Business Commons^™

Driving Community Impact: A Case For Local Evidence-Based Coordination In Veteran And Military Family Services And The Americaserves Initiative, Nicholas Armstrong, James D. Mcdonough Jr., Daniel Savage

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This paper addresses a prevailing view that a lack of coordination, collaboration, and collective purpose among veteran and military-family serving organizations—public, private, and nonprofit—poses a serious risk to long-term veteran and family well-being. The authors show that collective impact, an innovative approach to cross-sector collaboration on complex social problems, presents an opportunity for communities, in partnership with the VA, other government agencies, and private industry, to improve outcomes for veterans, transitioning service members, and their families. In addition, the paper outlines the Institute for Veterans and Military Families’ (IVMF) ongoing collective impact initiative, AmericaServes, and highlights preliminary outcomes from its …