Navigating the "Sea of Goodwill": Lessons from Regional Veterans Collaboratives

Veterans and military families face a complex set of challenges transitioning to civilian life. Following in a tradition of community collaboration and collective impact, we believe that a coordinated community-based approach can help ease this transition. Our comparative case study suggests that veteran collaborative efforts should be based on best principles including a neutral and natural convening organization; the presence of credibility, respect, and trust; resources to administer and facilitate; and using data for planning and implementation. Looking forward, these collaboratives need to address issues of scale, formalizing and broadening their scope to identify and achieve and evaluate their impact.