Supporting Resilience in the Academic Setting for Student Soldiers and Veterans as an Aspect of Community Reintegration: The Design of the Student Veteran Project Study

The Post 9/11 GI Bill is leading an increasing proportion of wounded warriors to enter universities. This paper describes the design and development of an adapted supported education intervention for veterans. The intervention trial was one of two projects which grew out of a participatory action research process aimed at supporting reintegration of returning veterans into the civilian community. This intervention is being tested in a foundation-funded randomized controlled trial in a large southwestern university, with participation now extended to student-veterans at colleges around the country. Some protective mechanisms which were found in theory and in prior research were also supported in early results. SEd intervention was associated with the protective mechanisms of support network density, higher mood, and resilience. Practitioners may benefit from the lessons learned in the development of this supported education intervention trial when considering implementation of this complementary intervention for veterans reintegrating into civilian life.