Our Positions
We created this web page to provide our stakeholders, clients, partners, employees, and others with our views on how we serve. Our positions are always focused on building Arizona’s capacity to care for, serve, support, and employ service members, veterans, and their families. We are non-partisan and we value our nearly 20 years of proven results forged from positive and productive working relationships with federal, state, and local leaders from all backgrounds and ideologies. We believe that together as Americans and Arizonans, we can unite around the mission of supporting everyone in our state who served our country and their families. We carefully consider and deeply hold to these beliefs, and we hope being clear about our positions is helpful.
Guidelines for Care
Effective support for service members, veterans, and their families goes beyond a 'military-friendly’ label.
Our work and that of our stakeholders is directed by our Guidelines for Care which were created with input from service members, veterans, and their family members from all branches and components, as well as key stakeholder organizations from the military, government, and community. The guidelines provide a comprehensive picture of what it means to be equipped to meet the needs of an individual or family with a military background or affiliation and provide organizations with the opportunity to illustrate how they go beyond a military/veteran-friendly label.
Force Protection
Comprehensive force protection is a moral imperative that extends beyond physical safety to include safeguarding the rights, interests, and futures of our service members, demanding a shield from manipulative external influences.
Protection of our service members extends beyond physical safety. It encompasses the safeguarding of their rights, interests, and future. By restricting quota-focused recruiters and commission-based referral organizations from military installations, we ensure a protected space where the focus remains on the well-being and best interests of our service members and veterans. This is not just a policy recommendation; it is a moral imperative. Force protection must be comprehensive, and this includes shielding our personnel from potentially manipulative and self-serving external influences. We commit to a future where our service members receive the holistic person-centric support they deserve, free from external pressures and influences that do not align with their best interests.
Accuracy of Statistics
The fight against veteran suicide is a critical battle demanding precise, Arizona-specific data.
The stakes could not be higher. The battle against veteran suicide is a fight for lives, and it is a fight we must approach with the utmost dedication to truth and accuracy. Accurate data plays a critical role in understanding and preventing suicide among service members and veterans. This need for precise, up-to-date, accurate, and Arizona-specific suicide statistics for veterans and service members cannot be underscored enough. Inaccurate or overly generalized suicide statistics pose significant dangers leading to misguided policies, misallocation of resources, and, most tragically, ineffective interventions that fail to address the unique needs of our community.
Conflicts of Interest
Quotas, commissions, and fundraising are conflicts of interest that can jeopardize the trust and welfare of our service members, veterans, and their families.
Conflicts of interest, particularly those motivated by quotas, commissions, or fundraising goals, pose significant threats to the welfare of our service members and veterans. These conflicts can lead to compromised quality of care, misplaced priorities, and eroded trust. We must collectively be wary of organizations and individuals driven by financial incentives that create conflicts of interest.
Position of Strength
We reject the weakness-based narrative and celebrate the resilience, adaptability, and integrity inherent in our service members, veterans, and their families, fostering empowerment over victimization.
The strengths-based approach is crucial for empowering people, particularly service members, and veterans, who belong to a culture of altruism (putting the needs of others above their own), resilience (being able to recover from setbacks), adaptability (overcoming challenges), honor (a moral code of being responsible), and integrity (being self-driven and self-regulating).
Upstream Approach to Suicide Prevention
Suicide prevention transcends crisis intervention, encompassing proactive upstream prevention and postvention approaches.
Our collective goal is to intervene earlier and more effectively before people and families go into crisis. We do this by providing navigation support to connect to resources across an array of needs, including employment, healthcare, housing, basic needs, education, and more. We also believe that postvention services are just as important for people who are affected by suicide.
If you’d like a reference copy of the Arizona Coalition for Military Families Our Positions document, download it here.
