Collaboration | United Military Families Campaign

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Collaboration

United Military Families Campaign leads a White Oak Collaborative Subcommittee, focused on enhancing the experiences of military and Veteran-connected families and creating a deeper appreciation of those families’ service at the community level. This subcommittee has developed a comprehensive set of recommendations and best practices tailored for military and Veteran service organizations. These guidelines serve as valuable resources for MSOs, VSOs, the private sector, and other stakeholders to improve support and services for military families.

The recommendations were featured in Blue Star Families’ Social Impact Research 2021: Understanding the Experiences of Military Families report and are available for download here. Through collaboration with various sectors, we aim to foster environments that better serve the needs of military families, ensuring they receive the support and resources they deserve.

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We further collaborate with nonprofits in finding permanent placement for our DEPLOY fellows. To date the following organizations have hired our fellows: Blue Star Families, Travis Manion Foundation, D'Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University, Hiring Our Heroes, D.C. Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs, Dog Tag Bakery, Elizabeth Dole Foundation, and American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association. Those graduates (26%) who did not continue their careers in the MSO/VSO space have successfully gone on to roles at JPMorgan Chase & Co, PWC, Salesforce, Toyota, Baycare Health System, and the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums.

Becoming a signatory to this document doesn’t mean your organization promises to check every box. This is an aspirational list! Rather, it means that you are willing to publicly share that you believe these practices are important.

If your military/Veteran service organization wants to get involved, there are several ways to do so:

Download the “Recommended Practices for Military and Veteran Serving Organizations” document and circulate it within your team to start or continue a conversation about promoting racial equity and inclusion within your organization.
For current White Oak Collaborative members—join the Subcommittee on Racial Equity and Inclusion and/or become a signatory to the set of recommendations and best practices.
For military and Veteran serving organizations, become a signatory to the set of recommendations and best practices.

Download the Document »

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Devotion, A Film Based on a True Story Directed by J.D. Dillard

In November 2022, Sony and Director J.D. Dillard gave Blue Star Families members an exclusive look at their latest film, Devotion, at a series of special advanced screenings. This is a true story of inspirational barrier-breaking Jesse Brown and his heroic wingman Thomas Hudner, U.S. Navy fighter pilots who walk the line of racial segregation, bravery, and the cost of defending one’s country.

McCormick Chicagoland DEPLOY Fellow Jerilyn Lim-Leonard shares a scene that stood out to her as a poignant example as to how Black service members were treated second to everyone else:

"In the beginning, Jesse is standing in front of a mirror. He looks scared. Is his new wingman going to support him? He starts to say negative, awful things to himself. And then I realized, these racial slurs and discouraging words were all things people have said to him and he's using it as motivation.”