When you’re sharing a bunk with someone, trading MREs in the field, taking and returning fire, strong bonds develop (If everyone in the business world had an “I’ve got your back” mentality like we do overseas, this country would be unstoppable. But that is a posting for another day.)
So you can imagine the challenge when soldiers come home, losing those tight bonds and looking for new “battle buddies.” They come home to families that have learned to survive without them (although that does not mean they are loved any less). They come home to employers who thank them for their service but who do not have any open jobs that fit the bill. They come home to neighbors who wave from their front yards, then disappear behind closed doors without really saying much of anything at all. What these returning warriors need is a new community commitment model, one that successfully reintegrates veterans and their families.
At Dixon Center, we focus on enabling our veterans and their families to thrive in the places where they currently live. We encourage a model called the “No Wrong Door Approach,” where like-minded organizations can work together to provide direct services and solutions. Let me show you how this works in a community like Chicago, using the Utility Workers Military Assistance Program (UMAP) as an example.
The UMAP program linked 75 veterans going to school at City College of Chicago with the Utility Workers of America to help them get reduced-fee certification and licensing. People’s Gas then came on board to guarantee jobs to these vets – not just out of patriotism, but because there was a huge need for qualified workers. But it wasn’t all about jobs. We also wound up coordinating with local social services to ensure that the vets had the support systems in place to allow them to finish their coursework. Three of the students were homeless and through the partnership with the Utility Workers and TCF Bank provided local housing resources so they weren’t living in their cars. This was an amazing collaboration between four very disparate types of resources: civic, private sector, government and social non-profits.
This “No Wrong Door Approach” dovetails with the “Lead From The Front” lessons I talked about in my previous blog. The “No Wrong Door Approach” relies on organizations in a community knowing that the others exist and what services are provided – and empowering them to work together for the common good. By focusing on the whole problem, rather than their own small pieces of the puzzle, five organizations in Chicago enabled 75 veterans to succeed. They created collective impact – meaning that all organizations collaborated towards a common vision. This is always more powerful than isolated impact.
Perhaps what this example illustrates best, though, is the true paradigm that veterans and military families come home to their families, neighbors and communities. That’s the power of communities – and why it’s so important that organizations step out of their silos and work together.
