Nonprofits Create Community is NIA’s theme for 2026, as we celebrate the ways that nonprofits come through for their communities in spite of all the challenges facing them. In this series, meet some NIA-insured nonprofits who share their stories of creating community in their own words.
Meet Vets 4 Vets Santa Cruz of Santa Cruz, CA
Wendy Core, Executive Director of Vets 4 Vets Santa Cruz, explains:
“We are a Santa Cruz nonprofit that is made up of veterans and friends creating a community and assisting our brothers and sisters in need through peer support, practical assistance, meaningful events, and veterans and supporters helping veterans.”
How does your nonprofit and your mission create community for the people and places you serve?
Building a caring network where veterans and supporters show up for one another.
“Vets 4 Vets creates community by bringing together veterans, family members, volunteers, and community supporters through connection, service, and shared purpose.
Our mission is not only to support veterans in need, but to build a caring network where veterans and supporters show up for one another.
We build community through monthly member meetings, outdoor trips, social gatherings, memorial events, and fun activities that give veterans and supporters a place to belong, laugh, reconnect, and feel part of something meaningful.
These events help reduce isolation and create friendships that continue beyond the event itself.
We also create community through direct service. When a veteran needs help moving, small home assistance, a ride, or practical support, we connect them with veterans and community supporters who can lend a hand.
In those moments, people are not just giving or receiving help, they are strengthening relationships and building trust.
This ‘veterans and supporters helping veterans’ model is at the heart of our mission. It strengthens dignity, belonging, and connection for local veterans while also giving the wider Santa Cruz County community a meaningful way to honor and support those who have served.”
What are your nonprofit’s biggest challenges or obstacles to creating community?
Reaching people who can be disconnected or isolated.
“One of our nonprofit’s biggest challenges in creating community is reaching veterans who are isolated, disconnected, or hesitant to ask for help. Many veterans do not naturally seek support, even when they need it, so building trust takes time, consistency, and personal connection.
Another challenge is capacity: Vets 4 Vets is a small nonprofit with a strong mission, but limited staff time and volunteer availability.
Many of our longtime volunteers are older, and some of the practical needs we respond to, such as moving help, small home assistance, transportation, and compassionate visits, require dependable people, physical ability, coordination, and follow-through.
Despite these challenges, we see the solution in our own model: Veterans, family members, volunteers, and community supporters coming together to help one another. The more we can grow that network, the more veterans we can reach and the stronger our community becomes.”
A broker’s take on community in action.
Before a nonprofit can help build community, they need insurance — and brokers are their guide to helping them find coverage, maintain it, and, if needed, make a claim on it.
Vets 4 Vets Santa Cruz partners with Coryn Gardiner, a broker with Clarion Pacific Insurance Services, who helps them get the most value from their NIA coverage.
As their broker, Gardiner shared insight into the benefit Vets 4 Vets Santa Cruz brings to the community:
“I’m so proud to partner with Vets 4 Vets in Santa Cruz! As an insurance agent, it’s amazing to see local veterans and friends coming together to protect and support our brothers and sisters in need.
Whether they are hosting community events or providing peer support, they do it with total integrity. I am proud to handle their insurance needs so they can focus on what matters most — veterans helping veterans!”
