Nonprofit Coalition Announces Military-Civilian Volunteer Campaign

A coalition of nonprofit groups today announced a campaign to unite civilian and military organizations in community-service projects to help military personnel, veterans, and their families — and described more than 30 specific projects.

“The challenges faced by our military community involved in two wars could not be greater and the work accomplished by these partnerships cannot come soon enough,” writes Robert L. Gordon III, a retired colonel and senior vice president for civic leadership at City Year, the youth-service corps, in a report announcing the campaign.

The campaign — Mission Serve: Forging a Continuum of Service — was set to be officially unveiled this afternoon at a Veterans Day event attended by Michelle Obama, the first lady, and Jill Biden, the vice president’s wife. It aims both to keep war veterans engaged in service work and to offer help to people who are suffering from the strains of military life.

The effort complements a new report that concludes, based on a survey of 779 veterans, that more needs to be done to harness the volunteer power of veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

ServiceNation, a coalition of about 250 organizations that promote volunteerism, is coordinating Mission Serve.

Among the projects:

MilServe, a new Web site, offers volunteer opportunities to people connected to the military and to civilians who want to help military families. It is a joint effort among several volunteer sites — All for Good, Idealist, and Military.com — as well as Business Executives for National Security and the Veterans Innovation Center. Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Student Veterans of America have joined hands on a project to encourage student veterans to sign up as “big brother” or “big sister” mentors to children. The Sierra Club and the National Military Families Association will offer a free week of summer camp for children of military parents who have been, or are currently, deployed away from home. Give an Hour, a charity that recruits volunteers to serve the mental-health needs of troops and families affected by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has joined with a variety of groups to expand its reach. They include AARP, the American Red Cross, the National Organization on Disability, and Operation Homefront. Habitat for Humanity and the Wounded Warrior Battalion at Ft. Lewis, Wash., will recruit veterans to help build energy-efficient houses for homeless veterans. Habitat will also work with the American Legion, the veterans group, to engage veterans in building affordable housing.

In addition to helping people in need, the projects will allow “transformational” civilian and “adaptive” military leaders to learn from each other, Mr. Gordon writes.

A full list of the Mission Serve projects is available on the ServiceNation Web site.