EVENT: Orange County Veterans and Military Families Collaborative general meeting

WHEN/WHERE:   9 a.m.-10 a.m. Wednesday, March 6, 2019, University Club, 801 E. Peltason Drive, UC Irvine  (bldg. 801, grid F6 on campus map: https://www.parking.uci.edu/maps/documents/UCI-CampusCore_2018.pdf).

INFORMATION:  The event is free and open to the public. Due to limited seating, RSVPs are required. Media planning to attend should contact Tom Vasich at 949-824-6455.

BACKGROUND:  This meeting serves as the official launch event of the UCI–OC Veterans & Military Families Collaborative partnership. It is a three-year pilot project focused on streamlining coordination of care and delivery of services to veterans through a community-based collective-impact model. UCI will serve as the convener for the volunteer run partnership, which was founded 2013. The collaborative represents over 100 veteran serving non-profits and agencies throughout OC.

UCI will introduce the newly established UCI convener program manager, Jeffrey Pagano, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, who will work alongside the partnership’s steering committee and its 10 working groups organized around veteran needs to improve their collective-impact model approach. Most recently Pagano served as the veteran services manager at the Tierney Veteran Services Center | Goodwill of Orange County. In his military career, Pagano served on the Presidential Helicopters Security Team for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He will start at UCI on March 18.

This donor-funded partnership will:

  • Improve efficiency of and the coordination on delivery of critically needed services to members of the over 130,000 veterans living in Orange County through the partnership’s member non-profits and agencies spread across the region, along with volunteer-run working groups.
  • Improving avenues for and advocacy on improving quality of life for existing Orange County veterans and their families with needs and increasing success of their transition from military careers to fulfilling civilian jobs by deploying their valuable skills and expertise across Orange County industries.