Recreating shared service and identity among veterans

By Liz Henning

World Humanitarian Day asks us to consider what it means to support people and communities, especially when their needs are not always visible. In my work as an Albert Schweitzer Fellow, I have been thinking about one need that can be easy to overlook: the need to feel connected, useful, and part of a community.

My project, Service Beyond Service (SBS), focuses on social connection among veterans in Southeast Michigan through local, short-term volunteer service. Military service creates a strong sense of shared experience and identity. Leaving active service, changing units, retiring, or simply moving into a different stage of life can change the communities that once provided that connection. Veterans may have access to formal organizations and resources while still lacking regular opportunities to build meaningful relationships with others.

SBS was created to make those opportunities more accessible. In partnership with the Reserve Organization of America – Michigan, the project brings veterans and ROTC cadets together through community events, service opportunities, movement, conversation, and shared experiences. The goal is not to create another formal program that asks participants to sit in a room and talk about loneliness. It is to create environments where connection can develop naturally. That distinction matters to me. Social connection is often discussed only after isolation has become a serious problem. I believe there is value in investing earlier, by creating spaces where people have a reason to show up and continue showing up. A walk, volunteer project, coffee gathering, or conversation between generations of service members may seem small, but these interactions can help strengthen the networks people rely on throughout their lives.

This project has also made me think differently about humanitarian work. Humanitarian service does not always begin with a crisis. Sometimes it means recognizing a gap in a community and building something that helps prevent people from becoming disconnected in the first place. It means asking not only whether resources exist, but whether people feel that they belong within the communities meant to support them.

Investing in opportunities for connection before isolation requires intervention is key to curbing the issue at hand. For veteran organizations, community leaders, policymakers, and funders, this means treating social connection as something worth deliberately supporting. For everyone else, it can begin even closer to home. Invite someone to participate, make space for a new person, reach out to someone who has stopped showing up. We may never fully understand how meaningful a gesture will be to someone else, but that does not mean we should not try.

Strong communities are built through repeated opportunities to belong. My hope for SBS is to create more of those opportunities for veterans in Southeast Michigan and to learn how we can sustain them long after this fellowship ends.

World Humanitarian Day is celebrated on August 19. Liz Henning is a University of Michigan Master of Public Health candidate in Health Behavior & Health Equity. She is a 2026-27 Albert Schweitzer Fellow at Authority Health.