ALABAMA – Researchers, policy makers and federal agencies have been slow in coming to terms with the realities of being in long-term, worldwide conflicts in multiple countries and the impact that has on service members, veterans, their families, and their communities.
The 2nd annual Service Member to Civilian (S2C) Summit will be hosted by the University of Alabama’s School of Social Work September 21-23 2016; a special Pre-Summit Session on Moral Injury and Faith-Based Approaches to Supporting Veterans and Families will be held September 20, 2016. S2C is an international summit addressing the current and emerging needs of service members in their transition to civilian life (AKA Military to Civilian Transition; MCT. S2C will examine how service members from all branches of the military transition to civilian life and how we can improve that transition through translational science and service.
S2C will bring together service members, veterans, their families, and community stakeholders to meet with advocates, researchers, clinicians, educators, and policymakers from around the nation to better understand and explore ways that all stakeholders can improve the transition from service to civilian life.
The Objectives of the Summit:
Service members face a life of numerous changes in circumstance, experiencing frequent cycles of deployment followed by the challenges of reunion/reintegration with their families, children, communities, employers, and schools. The transition from military life to civilian life is difficult and can be exacerbated by mental and physical trauma. Thus, the S2C objectives are to:
- Present current research and best practices for improving military to civilian transitions.
- Build research and practice consortiums that bring service members, including National Guard and Reservists, veterans, and their families together with researchers, Department of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) clinicians and decision makers, civilian employers, researchers, students, and higher education leaders.
- Articulate short-term and long-term translational agendas for research and practice in four core theme areas.
- Provide job acquisition training and access to employment opportunities.
For the pre-summit event on September 20th, there will be an examination of how local communities can best support veterans and their families via collaboration and coordination within and among faith-based organizations featuring a panel of national experts discussing moral injury. Panelists include:
- Dr. Nancy Sherman
- Dr. Rita Brock
- Dr. Bill Nash
- Dr. Irene Harris
- Also featuring Col Sean Lee, who will present on the “Partners in Care” program and its potential in Alabama communities and beyond.
- Invited responses will present examples in Alabama communities of unfolding initiatives engaging and mobilizing local faith communities to support veterans and their families.
On September 21st – 23rd, the Service Member to Civilian Summit will officially begin. As a collaborative research summit, we will be honoring our nation’s service members from all branches of the military and addressing current and emerging needs of service members transitioning to civilian life, encompassing:
- Civilian employers
- Community-based organizations
- Family and children
- Higher Education
The 2016 Summit will bring together service members, veterans, their families, and community stakeholders to meet with advocates, researchers, clinicians, educators, and policy makers from around the nation to better understand and explore ways that all stakeholders can improve the transition from service to civilian life. S2C is hosted by The University of Alabama School of Social Work and is partly supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child and Human Development and support from The University of Alabama and other sponsors.
VA employees must pre-register via the VA ACES system before registering here. To register in VA ACES, VA employees should go to the VA internal website link for EES ACES registration: https://conferences.lrn.va.gov/vacr/search.asp
For more information
Karl Hamner at khamner@ua.edu or
David Albright at dlalbright@ua.edu
