National Guard Building Healthy Military Communities

The Building Healthy Military Communities pilot program seeks to support the readiness and well-being of service members and families who live off base, including National Guard members and their families. This pilot is active in Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

The Defense Department created Building Healthy Military Communities, a strategic pilot aligned with the larger DOD initiative Total Force Fitness, to enhance military recruitment, retention, readiness and resilience.

Each BHMC pilot state is led by a state coordinator who facilitates connections and awareness in their state among:

• The DOD community
• Nongovernmental organizations
• Community partners
• National, state, local and tribal governments

State coordinators are members of, or lead, community, state and county public health boards or working groups. They build bridges between national, state and local partners to collaborate on how to serve military communities and create a common agenda among stakeholders. These efforts increase a sense of belonging in the community and decrease negative health outcomes for military communities.

The DOD piloted Phase 1 of BHMC in 2016 in Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oklahoma. These states met the site selection criteria, including a strong commitment from leadership, and the presence of active-duty and reserve service members from multiple services. The sites also vary demographically and geographically.

In late 2021, Phase 2 of BHMC expanded to three additional states: Georgia, South Carolina and Texas.

Phase 1 resulted in the following:

• Community Readiness Open Data Dashboard of all 50 states and territories that highlights service member density and top public health risks. This is available to a variety of national, state and local partners.
• Ask the question: Through federal partnerships, the BHMC team is in the process of adding a question to the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, specifically asking respondents about their military and/or veteran status.
• Epidemiological maps have been built using publicly available data to determine top health risks in each county within pilot states, which has improved the DOD’s ability to accurately forecast and allocate resources.
• Targeted interventions were implemented to help senior-level decision-makers better forecast, allocate and provide resources to solve the toughest challenges facing geographically-dispersed service members and their families.