2. Background
An Ongoing Need Within Our Communities
Enhancing support for military
families has emerged as a growing
national priority, garnering support
at the highest levels of the Defense
Department, Veterans Affairs, Military
Health System, and the White House.
During the military drawdown, tens of
thousands of men and women will leave military service
and return home, and their needs represent a national
priority that must be managed effectively at local and
regional levels. Addressing persistent challenges faced
by military families is often beyond the ability of a single
program, campaign, or coalition. It takes long-term
strategies for sustaining change in community systems
and environments. Community-based summits are a
powerful and effective platform for engaging and bringing
together government, business, and civil society leaders
as partners to address the most pressing issues facing
individuals, families, and communities.
Power of Tri-sector Collaboration
There is a need to strengthen
collaboration among public, private
and nonprofit resources to improve
the systems and services currently in
place for veterans and their families,
especially in a resource-constrained
environment.
Tri-sector collaboration among local
governmental agencies, businesses, and nonprofit
organizations/services represents a “Megacommunity”
approach, which focuses on the power of collaboration in
response to complex problems. Collectively, community
leaders can examine and approach problems in an
innovative way, identifying common interests and goals.
The coalition of these three sectors is intended to bring
convergence around a problem that cannot be solved by
any entity alone.
Often government, business, and civil society each have
different priorities when facing complex challenges;
community summits create an environment where
leaders from each of these sectors can mobilize around
a common priority whereby the outcome benefits a
community as a whole.
Roadmap of Booz Allen Hamilton’s
Initiative
Mission: In 2011, Booz Allen launched a series of
national community summits focused primarily on
military family quality of life and wellness. The summits
were meant to strengthen the collaboration among public,
private, and nonprofit resources to improve the systems
and services currently in place for veterans and
their families.
Approach: Support innovative and sustainable
partnerships with government agencies, service groups,
nonprofit organizations, providers, and area businesses
to connect the needs of military families with the
resources found in each community.
,
Specific Goals: Although the specific discussion topics
varied by location, each summit was designed to achieve
the following goals and objectives:
▪▪ Enhance cooperative efforts to serve military and
veteran families in local communities
▪▪ Explore how best to improve upon the systems and
services currently in place
▪▪ Increase knowledge and coordination of existing
programs to help stretch funding
▪▪ Build alliances that work across geographical
boundaries and overcome barriers to access
military family communit y summit vision:
To enhance access to health and support services
for active duty service members, veterans, and
families at the community level by engaging the
local government, nonprofit organizations, and
area businesses.
Key Attributes of a Summit
Booz Allen has identified best practices and key
attributes for generating actionable objectives to sustain
engagement at the community level. With an emphasis on
smaller, focused initiatives and broad community support,
the following attributes have driven successful summits
to date:
33 Identify a Challenge: Explore the services and systems
that could be strengthened and create a list of common
issues that need to be addressed
33 Create a Focused Agenda: Create agenda topic(s) that
are describable and can result in measurable actions
that can be taken by collaborating parties
2011–2012 Collaborative Community Summits
Booz Allen partnered with local nonprofit organizations nationwide (as shown on the map below) to host a series of
summits that explored community-based collaborative approaches to caring for our wounded warriors and their families.
Through a series of interviews, leaders identified four major persisting challenges for service members, veterans, and
military families and gathered to explore how best to overcome the obstacles to access needed services.
Events
▪▪ San Diego, CA: Transitioning
Veterans Employment
October 17, 2011
▪▪ Fayetteville, NC: Women
Veterans Challenges
November 17, 2011
▪▪ San Antonio, TX: Veteran-
Centric Access to Services
January 25, 2012
▪▪ Radcliff, KY: Veteran
Reintegration into Communities
March 26, 2012
▪▪ Norfolk, VA: Veterans & the
Justice System
November 16, 2012
Sharing Best Practices Across Communities
Over the last year, Booz Allen has begun to share the tools and key attributes
of community summits. The summits have provided Booz Allen with valuable
lessons learned that can be shared and replicated in local communities:
Summit Toolkit: The Toolkit provides a framework that assist communities
in convening collaborative tri-sector summits. The framework outlines a five-
phased approach that contains guidelines, templates, and checklists in an
effort to create solutions that are relevant, accessible, and sustainable at
the community level.
Summit Report: The Consolidated After-Action Report outlines lessons learned
from the first Military Family Community Summit cohort, best practices for
tri-sector collaboration, and initiatives for increasing community capacity and
sustainment.
33 Provide Intimate Setting: Envision convening no
more than 30–40 participants to ensure productive
conversations and attainable outcomes
33 Determine Concrete Outcomes: Generate a set of
concrete actions with commitment to execute by one or
more participants
33 Produce Sustained Improvement: View the summit as
the beginning of a process to proactively coordinate the
community’s approach to addressing the challenges
33 Evaluate Program Outcomes: Elicit feedback from
participants and measure feedback against the
Concrete Outcomes previously noted
San Diego
Veterans Coalition
San Antonio Coalition for
Veterans (SACV)
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