The past week I have seen an uptick with veteran suicide on social media and this is yet another reminded on why we started Expert-Exchange and also a while ago launched #beyond22. This holiday season we are going to relaunch #beyond22. The rules are simple, it is similar to the 22 push up a day challenge, instead it is more action orientated. Each day you will either call a veteran, recognize a veteran run business or organization doing great things, donate your time or money with a veteran organization. The focus is on ACTION and IMPLEMENTATION. The 7 minute and 38 second videoblog is worth the listen, we could help save a life and not even realize that we did. 
​
Increasing awareness while implementing action. Expert-Exchange just launched an initiative this holiday season trying to increase awareness while implementing action for the 22 a day push up challenge. That is the goal of #beyond22. There are many well-intentioned people in the world that want to support veterans, but don’t know how to go about it. This page can serve as a resource for not only those individuals, but for veterans and veteran organizations. It is our duty as veterans to help each other. 

Additionally, we need to allow willing civilians to provide assistance and inform them what they can do to help. Reach out and unite; there is strength in numbers. Let's proactively show the world how strong we are as veterans with #beyond22. Veterans don't want pity; we want results. This is an idea that represents something more than just a symbol. The symbol of #beyond22 represents action and support with real life follow through. 

People engage in various challenges on social media to help raise awareness for specific causes. We want to also help raise awareness, but more importantly, we want to go a step further and take action. We don’t want to simply state that we support an idea, but we want to show how we support this idea and what we are going to do about the issues at hand, how to stop the problem, and be a part of the solution.
If you’re a vet, don’t isolate. Reach out and call somebody. Call another vet you haven’t spoken to in awhile. Get involved. Veterans and civilians alike can volunteer at or donate to an organization that supports veterans. We can and should work together to solve the issues of veteran reintegration and suicide. 

Thank you all and we can make a change. Even if it is just minimal, at least we are doing something proactive – we are trying to implement a plan of action. Please continue to share and invite friends to raise awareness so when we do launch #beyond22, it can have the most impact. Social media can be a powerful tool so let's use it together for the good! Let's spread the word so when we start this off #beyond22 goes viral and has an impact that not only includes raising awareness, but is also action orientated.