San Diego Veterans Coalition (SDVC)
“Collective Collaboration is Key”
America’s Finest City is well known for its many attractions, amusement parks, nearby beaches and “perfect” weather. Located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, San Diego is home to the largest naval fleet in the world. With over 3 million residents, county wide, San Diego is the second largest city in California and the second largest military town in the United States.
When it comes to providing veteran support services, San Diego is the most innovative and resourceful city in the nation. The San Diego Veterans Coalition (SDVC) is mainly responsible for those accolades. It is the largest collaborative veteran service organization in the country. SDVC is the National model for the comprehensive and the integrated system of community partners that serve our veterans.
Every month, SDVC provides an open forum for veteran service organizations and businesses to collaborate and better serve our veteran community and their families. The forum is open to anyone that has an interest in supporting or providing a service to our veterans. The affiliated organizations and members range from ‘Habitat for Humanity’ to small business owners who provide specialized services for our veterans. Many of the organizations that belong to SDVC specialize in one field (education, housing, employment, healthcare). The goal is to understand what services each organization provides and with that knowledge, SDVC can offer comprehensive support to our local Veteran community. The Coalition is comprised of a wide variety of non-profit and for-profit organizations, as well as governmental agencies and civic minded individuals.
First organized in 2009, the San Diego’s Veteran Coalition membership has grown to over 130 veteran support organizations and businesses.
The vision of the SDVC is to honor and care for U.S. Veterans, their families and significant others by integrating all available services.
The mission of the SDVC is to improve the support of our Veterans in the San Diego Region by inspiring and encouraging collaboration and cooperation among service providers and Veteran service organizations, advocating on behalf of Veterans, their families and significant others for better integration of services, improving communication between Veterans and providers to disseminate information and determine needs, providing guidance and leadership which would affect local changes and serve as a model for other communities to emulate.
At SDVC, they have found that collaboration is the key to addressing the needs of San Diego regional Veterans, their families and significant others. To ensure all the needs are met, they have developed five Affinity Group to organize the work of the Coalition and have patterned these Affinity Groups off the successful Live Well model:
1. Physical and Emotional Health Affinity Group
2. Family Life Affinity Group
3. Personal & Self Health Affinity Group
4. Employment & Financial Health Affinity Group
5. Spiritual Wellness Affinity Group
Through these Affinity Groups they identify gaps and create measurable outcomes to resolve them. These groups are made up of our members and together they are working to strengthen our community.
COLLECTIVE COLLABORATION IS KEY! in supporting our veteran community. Our veterans need your involvement.
SDVC encourages all civilians, veterans, organizations and businesses that care about our veterans to attend their monthly meetings and get involved.
If you would like to attend an SDVC meeting and support our veteran community, please visit: Sdvetscoalition.org
