A Place to Belong: NMFA Scholarship Recipients Create Space for Connection

For military and veteran spouses who have spent years carrying the weight of military life, The Restored Heart Collective offers something powerful: a space to put that weight down, rediscover themselves, and find community along the way.

Every deployment, homecoming, and military transition brings experiences that shape not only service members but also their families. For military spouses, years of raising children through separations, navigating unfamiliar communities, and supporting loved ones can mean putting their own needs aside. Somewhere along the way, it can become difficult to remember who they were before they became everything everyone else needed.

For Jackie and Cathy, co-founders of The Restored Heart Collective, that feeling was deeply personal. Though their journeys through military life differed, both longed for a place where they could feel seen, understood, and supported. What they found would inspire them to create that same sense of belonging for other women.

The Experiences We Carry

Cathy’s connection to the military community began when she met her husband shortly after he returned from deployment. Both artists, they traveled the country hosting workshops that explored his military experiences through creative expression. While veterans connected over their shared experiences, Cathy often found herself gathering with the women accompanying them.

Those conversations sparked a realization: Military spouses needed a space of their own to connect, share their stories, and feel understood.

For Jackie, that understanding came through years of sacrifice. Just two days after welcoming their second daughter, her husband departed for Army training, leaving her with a newborn and a 16-month-old.

Years of moves and separations followed, but his deployment to Afghanistan during the withdrawal proved especially difficult, particularly amid the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Far from a military community, Jackie struggled without people who understood her experiences.

When her husband returned home struggling with the emotional aftermath of deployment, Jackie devoted herself to supporting him, protecting their daughters, and holding their family together.

Somewhere in the process, she lost sight of herself.

Their experiences were different, but both recognized how deeply military life had shaped their sense of identity and belonging. Both longed for something they had struggled to find along the way: a community where their experiences were understood, their stories mattered, and they could feel seen for who they truly were.

Finding Each Other, Finding Themselves

Their paths crossed at a retreat for military-connected spouses in Montana. Cathy arrived searching for connection after years of feeling alone in her experiences. Jackie attended at her husband’s encouragement, only to realize how much of herself she had lost along the way.

Surrounded by women who understood military life, both found the freedom to be vulnerable, share their stories, and reconnect with themselves. For Jackie, it was especially meaningful to find women who embraced her for who she truly was.

As the only two East Coast participants, Cathy and Jackie began imagining how they could bring that same experience closer to home. Less than a month later, Cathy reached out with an idea to make it happen. Jackie was immediately on board.

They didn’t have all the answers, but they knew other women deserved what they had found.

From that shared conviction, the Restored Heart Collective was born. Together, Jackie and Cathy created a space where military-connected women could feel seen, supported, and connected to themselves and one another.

More Than a Retreat

Today, The Restored Heart Collective offers restorative retreats for military-connected women seeking connection, reflection, and a renewed sense of themselves.

Jackie and Cathy understand that isolation can exist even within a military community. Being surrounded by others who share the military experience doesn’t always mean feeling understood, especially when years of supporting others have left little room to attend to one’s own needs.

Their retreats offer something different.

Through thoughtfully designed activities, including trauma-informed yoga, meditation, sound baths, journaling, and creative expression, participants are invited to reflect on their journeys, process grief, embrace personal growth, and rediscover moments of joy and playfulness.

But the heart of their work goes beyond these activities. It’s the freedom to share without judgment, to be understood without explanation, and to connect with others who have walked similar paths.

Rather than offering answers, Jackie and Cathy create space for participants to discover their own, surrounded by a community that sees and supports them.

Sometimes, what we need most isn’t another reminder to be strong but a place where we don’t have to carry everything alone.

Helping a Powerful Mission Grow

As The Restored Heart Collective approaches its first anniversary, Jackie and Cathy are demonstrating what’s possible when military spouses turn their own experiences into opportunities for others.

An NMFA Joanne Holbrook Patton Military Spouse Scholarship helped bring their vision to life by providing funding for their recent retreat in Lake George. The award covered more than one-third of the retreat’s budget, helping fund wellness activities, bring in facilitators from across the country, and provide participants with materials to take home.

For a young nonprofit, that support made a significant difference. Beyond helping cover essential costs, it gave Jackie and Cathy greater freedom to be fully present with participants, sharing their own stories and fostering the authentic connections at the heart of their mission.

Their work embodies what NMFA believes about military spouses: Their firsthand experiences, creativity, and leadership make them powerful changemakers, capable of building the communities and creating the solutions they once needed themselves.

A Community Worth Growing

Looking ahead, Jackie and Cathy hope to expand the Restored Heart Collective’s reach and eventually establish a permanent retreat space of their own. As they continue offering retreats across the Northeast, they hope to create a place where military-connected women can gather, reconnect with themselves, and build meaningful relationships in a community that understands their experiences.

Their vision is rooted in something they know firsthand: the challenges of military life can create isolation, but shared experiences can also become the foundation for connection, understanding, and meaningful change.

At NMFA, we believe some of the most powerful solutions to military family challenges come from those who have experienced them firsthand. By investing in military spouse leaders, we’re supporting the creativity, compassion, and determination already at work within our communities.

We couldn’t be prouder of Jackie, Cathy, and the many NMFA scholarship recipients who are transforming their own experiences into opportunities for others.

To learn more about The Restored Heart Collective, explore upcoming retreats, and discover ways to get involved, visit their website or follow them on Instagram.

Together We’re Stronger®

By: Olivia Brinsfield, Content Manager