Challenge: Navigating Your Next Chapter- The Transition Back to Civilian

Challenge Statement

The Department of National Defence (DND) and Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) are seeking novel integrative and adaptable approaches and tools to help support members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), in particular, members who are ill and injured, to successfully transition to civilian life.

Background and Context

Life as a member of the CAF is understood to be a process of continuous transition, beginning from the first day of initial recruitment and following well beyond the day they take off their uniform. Research has shown that transition from military to civilian life can present significant challenges for releasing service members. The CAF/DND/VAC are committed to providing comprehensive support to all service personnel, veterans, and their families through this difficult period of transition.?

Recently, significant efforts have been placed on developing and enhancing programs and services to assist CAF members during their transition to civilian life, including new processes implemented as part of a critical group of initiatives designed to offer a member-centric, personalized, and standardized experience for all. Yet, the process may be complex and difficult to navigate due to the high volume of information and substantial number of third-party organizations that need to be managed to ensure a seamless process. There also remains a need to facilitate efficient collection, management/processing, and exchange of information during transition in order to better address the needs of CAF members, veterans, and their families. To that end, DND and VAC require novel approaches and tools to help support members of the CAF and help facilitate their transition to civilian life. This includes more integrative or multi-faceted approaches that can help facilitate the exchange of information across departments, units, and individuals, and that can be adapted to the unique needs of CAF members during their transition.

Given the cognitive challenges that may be associated with the current strategy for disseminating key information to service members, particularly with respect to those who are ill/injured, can we v“irtualize” the transition process and apply innovative technological solutions in order to better assist them as they transition out of the military and into civilian life?

Desired Outcomes

The desired outcomes of this Challenge include, but are not limited to, innovative solutions that could be adopted to:

• help CAF members, veterans, and their families access and process the high volume of information related to their transition more efficiently in order to simplify and support the transition experience;
• facilitate the exchange of information between CAF members, veterans, and their families, as well as the various organizations involved in the transition process to more effectively allocate and coordinate programs and services based on individual needs, avoid service gaps, and ensure a more seamless process;
• provide DND/CAF/VAC the ability to assess the value of the various services offered by third-party organizations in order to identify and leverage optimal services to support CAF members, veterans, and their families during the transition process.

Supplementary Information

Successful solutions must consider relevant Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) factors (https://cfc-swc.gc.ca/gba-acs/index-en.html) and adhere to the Privacy Act.