Ash Center Publishes Innovative Approaches to Helping Veterans

February 27, 2012
Ash Center Publishes Innovative Approaches to Helping Veterans

Video Presentations from A Better Welcome Home Conference Now Available

Cambridge, Mass. –  Today the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation unveiled an array of innovative approaches to help veterans. Produced by Emmy-winning Director Mark Harris, the Better Welcome Home video library is aimed to educate the public about how to get involved. It represents the work of a diverse group of public and nonprofit organizations that took part in the Center’s November conference, A Better Welcome Home: Transformative Models to Support Veterans and Their Families. This day-long event showcased a number of innovative programs that help veterans and their families adjust to post-military life.

The Better Welcome Home video library includes conference speakers describing a host of alternative treatments including art therapy, outdoor recreation, one-to-one sessions of individuals listening to veterans’ stories, and veteran-civilian group dialogues that have become integral to overcoming traumatic war experiences and difficult homecomings for many veterans. Viewers also have access to information about how to participate in a specific presenter’s work and more broadly aid in veterans’ reintegration within their communities. Visit the video library here on the Ash Center’s YouTube channel.

“As the President is bringing back our forces from Iraq, we have the enormous duty of figuring out ways to welcome people home,” said Colonel Macedonia who delivered the conference’s keynote address. Macedonia is a military physician who most recently served as the medical sciences advisor to the former Chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.

A Better Welcome Home was hosted by the Ash Center’s Innovations in Government program, which fosters creative and effective problem solving in government and focuses attention on many of the nation’s most pressing public needs. The Innovations in Government program is comprised of seven individual projects, including the country’s preeminent Innovations in American Government Awards, which is devoted to recognizing and promoting excellence and creativity in the public sector.

For more information, please contact:
Kate Hoagland
Ash Center
617-495-4347
kate_hoagland@harvard.edu

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
The Roy and Lila Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation advances excellence and innovation in governance and public policy through research, education, and public discussion. Three major programs support our mission: the Program on Democratic Governance; the Innovations in Government Program; and the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia. For more information, visit www.ash.harvard.edu.