The Institute for Disaster Mental Health at SUNY New Paltz

Building Military Cultural Competence

Best and Shared Practices for Supporting Military-Affiliated Students

IDMH and OVMS hosted a conference with the support of SUNY System on November 5-6, 2019. The “Best and Shared Practices for Supporting Military-Affiliated Students” event convened SUNY veteran service representatives and leadership from SUNY campuses across the state.

Military-Affiliated Policy Recommendations for SUNY Institutions Booklet

The full program from that event can be found here: Program

Available presentations from the conference can be accessed below:

Keynote - David Riggs – David Riggs

SUNY New Paltz: David Eaton – David Eaton

Understanding VA Work Study: Jonathan Barnwell – Jonathan Barnwell

Administrator Bootcamp: Jason Gilliland – Jason Gilliland

Best Practices for Engaging Student Veterans: Calvin Jensen – Calvin Jensen

Understanding Military Culture: Jason Gilliland – Jason Gilliland

Wellness and Resilience: Amy Tully - Amy Tully

Additional Resources can be found below:

American Council on Education: Executive Order on Principles of Excellence

American Council on Education: Toolkit for Veteran Friendly Institutions

American Counsel on Education: Military Evaluations Handout

Dept. of Defense: Memorandum of Understanding

Dept. of Veterans Affairs: Application for Work Study

Dept. of Veterans Affairs: Work-Study Worksite Application

LinkedIn for Veterans

Student Veterans of America Handout

VA Campus Toolkit: Adjustment Issues in the Classroom

VA Campus Toolkit: Tips for Making your Syllabus Veteran Friendly

VA Campus Toolkit: Tips for Showing Support

VA Campus Toolkit: Tips on Making a Referral to Counseling

Veterans Benefits Administration: VetSuccess on Campus

The Institute for Disaster Mental Health (IDMH), Office of Veteran & Military Services (OVMS) at SUNY New Paltz, and the Student Veterans of America (SVA) are pleased to announce our health and wellness initiative: Building Military Cultural Competency: A Training Program for Higher Education Health and Wellness Professionals. This training serves to promote military cultural competence in higher education for campus professionals working with military-affiliated students.

This training is intended for:

• Professionals working in campus medical/health, counseling, career, or disability services

• Other professionals interested in learning more about working with military-affiliated students

The learning objectives for our training are as follows:

• Understanding military culture, how it differs from the culture of higher education, and the impact of these two different cultures on military students

• Understand military students’ perceptions of their strengths, challenges and their needs on campus

• Understand military students’ help-seeking attitudes behaviors and decision-making processes, including barriers and access points

• Consider how you can use this information to build engagement and outreach strategies with military-affiliated students

Thanks to generous support from the New York State Health Foundation, there was no cost to participants for this event’s registration. Please pass this along to your colleagues and anyone else interested.

Past training dates and locations were as follows:

October 16th, 2018: Buffalo State College, 11:00AM-5:00PM

October 17th, 2018: SUNY Oswego, 10:00AM-4:00PM

October 18th, 2018: Hudson Valley Community College, 10:00AM-4:00PM

October 22nd, 2018: SUNY Stony Brook, 10:00AM-4:00PM

October 24th, 2018: SUNY New Paltz, 10:00AM-4:00PM

February 14th, 2019: SUNY Maritime, 10:00AM-4:00PM

February 15th, 2019: SUNY Nassau Community College, 9:30AM-3:30PM

March 1st, 2019: CUNY Central Office, 10:00AM-4:00PM

A handout of the presentation slides can be accessed here: Building Military Cultural Competence

During the training program, vignettes of Military-Affiliated Students were presented to attendees. These vignettes can be viewed below:

On Being Different