Blue Star Families, Association of Defense Communities Team up With Booz Allen to Improve Military Families' Quality of Life

Frequent relocations and deployments can make it difficult for military families to establish trusted networks in their communities—and social isolation is a challenge faced by too many American military families. Working with a grant from Booz Allen Hamilton, Blue Star Families and the Association of Defense Communities teamed up to create the Defense Community Leadership Academy (DCLA) a program designed to train and develop volunteer leaders who work to improve military families’ quality of life. Last week, 80 of those future leaders gathered at Booz Allen’s DC Innovation Center for a one-day conference that delivered tools and resources to help build local support for military families.

DCLA grew out of Blue Star Families’ Military Family Lifestyle Survey.  This year, Booz Allen applied pro bono data analytics to the survey findings to target community-specific challenges faced by military families and make a data-driven case for what services families need most 

Booz Allen Senior Vice President Andrea Inserra, who spoke at the event, said, “At Booz Allen, we see support for military families as integral to our mission to support military readiness.  A sustainable military isn’t possible without strong military communities and families.  Organizations like Blue Star Families and ADC are empowering military families to change their communities for the better using data and collective ingenuity. Of course we are thrilled to be a part of that.”

Kathy Roth-Douquet, CEO of Blue Star Families said, "The Defense Communities Leadership Academy was an incredible and game changing opportunity to bring together emerging community leaders from local communities, and emerging leaders in the military family community to train them in how to better serve their communities and engage with each other. Having it at the Booz Allen Hamilton Innovation Center set a high bar and an inspiring and aspirational tone. Blue Star Families, Booz Allen Hamilton, Association of Defense Communities, Defense Credit Union Council and USAA are the right partners to drive this kind of innovative solution for providing support to our military and their families in the communities in which they live."

The DCLA program will continue beyond last week’s event through an online community of practice, allowing participants to continue to share successes, learn best practices and form new partnerships.

To learn more about DCLA, visit: http://www.theferritergroup.com/projects/defense-community-leadership-academy-march-2018/

To learn more about Booz Allen’s commitment to veterans and military families, visit: https://www.boozallen.com/about/diversity-and-inclusion/veterans-and-military-families.html