The following are some of the projects that the evaluation and capacity team is currently engaged in. Currently, our projects include work within the domains of long-term evaluation, capacity building, metric development, and mixed methodological approaches.
Face the Fight (FTF) is a coalition founded by USAA to bring together corporations, foundations, nonprofits, and veteran-focused organizations to raise awareness and support for veteran suicide prevention. IVMF joined the coalition in early 2024 to implement geospatial technology and provide organizations with enhanced data on their veteran and military clients. This enhanced data allows organizations to provide more timely and accurate services to veterans in need of support.
The Medal of Honor Museum Foundation is comprised of three primary components: the National Medal of Honor Museum, the National Medal of Honor Griffin Institute, and the future National Medal of Honor Monument. The Griffin Institute seeks to impact the leadership journey of children and adults to support and encourage them to lead with character, integrity, and excellence. The Museum, opening in Arlington, Texas in March 2025, will provide programming and experiences that inspire learning, enjoyment, and knowledge-sharing about the Medal of Honor and its Recipient stories. Together, the programs are designed to inspire, equip, and connect program and museum attendees for a life of success and significance – in service of the greater good and our nation. The Evaluation Team is assisting the Museum and the Griffin Institute develop theories of change for themselves and their individual program that fit within the larger strategy and mission of the Foundation. Once these theories of change are finalized, the Evaluation Team will develop an evaluation plan for both organizations.
Each year the Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program (VLP), a program of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, selects accomplished leaders with a strong desire to impact veteran issues from across the country and brings them together through a five-month intensive leadership training program, culminating in a personal leadership project for each VLP Scholar. Since 2018, the Evaluation Team has served as external evaluators for this program through both surveys and in-person observations of program activities.
UTR helps families establish and maintain reading routines by providing the tools and books for service members (and veterans) to record themselves reading so that they can be a part of story time with their loved ones despite training schedules, deployments, or injury recovery. The Evaluation Team has developed measures to assess program outcomes within the domains of child literacy, child well-being, family well-being, family connection, and service member/caregiver morale and is currently implementing them in a longitudinal survey of program participants.
WQW brings “Warriors” – combat veterans – to their ranch in southwestern Montana where they are provided a safe and secure environment that feels like home. Through fly fishing and time in nature, Warriors find space to make meaning of their service and discover what a purposeful life means to them. Our team has worked with WQW since 2021 to evaluate and explain the impact these experiences have on participants. Each year as WQW adds programing to provide greater impact, we have observed Warriors thriving both in the short and long term after their participation with WQW.
The Veteran Wellness Alliance is an innovative alliance that connects high-quality care providers and veteran peer networks to empower veterans to seek mental health treatment. With proper care, service members and veterans can continue to thrive on and off the battlefield. IVMF has worked with the VWA since 2020 to help them implement Check-In, a mental health service that provides a place for peer-based organizations to connect their members to mental and brain health care. Since the inception of Check-In, over 500 veterans and military connected family members have been referred to high quality mental and brain health care.
