Oprah Winfrey Gives Support To Black Women Social Entrepreneurs

Washington, DC

Final Salute, Jaspen Boothe

Jaspen “Jas” Boothe lost her home and belongings during Hurricane Katrina while she was training as a platoon leader in the Army Reserves.  At the same time, she was diagnosed with aggressive head, neck and throat cancer. After 6 months in the hospital, 30 rounds of radiation and 2 surgeries, Boothe was in remission, but had no job and nowhere to go.  She called the VA and while they had many programs for men, they had virtually none for women. After being homeless, Boothe finally got a job in the Army Reserves in Washington DC. One day in 2010, she saw an “Oprah Winfrey Show” episode about homeless female veterans and was shocked to learn this was still such an issue.  She knew she must help.  Using whatever funds were on her own credit card, Boothe started her program Final Salute to help as many of the 55,000 female homeless veterans in the U.S. as she could. Today, her organization has 3 homes (in WV, VA and OH) for homeless veteran women and their children to live in while they transition to finding full-time work.  To date, Final Salute has helped 270 women veterans and their children from 15 states and territories.