Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Survivor Corps Veterans Community Reintegration Summit

Quick Impressions from: Ilona Meagher who is participating

Monday, January 26, 2009

Great things happening at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C., today and into tomorrow as an historic conference has gotten underway. Its aim: Foster synergy among a wide range of stakeholders to better serve the reintegration needs of returning veterans and military families.

To do this, barriers and competition between entities need to be breached and broken down into a laser-focused 'megacommunty' made up of the federal, state, and local government sectors; large and small businesses; national and community-based NGOs and nonprofits; media (national, local and new); healthcare providers; educational institutions; veterans service organizations and veterans/military families.

Today was a full day -- working lunch included.

This is not a conference where panelists talk about the issues, wrap up with a brief Q & A, and then move on to the next thing.

Early this morning, attendees were assigned to their stakeholder category (I'm in the Media/Communications group) and, following a brief but inspiring welcome and introduction, then set out to first nail down what the current reintegration landscape is -- from each group's vantage point -- and then begin to brainstorm what must be done to "scale it up."

From Survivor Corps:


Find The Rest At Ilona's Site, with more to come after today, the final day, and Ilona returns home.

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