Frank Russell is leveraging the resources of his start-up career transition company, Prositions Inc., to help veterans find jobs.

Through its new ProVeteran program, the West Des Moines-based company is offering veterans free outplacement services. Prositions has already enrolled about 75 veterans in the program, which includes ongoing assistance from career coaches to help former military members hone their job-search skills for the civilian market. The company is also recruiting Iowa employers to sponsor veterans to support the program.

“Right now is a particularly challenging time for returning veterans,” Russell said, noting that approximately half of the 1,200 Iowa National Guard and Reserve members who have returned from overseas deployments are unemployed. “In past times, they would look for jobs where they would have an advantage, such as jobs with the U.S. Postal Services or state and federal government positions. Well, you don’t have to pick up the newspapers for too long to find out that a lot of the organizations that would hire them are having severe cutbacks.”

Prositions is seeking corporate sponsors for the program, who would pay $495 for each veteran sponsored. Russell said that amount covers his company’s external expenses in offering the comprehensive career transition services, which is normally a $1,250 package. Within the first couple of days of contacting companies, a half-dozen businesses have already committed to sponsorships, he said.

“We’ve gotten a tremendous reaction,” he said. “When we sit down and explain what we’re going to do for these folks, everyone says, ‘Yes, we will participate.’”

The program will provide participating veterans with access to more than 5 million positions nationwide, as well as a database of more than 5,000 recruiters and their specialties. Veterans will also receive ongoing assistance from Prositions’ career coaches and strategists.

Russell, who in 1997 founded and built GeoLearning Inc., an award-winning learning software company that he sold last year, saw an opportunity to launch Prositions to assist a number of his former employees in finding new positions. He said he’s hopeful the exposure provided by the ProVeteran initiative will help his new company grow.

“Obviously, we’re not making any money on this; we’re losing money on this,” he said. “But if we get a company that partners with us and they see we can be effective at finding jobs for veterans, we believe that will give us credibility with that organization when they have recruiting needs. That’s the long-term business driver. Most importantly, it’s serving people who have served our country and who are coming back.”

For more information on the program, visit www.prositions.com/proveteran.html.