Keyword: Collaboration

The Los Angeles Veterans Collaborative is comprised of hundreds of community stakeholders, agencies and representatives serving veterans and military families in Greater Los Angeles. Founded in 2010 and administered by the Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families at USC’s School of Social Work, the Collaborative meets once a month in general session, followed by working groups that focus on specific areas: Women Veterans, Housing, Behavioral Health, Higher Education, Families and Children, Career Advancement, Legal and Faith.

The NVF has participated since 2013, when Kristine Stanley, the first director of our women veterans program, initiated the Collaborative’s working group for women’s veterans. She remains a co-chair of the group. Kristine joined the NVF Board of Directors in August.

Collaboration builds a network of communication so that every participating agency is acquainted with a broader set of resources to help the population we all serve. One of the issues of veterans service organizations is the tendency to isolate into “silos” with very little contact among agencies. The Collaborative provides an opportunity for service providers to network and pool resources. We all want the same thing: the well-being of veterans and military families in Los Angeles County. Now we’re working together to accomplish it.

The NVF is proud to participate, and especially proud to have played a part in focusing on women veterans.