Navigating the transition to civilian life
I feel like I had enough time, I just didn’t know what to do. That's the difficult part about transitioning out: no one in the military has transitioned out, so there isn't someone that can explain how to do it.
Where we are
Each year, approximately 200,000 Service members leave the military and must reorient their lives. This includes fundamentals like their employment and education, finances, housing, health, and even relationships.
Existing research shows that navigating the military transition can be burdensome and confusing for Veterans, their families, and their supporters. While progress has been made, data suggests that around half of all recently separated Veterans don't connect with available resources and benefits for several years, and sometimes only when they are in crisis. Improving military-to-civilian transition can serve as early intervention to downstream challenges with Veteran homelessness, suicide, health, unemployment and underemployment, and poverty. Addressing these challenges can have lasting ripple effects on a community of approximately 43 million Veterans, family members, survivors, and caregivers.

Our approach
To start, we listened to people’s stories.
The Life Experience research team spoke with Service members, Veterans, and other military-connected people nationwide about this moment in their lives and where the government process could have been simpler and more helpful. The listening sessions captured honest conversations about peoples' experiences, candid feedback on what could have worked better, and what really made a difference for them. Their stories have been combined and are represented here through illustrations. The quotes are real, but names have been changed.












Overall, the team spoke with 200 people through interviews as well as site visits to military installations.
The team spoke with:
- 50 recently separated Veterans
- 71 transitioning Service members
- 10 family members
- 69 individuals from the Department of Defense, Department of Labor, Department of Veterans Affairs, and community subject matter experts
Discovery insights
Framing for collective thinking about customer pain points
How might we provide a transparent transition process that focuses on the future success of the transitioning Service member?
How might we help transitioning Service members approach social reintegration in a genuine and dedicated way before and after separation?
How might we provide equitable, relevant, and high-quality individualized guidance and clear instructions available throughout the transition process?
How might we consider opportunities to improve existing military resources that ease the Service members’ reintegration post-separation?
Next steps
Teams are currently working on identifying and scoping projects to move into the design phase. Please check back on this page in the coming months for updates.
Project Documentation
- Project Charter
- Project One-Sheet
- Customer Journey Map & Stories
- Information collection approved under OMB Control #2900-0876
- Life Experience Initiative Summary
- Executive Order 14058
- President’s Management Agenda
Agency collaborators
- General Services Administration
- Department of Labor
- Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Office of Management and Budget
- Department of Education
- Department of Defense
- Department of Veterans Affairs
- Office of Personnel Management
- Small Business Administration