Sterling Women Manassas Presents Jaspen Boothe of Final Salute

Sterling Women Manassas was proud to have Jaspen Boothe present at this week’s networking luncheon. A former U.S. Army captain, Boothe founded Final Salute Inc., a charity that helps homeless women Veterans.

Boothe is no stranger to adversity.

In 2005, Boothe relocated to New Orleans after finishing ROTC. She was training for her first deployment to Iraq when Hurricane Katrina hit. She lost everything except her son, who was staying with his aunt at the time. While others were combing through the wreckage in New Orleans, Boothe was visiting a doctor only to discovery a malignant mass, causing her to miss her deployment. Her cancer was already stage 2, almost stage 3, and things didn’t look good with the treatment’s 50/50 success rate. She was treated for 6 months in San Antonio and, in spite of the odds, was afterwards declared cancer free and discharged.

Boothe then went to the Virginia, but she discovered there were no resources for female vets, especially homeless ones. Because she was a single mother, the V.A. sent her to another office for assistance, where she said she was not treated with the respect deserved to someone who had served her country with honor. That office offered her $300 for food stamps, when the month prior she had been making $3,000 to $4,000. She stayed on her aunt’s sofa until she found a job with the National Guard in Missouri.

In 2006 Boothe found a job in Washington, D.C., where she hoped to find more resources for vets. She was shocked to find that despite having such a large Veteran population, there were still no resources for female vets. She decided to take action and started Final Salute Inc.

Final Salute Inc. does not receive any government funding, though the V.A. refers more women to them than any other organization. Currently they have 9,000 square feet in Alexandria, but they are working to expand that. The women housed there are employed and do their own housekeeping. Boothe trusts each woman with a key to the house, as they were trusted with fully-loaded M16s before. Final Salute helps these women truly gain the skills they need to live independently. They set two-year goals during their time there and gain the tools to stand on their own once they leave (including financial skills and budgeting).

Final Salute Inc. needs help to fund their efforts housing and providing financial education and counseling to homeless women vets, as well as donations for their Stand Up event. Every May at their Stand Up event, they provide business clothing, purses and other accoutrements women need to enter the civilian workforce after spending years in uniform. Some of these women have never had a civilian job before.

There is a huge need for this organization, Boothe said, sharing a few bleak facts about women Veterans. Women have the highest divorce rate in the military and often lose custody of their children when they receive divorce papers while deployed. There are over 55,000 homeless female vets. There is a stigma attached to homelessness that she hopes to disprove. The homeless population isn’t all living under bridges and abusing drugs and alcohol. Many are just single mothers who don’t have any services available to help them.

When Boothe works with the most hard-hit women Veterans, she wants them to feel empowered. She said she breaks a pencil in half and has the woman write her name, to show that even though it’s broken, it still works. She then writes a heart under the woman’s name and puts the woman’s hand on her own heart. She tells them, “If your heart is still beating, you still have time.”

For more information on Final Salute, visit www.finalsaluteinc.org.

Sterling Women Manassas is a local network of professionals committed to encouraging, supporting, inspiring and strengthening one another. Through events and monthly meetings, Sterling Women Manassas showcases and celebrates exceptional women in the Prince William Area.

Sterling Women Manassas’ next program will feature Jennifer DuPlessis of Kinetic Spark Consulting.