Judith Wolfe, MSW '87, made a gift to the USC Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families (CIR) because she is passionate about what happens to veterans when they return home.

“I am aware of what they have gone through because I was a social worker,” she said. “So my focus is to make sure that they are not isolated because [in the military] they were in a group with a support system and then they come back and no one really understands.”

As a graduate of the USC School of Social Work, Wolfe had an opportunity to work with veterans through her internships, spending a year as an intern with the Veterans Administration.

She became the head of an adult day care program at the Organization for the Need of the Elderly (ONE) in Reseda, California, where many of the seniors she helped had served in World War II or the Korean War. “I could see the connection of PTSD that no one knew about,” Wolfe said. “Their wives complained about how they had come back and were not motivated. Things that nobody realized were going on.”

Many years later, she visited CIR at the USC School of Social Work and was extremely impressed with how students are trained in military social work and the research being conducted to find out what veterans needed and how to help them obtain services. She decided to make a substantial gift to CIR.

“Veterans can get artificial limbs through the federal government, but receiving social services – transitioning services, mental health services, family services, homeless services – is the piece that really needs to be addressed,” Wolfe said.

CIR is helping to get veterans and their families back into society and this, Wolfe believes, should be supported.

“It’s not that we want to give handouts; we want to give a hand up,” she said. “These young men and women need to be thanked for their service.”