Giving Compass' Take:

• The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) partnered with FSG to highlight veteran and military stories utilizing a  journey mapping tool that helps build empathy and foster connections between individuals through their experiences. 

• How can journey mapping help other populations that have been through trauma? 

• Read about the military veteran who is building empathy by becoming an advocate for the refugee community. 

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) partnered with FSG to bring the stories of veterans and military families to life. These stories, collected using journey maps, help represent the diverse experiences of veterans and military families. They remind us that this population interacts with and contributes to their local communities in many ways.

Through this work, we identified promising practices museums and libraries can use to engage veterans and military families. To help museums and libraries understand the range of ways they could engage with this population, IMLS and FSG brought together a cross-section of librarians, museum staff, veteran service organizations, and veterans and military families, for a 2-day Town Hall convening in San Antonio, TX last year.

Practitioners had a variety of experiences with veterans and military families. While some had worked directly in their communities to serve veterans and military families, few had worked collaboratively to develop place-based solutions to support this population. We wanted to encourage an atmosphere of learning, connection, and curiosity for these practitioners. Using the journey maps, we were able to foster creativity and increased understanding about the unique opportunities to serve the military community.

Journey maps are visual depictions that describe an individual’s unique life path. They often begin with conversations among strangers, but because they are rooted in Human-Centered Design, a practice that emphasizes empathy and understanding, they can lead to deep connections between individuals.

Read the full article about journey mapping by Sandra Medrano and Cara Priestley at FSG