Michigan Veterans Community Action Teams: Community Assessment Summary Report

The Michigan Veterans Community Action Teams (MIVCAT) project is a collaborative community model created by Altarum to enhance the delivery of services from public, private, and nonprofit organizations to Veterans and their family members. The MIVCAT project was introduced in Michigan by the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency (MVAA) in August 2013, with pilots in two of Michigan’s ten Prosperity Regions – Detroit Metro Region 10, comprising Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties; and West Michigan Region 4, consisting of Allegan, Barry, Ionia, Kent, Lake, Mason, Mecosta, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana, Osceola, and Ottawa counties.

To discern the needs of Veterans and the services available to them, Altarum gathered information through several channels. Altarum conducted a community assessment that included interviews with key regional leaders, focus groups with Veterans, a survey of Veterans, and a survey of service providers.

This report summarizes the findings of all of these community assessment activities. More details are available in individual reports on the focus groups in each region, the survey of Veterans, and the survey of service providers.