Last month, UMass Boston’s William Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Social Consequence presented research findings from a Veteran Service Officer pilot study at the Eastern Sociological Society’s annual conference, and at the ESS Military Sociology Mini-Conference.
- Conduct a more in-depth study in partnership with state level Veteran Service Officer organizations including Veteran interviews to capture both perspectives of the VSO-Veteran relationship. Evaluate the impact of race, ethnicity, gender and age on the Veteran-VSO relationship. Analyze staffing and budget models of Veteran Service Office offices, and VSO training and any impact on service to their respective Veteran communities.
- Explore collaborative partnerships for new/novel staffing options to provide regular communication and social media support. For example, partnering with a local institution of higher education to find and hire Veteran Affairs Work Study students to serve as Communications Assistants in Veteran Service Office offices to assist with social media and website, file management, record keeping and communications to possibly include:
- Updating the contact list with current email and/or other contact information.
- Generating a monthly or bi-monthly newsletters with resources, updates, events, etc.
- Working on the digital media presence for the Veteran Service Offices.
- Hosting virtual hours could also be helpful in connecting with Veterans who can’t visit in person or just want to get some information.
- Attending events, accessing resources organized by Veteran Affairs and other government organizations regarding web and social media.
As part of the mission of the William Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Social Consequence team, members will continue to combine research with actionable recommendations to improve the lives of those affected by war or military service. It is hoped that by building on this work here in Massachusetts, a model for service improvement to our military can be developed, shared with, and scaled nationally. If you would like to learn more about this study’s results or other projects and initiatives the William Joiner Institute is working on, please reach out to [email protected] or [email protected].