Veterans and Military Community Collaborative: Outreach, Education and Support for the County’s Veterans and Military

About the Program

Category: Human Services (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

In terms of area, San Bernadino County is the largest county in the contiguous 48 states. With its amount of land, reaching out effectively to serve its more than 400,000 veterans, active-duty military personnel, dependents and survivors can be a challenge. To accomplish this, the San Bernadino County Veterans Affairs and San Bernadino County Department of Behavioral Health, working with the Loma Linda VA Health Care System, have created a Veterans and Military Community 9VMC Collaborative to enhance veterans’ and service members’ understanding of and access to behavioral and medical health care, readjustment counseling, earned benefits and to educate the community at large regarding the special needs of this group of our most deserving citizens. To date, the VMC Collaborative has focused on two main methods for improving service to its target population of veterans, military, dependents and survivors. The first is outreach events such as information fairs and family readiness briefings, while the second consists of community education activities including provider training seminars, family support programs and a troop support holiday drive to name a few. The Collaborative is also working to establish a faith-based coalition to provide services and support to military and veterans.