themselves from the mental and physical effects of war.
They have a simple and clear mission statement: “Team Rubicon unites the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams.”2 “Bridge the Gap” refers to Team Rubicon’s primary mission of providing disaster relief between the moment a disaster happens and the point at which conventional aid organizations respond. When that aid responds, Team Rubicon moves on. You can learn more about Team Rubicon’s work and origins in Chapter 7 in the book For Love of Country: What our Veterans can Teach us about Citizenship, Heroism, and Sacrifice.
I found their list of operational principles to be inspiring and obviously, I think, built by someone who has spent time in the miltiary.3 For example, “tenacity” is their first principle and they are clear that the conduct all operations with grit, determination, courage, and strength of purpose. This sounds very familiar to those who read these pages in theLeaderMaker.com; they are the characteristics of great leaders.
Thanks to all those who are part of Team Rubicon. You have my respect for what you do.
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[1] http://www.teamrubiconusa.org/
[2] http://www.teamrubiconusa.org/our-mission/
[3] Team Rubicon Operating Principles are:
Tenacity, Excellence, Impartiality, Service, Collaboration, Transparency, Accountability, Priority, Adaptability, and Innovation. Details on this can be found at their website: http://www.teamrubiconusa.org/our-mission/