In every community and every program, our primary goal is developing veteran community leaders. Whatever the program, The Mission Continues experience forges veterans into civic leaders who are ready, willing and empowered to serve again—as local change makers and leaders. We harness this desire to serve, building veterans’ critical skills through training and by creating meaningful service opportunities nationwide.

For more than a decade, we have honed in on what makes The Mission Continues experience so special and transformative for veterans—the chance to connect with fellow veterans and communities to become leaders through service opportunities and targeted skills training. All of our programs employ this distinctive formula. We have deep experience delivering on the critical issue of translating military skills to civilian skills. Ninety-four percent of veterans who serve in our programs report that they feel they have the skills and ability to make a difference in their community—and more than half feel more equipped to work in the civilian world. Our Unique Approach: Veteran-led Collective Action The experience of serving in the military forges deep bonds that endure for life. Ask any veteran what they miss about serving in the military and you are likely to hear about the camaraderie and feeling of a shared purpose. The Mission Continues taps into this unique dynamic and empowers veterans with a new mission and the chance to build new bonds—with veterans as well as community members—as they continue their service, together. It works. In 2018, nearly 65 percent of veterans joined our program to serve others, and 57 percent joined to connect with veterans specifically. Participants describe the relationships they developed with The Mission Continues members as unique compared to other relationships in their life. In fact, 90 percent say they would help a fellow volunteer in need under most circumstances—proof of the strength of these new bonds. The principle of working as a team is central to military service—making veterans particularly well suited to leading collective efforts and inspiring a local corps of civilians and veterans to rally together. With operations in 56 cities, we deploy veteran volunteers alongside nonprofit partners and community leaders to tackle tough problems in under-resourced communities nationwide. Once again, veterans can come together to do what drew them to military service in the first place: making a difference and helping others. Through this unique model, veterans become leaders and build new skills and networks that help them successfully reintegrate to life after the military—while making long-term, visible transformations in communities. We also offer intensive and targeted programming for leadership training and open up pathways that connect veterans to new life and career opportunities that match their skills. Over ten years, we have activated more than 30,000 volunteers who have completed more than 1. 2 million hours of service. Community and veteran side by side, fixing up a neighborhood or refurbishing a school—this is the special power of The Mission Continues. By inspiring collective, community action, our service projects have helped break down barriers between veterans and civilians. These connections are profoundly meaningful to both parties.

With both national reach and a strong local presence in 56 cities from Los Angeles to New York, The Mission Continues is especially well positioned to reach thousands of veterans, while having meaningful impact in communities. We have developed strong relationships with local organizations and understand each area’s specific challenges. Working closely with these partners, we can be the boots on the ground. We are invested in these communities—and able to respond immediately during a crisis, or help with long-term community change.

We have a growing research agenda that draws data from several sources, including survey data from all of our programs. We developed our survey evaluations in collaboration with the Washington University in St. Louis Center for Social Development during earlier external evaluations of our Fellowship and Service Platoon Programs. We continue to refine our surveys to stay current with trends in general evaluation as well as veteran-focused research under the leadership of our Director of Research and Evaluation, Dr. Gina Rosen. We use what we have named the Empowered Veteran Index as a framework to guide the measurement and assessment of our impact. The Empowered Veteran Index is comprised of three components: personal growth, connectedness, and community impact. Each component is ingrained in every program and event of The Mission Continues, with the intention to see an improvement on the veterans in our programs and in the communities we serve. We currently measure each component of the framework through a combination of existing scales. Every veteran interaction with The Mission Continues should provide veterans with an opportunity for personal growth, connectedness and community impact. Upon program delivery, we employ the aforementioned evaluation and assessment tools to learn where we might improve or strengthen our programs in order to achieve the desired outcomes. We then use these insights to further improve and develop our programs to better serve our veterans and communities. Key indicators to examine desired outcomes include a set of validated scales such as the Ryff Scales of Psychological Well-being (purpose in life and positive relations with others), the Connor-Davidson Resiliency Scale, and the General Self-Efficacy scale. We use this data to create opportunities for personal growth, connectedness and community impact through all of our events and programs. We measure and evaluate this impact is in two ways: (1) an in-depth annual survey of Platoon Leaders and (2) an annual survey of program participants. The following are measured: - Positive relations with others - Resilience - Purpose in Life - Self-Efficacy and Confidence - Effect on professional life - Connection to The Mission Continues, community, and other veterans

For more than a decade, we have honed in on what makes The Mission Continues experience so special and transformative for veterans—the chance to connect with fellow veterans and communities to become leaders through service opportunities and targeted skills training. Since 2007, as an organization, we have completed 1,250,580 hours of service, contribution over $30M in community investments. Starting with just five platoons in 2013, we now operate in 56 cities with 82 service platoons. In 2018, our programs, our growing team of veteran leaders engaged more than 20,000 volunteers in service and executed more than 1,500 events – both all-time highs. Our veterans consistently rate their experiences with The Mission Continues as very positive and report a significantly higher sense of purpose, resilience and positive relations with others compared to non-Mission Continues program participants. In our 2019 annual survey of participants, 69 percent achieved their personal goals. Other statistics point to our effectiveness in these areas, including: Personal growth and sense of purpose - 86. 3% feel like they are part of a cause larger than themselves - 72. 4% have a greater sense of purpose - 54. 3% have access to more resources - 75. 8% feel a stronger sense of fulfillment Connectedness - 58. 2% feel more connected to the non-veteran community - 73. 3% feel more connected with other veterans Skill Development - 87. 5% of veterans who serve in our programs report that they feel they have the skills and ability to make a difference in their community - More than half feel more equipped to work in the civilian world after participation in our programs This positive feedback is proof that our model works in helping veterans find a meaningful outlet that fulfills their desire to keep serving. We are dedicated to continuing to fill this national need and reach more veterans and communities through our veteran-led community change movement. We are currently investing in our Regional Operations and Program Strategy teams and in our infrastructure to prepare The Mission Continues for our next era of impact and sustained growth nationwide.