OPERATION MOTORSPORT PROGRAM FOUNDATION INC

Operation Motorsport Program Foundation
For the average soldier, leaving the military and establishing a second career is difficult enough. Throw in a medical release with mental or physical disabilities, and the barriers are almost insurmountable. Similarities between motorsports and military operations, and the team ethos they both employ, enable us to bridge the gap and show the opportunities.
We exist to help those ill and injured transitioning service members and wounded veterans who identify motorsport as an interest, or a passion, and find new fulfilling careers that meet their needs. Medically released service members lose their sense of identity and purpose, and the security and sense of well being that comes from belonging to a team. Although a career is the goal, fundamentally identifying who they are, and what they want to do, is what matters.
We are accessed through diverse avenues, but the beginning conversations are always the same: a discussion of interests, hobbies, skill sets, dreams, and most importantly, barriers. Knowing that more than 60% of our applicants have suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI), an operational stress injury (OSI), or have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and how this affects their daily life, we review the schedules and programs of interest to help create the individuals path for recovery.

We offer three steps in Operation Motorsport:
Excite: For some it’s the loud, fast, and shiny bits of motorsports, and that’s good. It’s about getting out, getting involved, and forgetting about everything else. It’s an introduction to a white white-knuckle, fast fast-paced sport, – something that makes you feel alive again.
Operation Motorsport partners with professional North American motorsports race teams that compete in several sanctioned racing series; the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), SRO GT World Challenge America, and Canadian Touring Car Championships (CTCC). These race teams will embed Beneficiaries within their crew, and utilize Beneficiaries with specific skills and or interests and assign appropriate tasks and responsibilities, where the Beneficiary, under the mentorship of a team member, will endeavor to use any transferable skills they may have or develop and/or create an interest for a new passion or career path.
Through team immersion, these race teams provide opportunities as crew members with specific jobs such as tire technician, fuel tech, fabrication tech, engine tech, data analysis, public relations, social media, photography, truck driver, hospitality, videographer, logistics, driver assistant, and vinyl tech. The Motorsports Immersion program exposes beneficiaries to career opportunities in motorsports, shows them their transferable skills and prepares them for the next step: The Engage program. Sport is important, it is restorative and healing, but it can’t just be about the here and now. The Motorsports Immersion program leads to our Engage program.

Engage: Having a keen interest in several areas of motorsports, and still exploring different paths, Engage has the ability to demonstrate potential career opportunities in logistics, shop assistant, photography, media / communications, hospitality, truck driving, motorsport technician, and beyond. Working with each individual’s physical and mentally unique physical and mental challenges to develop a recovery plan is the focus. Through partner relations, we create opportunities to embed beneficiaries in teams, to face challenges and overcome obstacles, work hard together to create confidence and to provide emotional and practical support.
Empower: Essentially, it’s about the vocational skills, the retraining, and careers with becoming contributing members to the greater organization and community. Building a team, a brotherhood, a community, and a plan with the ability to make and affect change. While motorsports is exciting, and its ability to be restorative measurable, ultimately, we are pursuing inclusion in the civilian work force and life. By providing job shadows, apprenticeships, internships, and training opportunities, we’re helping to develop new skill sets, exposing a new team environment, and providing steps in each individual’s recovery process. We work tirelessly to ensure a community of trust, and to give our beneficiaries the opportunity for a successful life after the military.
As the beneficiaries work through the Excite – Engage – Empower program, they are able to identify what interests are potential career opportunities, or a path of recovery to bringing a spark to their life, a connection to a brotherhood they left behind.