The Arizona Coalition for Military Families is a public/private partnership and statewide collective impact initiative focused on building Arizona’s capacity to care for, serve, support and employ service members, veterans and their families.
These are some of the keys to our approach to build support for all who serve:
An Ecosystem of Support for All Who Serve
In order to best meet the needs of Arizona’s service members, veterans and their families, the Coalition has built an ecosystem of support for all who serve. This ecosystem includes dozens of systems, hundreds of organizations and thousands of people across the state.
Statewide Focus
The Coalition builds support for service members, veterans and their families, as well as organizations and community members statewide. Through a variety of initiatives and partners, we work in all 15 counties in order to develop a consistent and comprehensive approach to supporting our military and veteran population statewide.
Capacity Building
The Coalition uses a capacity building model to create and expand the infrastructure necessary for our community to have no wrong door and no wrong person and the right resource at the right time. We have a partnership process for organizations and communities and have provided training to 50,000+ people statewide on military/veteran culture and resource navigation.
Upstream Prevention
Our collective goal is to intervene earlier and more effectively before people and families go into crisis. We do this by providing navigation support to connect to resources across an array of needs, including employment, healthcare, housing, basic needs, education and more.
Systems Change
Many different sectors and systems impact the lives of Arizona service members, veterans and their families. By fostering cross-sector collaboration and focusing on improving how systems serve this population, we can improve access to and coordination of care for the military and veteran population.
Collective Impact
The Coalition leverages a collective impact model, which includes a focus on a common agenda, shared measurement, aligned activities, communication and a backbone team.
The Coalition serves as the backbone organization in the model, coordinating resources and support networks statewide through various partners in order to best serve our military and veteran population.
Best and Promising Practices
The Coalition has been recognized as a best practice model for state-level collaboration by the White House National Security Council Staff, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and National Guard Bureau and other entities.
Several best practice models, including the Coalition itself, have emerged from Arizona over the years including:
- Be Connected: A statewide upstream suicide prevention initiative that builds upon our community’s existing capacity.
- 5-Year Plan to End Homelessness: Partnership between the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as numerous community partners, in coordination with the national plan.
- Arizona National Guard Be Resilient Program: Implemented in 2011 under the leadership of Major General Hugo E. Salazar, The Adjutant General, this program focused on building resilience, crisis response, stress first aid and connection to external resource via the Coalition. The program resulted in going from the highest rate of suicide as an organization from 2008-2010 to zero suicides for the three years the program was in operation.
- Arizona National Guard/Vet Center Memorandum of Understanding: This partnership engaged the Mobile Vet Center to provide an on-site response to stress, crisis and traumatic events that occurred within Arizona National Guard units.
- Arizona Roadmap to Veteran Employment: Engages job seekers, employment service providers, employers, and the community to connect service members, veterans and their families to employment opportunities, training, and resources.
- Vetting Process: Using Arizona’s innovative Guidelines for CARE, a partner vetting process serves as the gateway to becoming a partner organization.