Ginger Baine Miller

Who: Ginger Baine Miller is a veteran activist, more specifically a homeless and women veteran activist. She has found her purpose in life in the form of helping homeless and women veterans find a purpose and drive in their lives. Miller is also a mother and wife, and loves her family very much. She is a very spiritually based person, and has used that faith to drive her organizations, such as John 14:2 Inc. She is originally from New York City, and  previously a homeless veteran herself. She and her family were homeless for a few years and because of that hardship she invests her time into working on helping people in similar situations escape.

What: Ginger is the CEO and starter of John 14:2, Inc. She runs an activist group that helps veterans, specifically women and homeless veterans. Their motto is “Putting Veterans First, Keeping Veterans First”. Their mission “is to restore hope, provide housing options, and support for veterans and their families in need, so they may be able to live a full life.” Ginger has based her whole organization off of a scripture verse, “In my Fathers house there are many rooms: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” Together Miller and the organization they have formed activist movements. Recently she has formed a branch of John 14:2 Inc called Woman Veteran Interactive, that is devoted to women veterans affairs. The Women Veteran Interactive mission is “Supporting women veterans through advocacy, empowerment, interaction, outreach, and unification.” They put together rallies to work on raising awareness. Over the past decade Ginger has found a passion for helping veterans facing substance abuse, homelessness and mental illness.

Image courtesy of the “Women’s Veteran Interactive” page of the John 14:2 Inc. website.

When: John 14:2 began in 2009 after years of working with people pertaining to veteran affairs.  After a few years of being homeless herself she decided it was time to raise awareness about this issue, since so many veterans suffer from varying issues.  After establishing a new life, Ginger has spoken at many conferences and gatherings and eventually made her efforts her full time job.  Acting as a keynote speaker for years on various platforms of veteran rights is what drove Ginger to form an organization to really get people to understand the woes many veterans go through.  Women Veterans Interactive is a more recent organization birthed from John 14:2. Ginger launched that branch earlier this year.

Where: John 14:2 Inc and Women Veteran Interactive are both based out of Washington D.C., but Ginger does a great deal of traveling with the companies. She has attended many different state functions across the United States. This also reaches out to the whole country, because homeless and women veterans are affected everywhere, not just in one city. She has lived in Washington D.C. for many years now, and uses that city as her home base to the rest of her involvement with veterans.

Why: The reason Ginger is so passionate about her organization is because she has lived the pain. She has been homeless with her family after her tour, and she has worked everyday to help her husband who suffers greatly from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In the United States there are about 107,000 homeless veterans right now. Many of them suffer from some type of substance abuse, Ginger hopes to lessen the number of people “living in cheap hotels, overcrowded state homes, or on the streets who have previously served in the armed forces.”  From her personal experiences of being a homeless veteran she has found a drive to achieve great work.

How: Through having functions and making speeches she tries to get the word out about her two different organizations. She also works on actually goin out and helping the people that need it on a personal level. She volunteers with them and acts as another person that someone can come to and talk to about the issues they are having. She also has other men and women who have served this country go to even greater lengths and gives out their contact information to show many veterans who are suffering that they are not alone and they have support.

Contact Information: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/#!/John142Inc?fref=ts

URL to website:

John 14:2 – http://www.john142vets.org/aboutus/missionandvision.html

Women Veteran Interactive – http://womenveteransinteractive.org/

Summary of Website: The website for Women’s Veterans Interactive has several pages within it including a programs sections that consists of four programs, which are advocacy, outreach, housing, and homelessness. There are also sections that discuss how to become a member, news for female vets, and much more.

Summary of Organization: John 14:2 Inc. – an organization based off the verse from the Bible John 14:2, saying that there is no one that should not have a home. The organization helps support and raise awareness about homeless veterans who suffer not only from not having a home but from substance abuse and PTSD.

Women Veterans Interactive- This organization’s goal to to meet every woman veteran at her own need, not just homelessness. The organization is run by woman veterans and military spouses to really have a supportive impact on these women’s lives.

Connection to Military: Served for 4 years in the United States Navy from 1989-1992 and military wife to a husband that suffers from PTSD.

Notable actions:

• Chairwoman Prince George’s County, Maryland Veterans Commission. July 2012 to present

• Commissioner Maryland Commission for Women, 2011 to present

• Women Veterans Interactive, 2011 to present

• Member Maryland Caregivers Support Coordinating Council, April 2010 to present

• Keynote Speaker

• “Woman Of Valor” in Essence Magazine, December 2011

Resources:

1.“Navy Veteran Ginger Baine Miller” Goodinkmag. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

2. “John 14:2.” Homeless Veterans, John 14:2. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

3. New International Version.. BibleGateway.com.  Web. 15 Mar. 2013.

4. “About Us.” Women Veteran Interactive. Web. 15 Nov. 2013

5. “Ginger Miller, CEO & Founder.” Women Veteran Interactive. Web. 15 Nov. 2013

6. “Ginger Baine Miller” Facebook. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.