Community Summit_bifold_FINAL
- 1. About Booz Allen Booz Allen Hamilton has been at the forefront of strategy and technology consulting for nearly a century. Today, the firm provides services primarily to the US government in defense, intelligence, and civil markets, and to major corporations, institutions, and not-for-profit organizations. Booz Allen offers clients deep functional knowledge spanning strategy and organization, engineering and operations, technology, and analytics—which it combines with specialized expertise in clients’ mission and domain areas to help solve their toughest problems. www.boozallen.com 10.087.12 Use of Department of Defense images does not constitute or imply endorsement. ©2012 Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. Booz Allen is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, employs approximately 25,000 people, and had revenue of $5.86 billion for the 12 months ended March 31, 2012. To learn more, visit www.boozallen.com. (NYSE: BAH) For more information contact Andrea Inserra Senior Vice President inserra_andrea@bah.com Richard Fogelson Principal fogelson_richard@bah.com Community-Based Collaboration in Support of Military Families engaging public, private, and nonprofit organizations to answer complex challenges
- 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) USA Cares Give an Hour™