On Tuesday, several community stakeholders gathered on the campus of San Diego State University as part of the Military Transition Support Project, a project focused on helping military veterans transition back into civilian life.
Nearly 15,000 sailors and Marines are released from duty each year in San Diego. It’s estimated half remain in the county with their families. The MTSP aims to help the veterans find a job and a place to live, and also connect them to community resources.
Joe Buerhle, senior director of the San Diego Military Family Collaborative, said he hopes the project will make big changes in the lives of veteans.
“Care packages and parades are wonderful, this is really about looking at how do we create systems-level change,” Buerhle said.
The MTSP wants to get employers, educators, social service organizations, and philanthropists all working together. Buerhle said having all the resources in one place will make the transition easier for veterans and their families.
“So that families can feel a much more seamless process, as opposed to kind of disjointedly stumbling through what is the current transition,” Buerhle said.
The MTSP will sign-up more than 200 veterans and their families over the next year to test the project on the Internet. They hope to have the full service up and running by next fall.
