Patient Care Services
August 3, 2017 Webinar Announcement
“Catch a C.A.B.! Creating a Community Action Board to Help Veterans
and Their Families”
Link to Webinar Recording
Originally broadcast August 3, 2017
Communities and Veterans need one another. Veterans and their families need more than what any individual person or organization can offer. Building community networks and partnerships is necessary, but it takes hard work. This webinar brings real life experience and principles on how to create and sustain “community action boards” (CABs) or community partnerships to support Veterans and their families, particularly in rural areas. Participants will learn why communities are important and how to engage them. They will also learn about real-life models of community partnership building for Veterans, including Community Action Boards and lessons learned from previous efforts.
Learning Objectives
Following the webinar, participants will be able to:
- Discuss the principles of community engagement and how it is different than outreach
- Describe effective community outreach strategies for issue-based campaigns
- Apply principles of community partnership building and identify next steps for their own communities
- Initiate the creation of a successful and sustainable community coalition/alliance/action board to support rural Veterans and their families
Your Presenters
Steve Sullivan, M.Div. is a VA Chaplain with the Central Arkansas Veteran Health System and Implementation Lead of the VA Office of Rural Health (ORH) “Community Clergy Training Program to Support Rural Veterans Mental Health.” In 2009, Chaplain Sullivan became the Clergy Coordinator for the VA-Clergy Partnership (VCP and directs VCP efforts to build coalitions between local faith communities, mental health communities and others in rural areas to reach Veterans and their families. His current areas of interest are the study of the effects of war on the soul, the interplay between mental health and spiritual health, and theology in pop culture.
Chaplain Sullivan is an ordained Baptist minister, endorsed by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and has served as a hospital chaplain for 15 years. He spent a year teaching conversational English in northern Thailand before earning his M. Div. degree from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Th. M. degree in world religions and missions from Princeton Theological Seminary. Chaplain Sullivan is the proud parent of daughter, Jenna, a third year student at Wake Forest School of Divinity.
Tabitha Narvaiz currently serves as a State Community Support Coordinator for Army OneSource where she leads an effort across two states to mobilize communities in order to build service capacity for Service Members, Families, and Veterans. With over a decade of experience, Tabitha has built her career around developing and executing strategic plans for issue and policy based campaigns on the state and national levels. She has a long history of coalition building and relationship development in both the public and private sectors.
Tabitha has served as a legislative assistant for a U.S. Member of Congress, campaign staffer for multiple national and state races, and government relations and grassroots outreach consultant for various government, non-profit, and private sector clients. Her passion for the community is also evident in her personal life, volunteering for a handful of non-profit organizations and serving as a member of the Junior League of Oklahoma City. Tabitha received her Bachelor’s Degree in American Studies from Oklahoma State University.
The "Community Clergy Training to Support Rural Veterans Mental Health" Promising Practice is funded by the VA Office of Rural Health.
