Booz Allen partners with the nonprofit Blue Star Families to help military families of color feel more at home and included in the local communities where they live and serve. It’s part of Booz Allen’s enduring commitment to the nonprofit that has lasted for more than a decade. As the military works to build a diverse all-volunteer force, ensuring a sense of belonging and community is an imperative for force readiness.
As part of groundbreaking research in its Campaign for Inclusion (CFI), Blue Star Families has surveyed military families of color annually since 2020. Creating an intentional space to listen to military families of color, the goal is to better understand how racism and discrimination impacts them—and, by extension, how it impacts overall military readiness.
Building Bridges and Turning Data into Action
To dig deeper into the data and jump-start robust discussion around this important work, Booz Allen hosted a roundtable session together with Blue Star Families in May at The Helix, Booz Allen’s Center for Innovation in Washington, DC. Listening and problem solving in a modern, yet intimate setting created a trusting environment for participants to listen openly, think creatively, and build solutions together.
More than 80 military, government, community, and industry stakeholders took part in this convening. They shared findings from CFI research, highlighted best practices, and identified creative community solutions that help address the complex challenges to building a diverse all-volunteer force and building belonging for military families.
Inclusion and Military Readiness Go Hand in Hand
In establishing the Campaign for Inclusion, Blue Star Families openly recognizes the defense community’s recruiting and retention crisis, along with society’s long history of discrimination. Significant findings from CFI research make it clear that representation matters. One in four active-duty respondents are part of a multiracial/multiethnic family. And by 2027, most recruitable U.S. adults will be people of color. To build bridges to belonging for military families of color, the defense community needs military and community leaders who are as diverse as the population they serve.
Booz Allen’s Enduring Commitment to Military Families
Proudly collaborating on CFI is just one way that they’re innovating with Blue Star Families—and advancing critical issues that affect military readiness. For more than a decade, they’ve been partnering with the nonprofit to help strengthen and empower military families. Right now, Booz Allen is also supporting the CFI DEPLOY Fellowship Program, which helps build a pipeline of diverse and talented leaders within military- and veteran-serving organizations nationwide.
In addition, during the COVID-19 pandemic, they donated $1 million and committed subject matter expertise and technical know-how to the COVID-19 Military Support Initiative. Blue Star Families and the Association of Defense Communities spearheaded this national coalition to rapidly respond to pandemic-related challenges that military families and veterans were experiencing.
Through Booz Allen’s innovative partnership with Blue Star Families, they’re continuing to make a positive impact for the nation’s military families—when and where it matters most. Booz Allen empowers the military community from the inside out.
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