Veterans Bridge Home

Veterans Bridge Home's mission has remained unchanged since our doors first opened in 2011. During the first year, four veterans who were seeking successful post-­military lives for their families helped shape what this organization should do. Our mission to serve one family at a time, with the proper attention they deserve, inspires the challenging and rewarding work we do each day.

Today our focus is the same, however, how we serve, our impact, and our goals have only grown in scope. There are roughly 150,000 veterans in our ten-county service area and VBH strives each day to assist each veteran family in any state of transition achieve their unique goals.

Veterans Bridge Home helps veterans, active service members, and military-connected families succeed in times of transition by identifying their unique goals and connecting them to the most appropriate community resources. VBH addresses the social and professional needs of the ten-county Charlotte-Metrolina region through our five service programs:

1)Care Coordination: VBH leads a collective impact model called NCServes, orchestrating services across 60+ different providers to meet the needs of veterans across the region.

2)Employment: VBH works with over 200 companies in the region to enhance their veteran-readiness and their hiring and retention best practices.

3)Social Capital: VBH hosts a minimum of 11 monthly events that allow veterans to build social capital through networking, fellowship, fitness and volunteering.

4)Housing: VBH provides direct affordable housing aid as Mecklenburg County's Supportive Service for Veteran Families co-provider in partnership with Catholic Charities.

5)Mind Health: VBH co-leads the Charlotte-regional suicide prevention workgroup in partnership with the Mecklenburg Veterans Service Office, NC Governor's Office, and SAMSHA.

We have evolved our nationally recognized model to be a data driven and scalable to address the needs of our veterans by more effectively and efficiently leveraging the services available in their local community. We start by elevating the community's understanding of veteran issues, to provide solutions and to deepen collaboration among employers, human service providers, and each citizen in our community.

The needs of today's veteran population continue to evolve, bearing little resemblance to their origins in the days following 9/11. The pace in which veterans are transitioning to civilian life is creating pressure on existing public and nonprofit provider capacity. Our leadership and facilitation allows for more efficient use of services by eliminating redundancies and allowing the most appropriate organizations to provide sufficient services. We are able to accurately measure and improve upon the following quantitative measurements:

­Who is requesting services? (Demographic & service info)

­What are they requesting? (Type of services)

­Is there an org to support that request? (Gaps)

­How long does service delivery take? (Efficiency)

­What are the outcomes of service delivery? (Effectiveness)

This awareness and quantitative approach to understanding the service delivery success in our local community better informs our conversations and decision making on where impact is made on an individual and system level across domains of Employment, Housing, Financial Assistance, Education, Healthcare, Benefits, Recreation, etc.

VBH is constantly learning and evolving to best address the needs of our veterans. We seek to measure and listen to all feedback and in turn adapt to best serve the community. Each member of our staff and Board of Directors has a direct connection to military service. As veterans, spouses, and family members, we all know first­-hand the challenges of reinventing your professional identity, social network, and access to resources. This understanding of veteran experience is what sets VBH apart: we know every veteran is a valuable asset and can contribute lasting impact to their community.

What started as two concerned individuals assisting four families in our first year, using any and all resources they had at hand, has evolved into a nationally recognized, data driven and scalable model to address the needs of our veterans by more effectively and efficiently leveraging the services available in their local community.

Since 2011 we've served over 10,000 veteran families, but we know we can't rest on our past success. The number of veterans moving to has continued to stay high, and as their needs evolve, Veterans Bridge Home will adapt to meet their needs and always strive to selflessly serve those that have served and sacrificed for our community and our country.