On 1 June, Hope for Veterans (part of Community Hope, Inc.) — a member organization and one of the three Supportive Services for Veterans and Families contractors in our Lehigh Valley working for the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center healthcare network Read more…
In 2012 the Veterans Trust Fund was established in Pennsylvania. We thought you might want to know how it is being used this year.
In 2015, fifty-five organizations applied for grants, the sum of which would have amounted to nearly $4.7 million in funding for veterans’ services and programs. Of these, ten grants were subsequently awarded. Since all were competing for $350,000 in grant money, there is an implication: there are needs state government is failing to recognize through the usual means. (more…)
The Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council is conducting its “Salute to the Troops” this year on 22 May, starting at 6 p.m., again at the Days Hotel (The Jetport), 3400 Airport Road in Allentown. Please come, but immediately make your reservation. Don’t worry if you a few days beyond the suspense date on the form, though tables are filling quickly and we do need to get the order in to the caterer as soon as possible.
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Probably for the first time in its history, the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center is about to conduct a Town Hall in the Lehigh Valley. You know something has got to be behind this. Read on. (more…)
We have written before concerning the presence of scamming when it comes to veterans. You would think us targeted prey because it is an ongoing and widespread problem nationally. Pennsylvania’s Office of Attorney General, specifically its relatively new Office of Military and Veterans Affairs, has become more involved of late — an indication that the problem is particularly acute in the commonwealth.
Now we hear that some firms and persons in Pennsylvania, veterans among them, are charging for filing a VA compensation or pension claim for a veteran or a survivor. (more…)
The Chairman of our Scholarship Committee has asked we announce that submissions for the LVMAC Scholarship must be sent by 30 May 2015 to be considered. For details and application forms, click here. ### As of 6 May 2015
The Eastern Pennsylvania (aka Philadelphia) District of the Small Business Administration seems to be improving its veterans outreach into the Lehigh Valley and nearby these days. Late last year they did something with CACLV, an odd acquaintance. Hopefully, we will continue to see more of the types of efforts shown below. It has been said 40 percent of all military servicemembers upon discharge wish to start their own businesses (or work for themselves). The statistic is questionable, but there are certainly enough veterans in this third largest metropolitan statistical area of the commonwealth with the aptitude, perseverance and seriousness required to start their own business, if they only knew how. (more…)
Job AnnouncementThe Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council (LVMAC) is seeking a part-time Executive Assistant for the Veterans Affairs Committee’s Healthcare in Our Community Task Force, an alliance of all the healthcare networks in our community aimed at improving the delivery of services to our military veterans. The complexity of the project has now risen to the level that demands on the time of participants is such that dedicated, dependable administrative assistance manpower is needed to assistance. If interested, apply immediately!
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Few doubt that Congress had a point in wanting the Veterans Choice Card provision in the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014 (VACAA) — excessive delays in service merited this temporary measure — but it seems also to have rushed the Department of Veterans Affairs, whether unfairly or not. In its haste to respond to short deadlines, the VA has made some poor regulatory decisions along the way. (more…)
The vast majority of veterans — more than 80% by estimate — in the Lehigh Valley do not use the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system, either because they are not eligible or have never applied. Instead, like the good Read more…