May 2026
Collaboration
The word, collaboration… it shows up in mission statements, grant proposals, strategic plans, congressional testimony, and in more meetings than probably all of us care to relive. And sometimes the word collaboration gets used so often that it starts to lose some of its weight. It eventually risks something called semantic erosion – when a word is used so often that it starts to lose the depth of what it was supposed to mean.
In the language of collaboration, we say things like cross-sector, integrated, whole of community, collective impact, and even public-private partnership. But sounding collaborative and being collaborative are not the same thing.
Organizational Silos
Real collaboration is not just about being in the same room. Think for a moment about the concept of parallel play in child development. Toddlers are near each other. They may be using similar toys, and from a distance, it may even look like they’re playing together, but they’re actually not. They’re not interacting with each other at all.
Now thinking about organizations and systems and programs – unfortunately, many work in this “parallel play” way. But I believe that Arizona is different.
- When we sit near each other, we talk to each other.
- When we come into the same room, we greet each other.
- When we are on the same committee, we consult each other.
- When we are working together, we engage each other.
- When we are helping others, we work together.
Collaboration is sharing responsibility for what people actually experience.
Sharing the Experience
It’s more than simply knowing what other colleagues or organizations are doing. True collaboration goes beyond what others are doing, or even what we’re doing together, to the experience we’re building together for those who benefit from our work.
Thinking about collaboration this way shifts the point of view from simply being aware of or in proximity to the work to ownership of the work, and from participation in the work to accountability for its outcomes.
That’s part of the beauty of Be Connected. Our experience collectively goes from good intentions to working together to shared responsibility. We are all responsible for service members, veterans, and their families in this state, and we are all accountable to provide them with a positive experience in a community that deeply cares for them and takes accountability for how they experience support.
This is truly collaboration in the form of shared motion. Shared responsibility in motion.
This shared motion involves making the decision to share ownership, committing to stay aligned, and recognizing that, together, we produce something no single system could produce on its own.
Building Something No One Organization Could Create Alone
And that is exactly what has happened with the Arizona Coalition for Military Families and Be Connected.
It’s amazing to have folks who have been with Be Connected for a long time. Our vast network of Be Connected partners is contributing to this process of shared responsibility in motion. It’s absolutely amazing.
When we make that continuous effort to push away parallel play in favor of shared collaboration, it creates something very practical and almost magical for the service members, veterans, and the military-connected families we support.
It means they don’t need to spend time and effort navigating our boundaries to receive support.
The people we serve:
- Don't care about our org chart.
- Don't care about our funding streams or processes.
- Don’t care whether their needs belong to one agency.
What they care about is that:
- The support system is easy to access.
- The support system makes sense when they need it.
- Someone stays with them long enough to help them move forward.
And when collaboration is real, they can feel the difference. When we work in this collaborative way, sharing ownership of the experience of the people we’re collectively supporting, we dissolve burdens.
The people we’re supporting experience:
- Support instead of bureaucracy.
- Guidance instead of confusion.
- Warm handoffs instead of dead ends.
- Someone clearing a path instead of adding barriers.
Outcomes in Arizona
What we do in Arizona is novel – it hasn’t been done before and isn’t being done now in other states. And the way we collaborate in Arizona has produced outcomes no single organization could achieve.
In fiscal year 2025, Be Connected:
Served more than 7,300 at-risk veterans
Delivered more than 60,000 service encounters
Made 22,78 resource connections
Facilitated 2728 direct VA linkages among high-risk veterans
Most importantly, of the high-risk veterans on the Colombia scale being served through the SSG Fox Grant Program that we share with the Department of Veteran Services, there have been zero suicides.
That would not happen without us. That would not happen with a “parallel play” model. No, this takes collaborative work where we all take ownership of the experience and outcomes of those we collectively serve.
Rightly so – this particular program is making waves in DC. Arizona’s results have exceeded those of all 80 grantees in outreach, referrals, screening, and eligible participants. And, once again, zero suicides. And the work continues to reach veterans who are not enrolled in the VA, connecting them with the VA, state entities, and community support.
Our collective work has had a huge impact on the drafters of this grant program, so know that in the future, our collective successes will benefit service members, veterans, and their families beyond our state. And there’s more good news:
- Arizona veteran deaths by suicide also declined by 10% in 2023 and 10.5% in 2024.
These results come from collaboration across all aspects of service – from outreach and resource navigation to connected follow-through and warm handoffs.
The Human Proof Point
But the most important proof point is not quantitative. It is a person’s expression of what they experienced. As one veteran said, “I was at the end. If it weren’t for Be Connected, I wouldn’t be here.”
Be Connected represents the collective work to help this person who wouldn’t otherwise be here. That’s a powerful proof point.
What Collaboration Requires
We know the amazing outcomes of our real collaboration. But what does it cost? Real collaboration can mean giving up a little bit of our own comfort. It can mean giving up a little bit of control or even a little bit of our turf. Sometimes we lose a little bit of certainty, and sometimes a little bit of the credit, so that together we can produce a better outcome.
Are we willing to do what collaboration requires? My observation is that when we collaborate, people thrive.
