Vets’ Community Connections

While there has been significant work in the past decade supporting transitioning military, members related to life pillars of employment, housing and health, there is one pillar that has gotten insufficient attention and support: connections into the community. Over half of veterans and military report feeling disconnected from the communities in which they live. Veterans and military families often don’t have local networks or know where to turn when they have questions such as: What are the local schools like? How can I turn my military skills into a civilian career? What are the best local businesses that I can rely on? Veterans and military families are not asking for another website; they are looking to connect with real people, in their community.

The desire for connections in community isn’t limited to veterans and military, it rings true for spouses as well. More often the challenging things for these families can be those that local residents take for granted- like knowing a good car mechanic, or handyman.

In San Diego County, Vets’ Community Connections is working to meet this need. VCC fills this gap, serving as the bridge across a civilian-military divide.

How it works: VCC encourages San Diegans of all walks of life who are willing to help or share their expertise-- and businesses who are willing to offer services and discounts—to sign up with our VCC network.

For our veterans/military/family members we’ve designed an easy process: First, a veteran, servicemember or spouse looking for assistance calls 1 844 VET CONX. Second, our Connections Coordinator takes their information, and provides a personalized match with an individual or business in our network who can help and connects them directly by email.

Third, and finally, they connect—often over the phone—and the individual or business makes sure that the veteran, service member or spouse gets what they need. It can take as little as 10 minutes. It’s that easy.

“Our local veterans and their families aren’t looking for more websites – they’re looking for personal connections to their fellow citizens and businesses who can provide them with community-relevant answers to their questions and information they can trust. Each and every one of us can do that,” said Jerry Sanders, president of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, which played a leadership role in the development of this initiative. Sanders and the Chamber spearheaded a different survey of area veterans and family members that also showed that those in transition to civilian life valued human connection and new networks into the community far more than additional web-based resources.

Connections make the difference. For example, an Active Duty family recently experienced a house fire, VCC extended support through direct connections to multiple organizations who would assist with the impact from the fire. The family reported: “HUGE shoutout to VCC! After hearing about our fire, the VCC team connected us to a list of resources that could help with the aftermath of everything. They also contacted several local sports stores, and we were able to replace some of our kiddo’s sporting gear which was one less thing we had to stress about. Our family is beyond grateful for the dedication VCC has for our military community!!”

As we continue to move beyond the pandemic and grow in demand for resources, VCC invites you to be a part of our success: Join VCC’s San Diego resource database by taking a minute to sign up at: