Photo By Master Sgt. Barry Loo | Members of U.S. Special Operations Command Installation Property Book and Central...... read more read more
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USSOCOM initiative yields $6.5 million donation to charities
Story by: USSOCOM Public Affairs
Date: 20180330
The U.S. Special Operations Command Installation Property Book and Central Receiving Point office receives and accounts for all property in and out of USSOCOM Headquarters. As a part of this responsibility, they also manage the command’s Computers for Learning program created and designed by the General Services Administration to encourage the reuse of computers within the federal government. USSOCOM’s CFL program was established in March 2012, but soon lost momentum due to a lack of manpower and command emphasis within the section.
The program received a reboot in 2017 under the direction of the current USSOCOM Headquarters Commandant Air Force Lt. Col. Russell Hunt who asked the team to explore ways to reorganize their equipment distribution and automation efforts to make them more efficient. The team quickly got to work yielding a renewed interest in the CFL program.
“We were challenged with the question of ‘Can we get these computers and equipment into the hands of people who really need it’,” said Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth Brown, USSOCOM’s installation property book officer who helped reinvigorate the CFL program. “We had to assess whether we could work this into our processes and find a way to best recycle and reuse the equipment.”
In February 2017, the team discovered they could and had their first donation in the same month - giving more than $120,000 worth of computer equipment to local schools.
“The whole team was really encouraged by the first donation,” Brown said. “We got pretty excited about the possibilities for the program in that first month.”
The Property Book and Central Receiving team has distributed to Tampa schools and numerous other non-profit groups located as far away as Illinois and Ohio in the past year. Today, SOCOM has issued more than $6.5 million in automation equipment since that first donation.
According to Brown, the contributions are the largest donation by one organization over a 12-month period for the CFL program in the history of the GSA program.
USSOCOM’s CFL program is managed by a small six-person team of government employees and contractors spearheaded by Shelicka Thacker, a logistics management analyst who runs the Central Receiving Point.
“The CFL program is great, there are a lot of schools in need – they’re in need of these computers and laptops,” Thacker said. “So it feels good to be able to get this unused equipment out into the community rather than some warehouse where it might just end up being destroyed.”
Brown said the team has been encouraged by their recent historic accomplishment and said they are determined to find ways to expand the program’s reach beyond computers. Most recently, the team donated nearly 20 unused wheel chairs through the CFL which they received from the USSOCOM Care Coalition. The wheel chairs have since been put to good use, given to a local non-profit organization supporting paralyzed veterans throughout Florida’s Gulf Coast.
“The team is very motivated to exceed the standard set during the first twelve months,” Brown said. “Our challenge now is finding new ways to surpass what we did in the previous year.”
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| Date Taken: | 03.30.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 04.09.2018 15:10 |
| Story ID: | 272338 |
| Location: | MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 120 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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