Community organizing is a skill that can help you create positive change in your neighborhood, city, or region. But how can you involve veterans, who have unique experiences and perspectives, in your outreach efforts? In this article, we will share some tips and strategies to engage veterans in community organizing, based on their interests, needs, and values.
Before you reach out to veterans, you need to understand who they are, what they care about, and what challenges they face. Veterans are not a homogenous group; they have different backgrounds, identities, and service histories. Some may have disabilities, mental health issues, or trauma. Some may be active in veteran organizations, while others may be isolated or disconnected. Some may be interested in social justice, while others may have different political views. To engage veterans effectively, you need to do your research, listen to their stories, and respect their diversity.
Trust is essential for any community organizing effort, but especially for veterans, who may have faced betrayal, discrimination, or stigma. To build trust, you need to be authentic, consistent, and transparent. You need to show that you care about veterans as individuals, not as tokens or targets. You need to acknowledge their contributions, challenges, and sacrifices, and avoid stereotypes or assumptions. You also need to create opportunities for veterans to connect with each other and with other community members, through social events, workshops, or projects.
Veterans have a strong sense of duty, honor, and service. They also have skills and experiences that can benefit any community organizing effort, such as leadership, teamwork, problem-solving, and resilience. To engage veterans, you need to align your outreach with their values and goals. You need to show how your cause or issue relates to their interests, passions, or needs. You need to appeal to their sense of purpose, mission, and impact. You also need to recognize and appreciate their skills and experiences, and offer them meaningful roles and responsibilities.
Empower veterans to lead community service projects and provide opportunities for them to share their skills and experiences with others.
Veterans may face barriers or challenges that prevent them from participating in community organizing, such as lack of time, money, transportation, or access. To engage veterans, you need to provide support and resources that can help them overcome these obstacles. You need to offer flexible and convenient options for involvement, such as online or offline, short-term or long-term, individual or group. You need to provide training and mentoring that can help them develop new skills or adapt existing ones. You also need to connect them with other resources that can help them with their personal or professional needs, such as health care, education, employment, or housing.
Within our community, we work to celebrate and lift up veterans. You can do this in many ways but as it relates to getting them to engage further, some good tips include: - Consider providing veterans with their own support channel or place to ask questions so that they can get inside information with more depth that newcomers may not yet have context to understand - Empower them; give them news or updates before the rest of the community, or with more depth to the information and ask them to share it with micro-community groups or newcomers if they see the question(s) come up. The impact here is twofold as they feel trusted and in the loop, and they can also then use their veteran status to share that information for you / with you
Veterans are often underappreciated or overlooked in society. To engage veterans, you need to celebrate and sustain their involvement and achievements. You need to give them feedback and recognition that shows how much you value their contributions and impact. You need to create a culture of gratitude and appreciation that honors their service and sacrifice. You also need to maintain and nurture your relationships with veterans, and invite them to share their feedback, ideas, or suggestions. You also need to provide opportunities for them to grow, learn, and lead in your community organizing effort.
Veterans are former soldiers with vast organizational skills. I can use them as community mobilizers based on their knowledge in community mobilisation in the military. They are also disciplined people whom l can use to coordinate logistics during a community outreach programme, and some of them are skilled in needs assessment and community mapping, so helpful to me in this regard.