Ex-Service Organisations Mapping Project (ESOMP)

Launched by Sir Angus Houston on 15 December 2015 at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the ESO Mapping Project aims to map the needs of veterans and their families, the focus and services of Ex-Service Organisations and identify the gaps and overlaps in those services. For more information on the launch please click here.

According to Sir Angus, "Every veteran and their family, regardless of their age or experience, should be able to acess services that meet their needs. It is imperative that we find that people that are slipping through the gaps, particularly those in regional areas, as they volunteered their services for our country in its time of need."

Background

The Aspen Foundation has recently been approached by individual Ex-Service Organisations (ESOs) for support, and in response the Foundation has chosen to support veterans and families and the ESOs that support them through this research project.

As Australia moves into the fourth post war period of its history (WW1, WW2, SE Asia, Timor/Middle East) it is considered appropriate to ask if our ESOs are organised to support contemporary veterans and their families. Each generation of veterans has been different from the previous one. The most recent generation of veterans have some additional aspects unique to current times. These include the following characteristics:

full time professional forces in the main, noting specifically that:
- there are significant numbers of females now deploying
- reservist numbers are increasing
no conscription
injured service men and women are surviving very significant injuries that in previous campaigns would have proved fatal
no large scale mobilisation of militia and civilians from local communities
multiple rotations on operational service
increased involvement and comment from spouses and families
modern veterans expect to be able to access all the information they need online.

Aims of the ESOMP

mapping the needs of veterans and families
mapping the focus and services of ESO
identifying the gaps and overlaps of ESO services in support of veterans and families.