On 400 acres of scenic farmland in Fayetteville, Georgia, there is an inspiring organization dedicated to serving youth and veterans called Camp Southern Ground. Founded by GRAMMY award-winning artist Zac Brown, Camp Southern Ground offers residential summer camp experience for kids aged 7 to 17, and workforce and wellness transition programs to help veterans transition to civilian life after military service. A vital aspect of honoring those who have served our country is understanding and providing support for the unique challenges veterans and military families face. These challenges can include stress from relationships, health issues, substance misuse, financial problems or trouble finding housing or a job, particularly as active-duty military members transition to civilian life.
Veteran-Serving Organizations (VSO) like Camp Southern Ground play a critical role helping veterans make that transition, providing essential programs and services, offering support with employment, housing, education, life skills, mental health and community connection. A key Camp Southern Ground program is supporting veterans through Warrior Week, a free, six-day program designed to help transitioning service members identify their strengths and build a plan for a meaningful civilian career.
Camp Southern Ground offers veterans an opportunity to focus on their personal growth and path forward.
Camp Southern Ground in Fayetteville, Georgia.
Warrior Week is a free, six-day program designed to help transitioning service members identify their strengths and build a plan for a meaningful civilian career.
“Camp Southern Ground's mission is to provide experiences for individuals to recognize and magnify their unique gifts within themselves and others to help them profoundly change the world,” said Lacy Gunnoe, well-being director for veteran programs at Camp Southern Ground. “And we do that through Warrior Week by focusing on strengths, wellbeing and helping our nation's veterans and service members transition well into the civilian space.”
During the week, participants take part in both physical outdoor activities and classroom training on Camp Southern Ground’s serene campus, a space for veterans to reset, redefine and rediscover their next chapter. For veterans like Bobby Payne, who spent 22 years in the U.S Air Force, Warrior Week provides a valuable opportunity reconnect with fellow veterans leaving active service.
“You've been a part of a team, like a tribe, a family, the entire time you wore the uniform,” said Payne during his participation in Warrior Week in 2025. “And then you get out, and you're out there all on your own. And you struggle. You've lost your purpose, you've lost your identity, you've lost your reason to wake up in the morning sometimes. You need to find your new family, your new team, your new tribe. And that's what this place does.”
Bobby Payne, U.S. Air Force veteran
Lauren Johnson, U.S. Air Force veteran
Lacy Gunnoe, well-being director for veteran programs at Camp Southern Ground and U.S. Air Force veteran
For many veterans, finding that purpose means connecting with other veterans who share their own sense of service and community. Veteran Lauren Johnson, PhD, a psychologist who served in the U.S Air Force for four years, says those values are what draws many veterans to the Warrior Week program. “I'm Air Force, and so one of our core values is service before self,” said Johnson. “And I think you see that across the branches. Everyone here has that in them. So we all raised our hand, we said, ‘Hey, I'm willing to sacrifice for this country. I'm willing to serve this country. I'm willing to die for this country.’ And in that comes a certain kind of ethos of service toward others.”
While service members are trained to serve others first, Camp Southern Ground offers veterans an opportunity to focus on their personal growth and find a path forward. This can be extremely challenging for service members who have spent their lives serving others and now have the freedom to choose their future outside of the military.
Since becoming involved with Warrior Week, Johnson has seen first-hand the impact of the program on those who take part.
“Warrior Week is an opportunity for veterans to come here and find purpose and meaning and fulfillment and well-being,” said Johnson. “A lot of well-being is focused maybe on one thing, physical or social. Warrior Week is all of it, right? We're doing physical, social, emotional, financial. It's kind of capturing all these different areas where maybe people struggle during transition” to civilian life after military service.
The CDC Foundation is proud to partner with VSOs like Camp Southern Ground to support veterans and military families. Learn more about the Veteran Suicide Prevention Evaluation program, through which the CDC Foundation has built capacity of over 20 VSOs to become data-driven to improve programs that reduce suicide risk among veterans.
Photos courtesy of Camp Southern Ground
