Curtain call for Tunnel at the End of the Light, a Soldiers in the Arts production by the Roland Gossage Foundation performed in May, 2023.Supplied
The organizer: Roland Gossage
The pitch: The Roland Gossage Foundation
The cause: Educational programs for veterans
After he left the military in 2001, Roland Gossage would often meet veterans who felt lost and had difficulty reintegrating into civilian life.
In many ways, Mr. Gossage was in the same boat at the time. The skills he’d learned in the military didn’t translate well into the job market. “They tend to pigeonhole military people. When I first got out I ended up going into security because it was just an easy thing to do, and we were trained for stuff like that,” he recalled from his home in Toronto.
Mr. Gossage, 49, eventually found his way into sales and then taught himself the basics of information technology. He ended up starting a tech business called GroupBy Inc., which was acquired by London, U.K.-based Rezolve Ai this year.
He kept up his military contacts, and in 2020 he launched the Roland Gossage Foundation to help veterans develop job skills.
“There’s a wealth of opportunity out there that veterans need to be made aware of,” he said. “I want to get out of the pigeonhole problem.”
The foundation’s programs are aimed at developing skills in technology and the arts.
Soldiers in Tech offers veterans access to courses in cybersecurity through the University of Waterloo. The charity has also partnered with several companies to provide training in coding, artificial intelligence, cloud certification and other areas.
Soldiers in the Arts offers training in drama productions and participants have produced two plays based on veterans’ war experiences. The foundation is also building a studio in Kingston, Ont., for workshops in filmmaking.
Around 250 people have taken part in the courses so far, and the foundation employs as many veterans as possible. The charity’s $800,000 annual budget is funded by government grants and private donations.
Mr. Gossage, who is chief growth officer at Rezolve, said it’s been gratifying helping veterans adjust to life after the military. “If I can fix that, then why wouldn’t I?,” he said. “It’s just a good human thing to do, and it’s a good comrade thing to do.”