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Community & Service
Serve together.
Veterans leave the military with leadership, teamwork, initiative, and a desire to contribute. Operation Serve puts those qualities back to work in the neighborhoods veterans call home - led by veterans already rooted in a community, or activated when a school, nonprofit, or neighborhood asks the Foundation to show up.
Why it matters
Service is what most veterans miss most about the military - showing up for something bigger than themselves, alongside people who need them. Loss of that purpose is a documented driver of post-service depression, substance use, and suicide. Meanwhile, the neighborhoods veterans live in still need volunteers.
Esprit puts veterans back on mission at ground level - school-supply drives, park cleanups, memorial activations, tree plantings - and shows up alongside the communities that ask for help. The impulse to serve gets a channel and a squad on day one.
Flagship - Operation Serve
We don't sit in an office and decide what every neighborhood needs.
First, we find veterans already there. Veterans who own businesses, coach kids, organize their blocks, volunteer, lead nonprofits, or see something in their community and think "someone should do something about this." Operation Serve gives them somewhere to bring the idea.
Second, when a school, church, nonprofit, block club, or organization asks the Foundation to come serve, we show up with the same coalition. A veteran doesn't have to be the author of every project for the mission to make sense. The community gets to ask too.
Step 01
Find a veteran already connected to a community. Veterans can apply directly or someone can nominate them.
Step 02
What does your community need? EDC learns about the veteran, neighborhood, existing work, local relationships, and proposed idea.
Step 03
Turn the idea into an actionable project. EDC works with the veteran to determine partners, volunteers, resources, funding, logistics, and scope.
Step 04
Bring people together. Veterans, service members, businesses, nonprofits, students, sponsors, community members, and volunteers serve side by side.
Step 05
Execute the project with the community - not simply for the community. With them.
Step 06
Measure the impact, maintain the relationships, and identify what comes next.
Recurring programs
Programming that puts Community & Service into practice year-round.
Back to School Giveaway - Back of the Yards - Chicago
Ignacio Gonzalez - United States Marine Veteran - Owner, Dreamcatcher Café
One veteran. One neighborhood. One idea. More than 25 organizations came together. Veterans, service members, cadets, businesses, nonprofits, and community members served side by side. Now we're looking for the next one.
Measured impact
Back to School Giveaway - August 29, 2026 - Back of the Yards - Chicago.
The coalition
In their words
Damian on why we started in Back of the Yards, how the coalition came together, and what "find, listen, build" actually looks like on the ground.
The recap
25+ community partners. 344 backpacks. Free haircuts, vaccines, food, and family time. Back of the Yards showed up for its neighbors, and its neighbors showed up for it.
This started with one veteran
Three doors into Operation Serve. Apply as a veteran with an idea for your community. Refer a veteran whose work we should know about. Or request the Foundation to come serve your community - a school, a drive, a neighborhood project. We read every submission.
Not a veteran? You can still request the Foundation to come serve your community.
Submission does not guarantee funding, sponsorship, or selection. EDC reviews proposed projects for mission alignment, feasibility, safety, available resources, and potential community impact.
Standing with veterans
The companies, nonprofits, universities, and community organizations building Community & Service alongside the Foundation.
Get involved
Volunteer under Community & Service, lead the pillar locally, or fund the work. Every door opens on the same mission.
Volunteer
The Back to School Giveaway and every community day is built by shift-based volunteers.
Lead
Pillar Team Leaders own the calendar, recruit the volunteers, and keep the work moving between events. If you can commit real time and want your fingerprints on something meaningful, this is the door.
Fund
Continued service, past the uniform.
Powers the Back to School Giveaway, neighborhood service days, and the year-round community events that keep veterans engaged in the neighborhoods where they live.
The other three pillars
