For almost a year I have been working with Sebastian Junger, Kristen Eaton, and Congressman Seth Moulton‘s team to develop a national database and event platform for returning servicemen and women.

Sebastian wanted to widen the engagement with his tried-and-tested Vets Town Hall model and extend it into online community spaces. Originally envisaged as a forum for in-person gatherings in real town halls, it also needed to address the challenges of Covid-19.

Leading the design direction, I implemented a robust web-based platform based on input from Sebastian, whose experience with combat troops provided an authentic conceptual framework. The webspace is a tool that enables organizers to sign up, attendees to ask questions, and Sebastian’s team to post a national, shareable, calendar of events. The events can be synced to Facebook Live, Zoom, or other group video spaces. The site is also building a national database of opportunities for combat troops to share their stories with the communities they are returning to.

We plan to expand this engagement into streaming media such as podcasts and webcasts to create an audio and visual archive of the often-lost human story of modern combat operations.