Service doesn't end. It evolves.

A Q&A with Mia Garcia of Combined Arms

With nearly 300 partner organizations offering more than 1,200 resources, Combined Arms gives veterans and their families one door to the support they need after military service. Started in Houston by a handful of veterans who wanted to improve the transition to civilian life for those who came after them, the organization uses a tech-first platform to match each veteran with the right services and track every referral. Its Texas Veterans Network recently passed a milestone of 100,000 veterans connected to resources.

Welcome.US spoke with Mia Garcia, a Marine Corps veteran and Combined Arms’s Chief Advancement Officer, about building one door to every resource a veteran needs, the organization’s Civic After Service campaign, and how the Citizen Guide partnership helps veterans and their families on the path to citizenship.

Combined Arms takes an innovative approach to veterans services, providing a tech-first support system that offers individualized resources for veterans and their families. What does that support look like in a veteran's day-to-day life, and can you share an example of how it has made a difference?

Now, I know “all the resources” is very vague, so we’ve taken out the vagueness of it based off of who they are: their profile, a female veteran, a male veteran, an honorable discharge, they live in certain countries. Based on that very basic information, they will only see the best-in-class organizations that can provide that service. So it’s not antiquated lists of resources with phone numbers or email addresses. It’s a very intentional connection.

They can select the organizations that they want to work with, a lot like an Amazon shopping experience. They check out, and that organization has 72 hours to respond. It’s a closed-loop referral, and we can see what the outcomes are, so that we know the veterans are getting what they need, not just going into a dark hole.

This summer, Combined Arms launched its Civic After Service campaign, highlighting that service doesn't stop after the military; it evolves. How does this initiative connect veterans with the tools they need to carry their service and patriotism forward?

I go back to: You don’t know what you don’t know. Pushing out this information shares an opportunity for them to continue their service in this way, to continue their mission, to continue serving their country in this capacity, and it means a lot. I think a lot of service members just don’t even know that this is an opportunity for them.

For some of them, they’ve been in deployment situations, so they’ve had to learn how a mail-in vote works. But never would they have considered, “Oh wow, I could be a poll worker.” And being a poll worker also helps to garner trust in the community, because if a veteran is willing to continue their service in this fashion, or volunteer their time to do something like this, there must be a good reason behind it. In a climate of so much uncertainty around voting, veterans can be a beacon of light, setting the example for how the community can respond to the uncertainty.

Baked into our process, as a veteran registers with us, we ask the question, “Are you registered to vote?” If they are, perfect, go on with your day. If you’re not, then it prompts you: “Are you interested in learning how and where?” We have these follow-on prompts that make sure that they know how to vote and where to vote.

Partnerships are key to your work. What makes a partnership truly meaningful and effective, and what do you look for in organizations, agencies, and nonprofits that want to serve the veteran community?

If you go back 15 years ago, the veteran-serving ecosystem was so siloed. Organizations were not speaking to one another, and being able to really reflect on what the true needs of veterans were was hard, because everyone was reporting disparately.

A good partnership is a partnership that holds one another accountable, but also recognizes that one organization cannot be everything to every service member, and that we are more when we work together.

The value is being a force multiplier of one another… Zero in on what you’re best at in the world. We’re the convener. We’re the best in the world at convening and connecting our organizations and the veterans. There are some organizations that are best in the world at careers, or best in the world at mental health, but we’re best at connecting all of those for a holistic impact.

This is the path forward for the veteran-serving ecosystem, because it’s becoming more and more evident that when we work together, we can do more.

Combined Arms is a coalition partner for the Welcome.US Citizen Guide program. What drew Combined Arms to the Welcome.US Citizen Guide partnership, and how does it strengthen the support you're able to offer veterans and their families?

It definitely comes back to education. We engage with veterans that are at military institutions about to transition, and many of them could be in that situation where they are not yet citizens. A lot of times, they don’t know where to go from there, and I’ve heard some pretty unfortunate stories of how that ends.

Early engagement and education is an opportunity for this partnership. Our regional managers have that information they can share with those veterans going through that process.

I even think about bringing this information more broadly to the public, because word travels by word of mouth. Every time a veteran engages with us, we ask, “How did you hear about us?” A large percentage, about 70%, is word of mouth. We want to be the disseminator of this information and ensure that anyone that is either going to be going through this process or knows someone can point back to this information, and know that Welcome.US and Combined Arms can be a supporter along the way.

What unique opportunities does the partnership between Combined Arms and Welcome.US create for veterans on the path to citizenship, and how can it help them access the support they need along the way?

Our service members are familiar with what the state might provide, but they don't have a lot of clarity on what the nonprofit world can provide them, as far as filling in gaps or doing very unique things like Welcome.US, helping navigate through this [citizenship] process and giving you the information you need to be successful.

Whenever we are sitting at that table and interfacing with these service members, we are a force multiplier for all of our partners, because our regional managers are so well-versed in: “All right, what partners do we have? Who’s in our network? What do we have going on?”

You never know when my regional manager out there will have a conversation with a guy or gal that’s going to be facing the renewal or the citizenship process altogether. And they can say, “Oh, well, I have some information on it, and I can also connect you to Welcome.US.”

For someone reading this who wants to support the Combined Arms veterans community but doesn't know where to start, what's one thing you would encourage them to do?

They can visit combinedarms.us, and create a profile to get connected to resources today.

We are the connector… At Combined Arms, many of us are veterans or veteran spouses that have been through the transition ourselves. And our mission is to make sure transition is better for all who come after us.

Combined Arms is a coalition partner of the Welcome.US Citizen Guide program.