Wilkes-Barre VA Offers Evening and Weekend Appointments in Primary and Mental Health Care
We have been informed the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center recently announced that it and one of its satellite facilities, the Allentown Outpatient Clinic, are offering extended appointment hours to better serve their veterans. This has been confirmed. (more…)
There has been talk going around that Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center does not reimburse for bus travel involving authorized VA appointments. This is misinformation as best as we can determine. For the latest on its travel reimbursement policy and who to contact in the event of a problem, click here. Read more…
When it comes to helping veterans find employment — having done away with its Governor’s Veterans Outreach and Assistance Centers (and using them properly before that) and having had problems with the staffing of 
its Veterans Employment Representative program — the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) has not exactly been a frontrunner among state labor departments. But its JobGatewaySM is a web product which comes as close to providing a one-stop employment shopping environment online as you can get, and has the potential to actually help our veterans community because it also tries to engage prospective employers providing good, wage paying jobs, registering those who pass muster. (more…)
David M. Dubois, Deputy Director of the Office of Servicemember Affairs in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of the Federal Trade Commission, has put out this alert to various veterans groups: “Veterans and their families are a target for some dishonest advisers who are claiming to offer free help with paperwork for pension claims.”
“The scheme involves attorneys, financial planners, and insurance agents trying to get veterans to make decisions about their pensions, without giving them the whole truth,” according to Dubois. (more…)
In This Issue
MR. BABB TALKS ABOUT THE VETERANS HISTORY PROJECT ROUNDTABLE
David Babb, a historian and interviewer for the Lehigh Valley Veterans History Project Roundtable, a member organization, spoke to the Council at its business meeting on 17 January 2013.
His organization was formed in 2007 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization two capture the stories of all wartime veterans and also those who served on the home front. It collects documents and preserves their personal experiences and then shares those stories with both the public and the Library of Congress. To date about 200 interviews have been done. (more…)
VBA CHANGES EVR REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
Besides seeming to signal lately the transition in nomenclature from the poorly named Disability Pension and the Death Pension to the terms Veterans’ Pension and Survivors’ Pension respectively, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) has gone on to do something truly significant in this benefit area which is worthwhile to our veterans and their survivors: preventing the unnecessary interruption of monthly payments over the failure to file a report on time. The new procedure also applies to Parents Dependency Indemnity Compensation (Parents DIC) because it too is income-based and is, therefore, essentially a pension in the VA’s lingo. (more…)
NINE RECIPIENTS ARE RECOGNIZED
The 2012 award recipients of the Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council’s Scholarship Program were honored at the Council’s business meeting on 15 August 2012. Phil Hublitz of the Scholarship Subcommittee, presented the awards, assisted by Dave Binder, Board Member. The awardees had been vetted by a team consisting of Phil Hublitz and Bob Rothenberger as Co-Chairs, Lois Binder, JoAnn Van Billiard, and Tom Shaunessey
Most of the awardees are high school seniors and the most are enrolling in ROTC in college with plans to serve in the military – several plan twenty year careers in the service. The majority are enrolled in local colleges. Two who are a veteran’s child plan on military service. One homeless veteran is returning to college. Applications from returning veterans continue to be problematic probably due to the generous Post 9/11 GI Bill. Local colleges have a large veteran enrollment, the college financial aid staffs have been contacted and are well aware that scholarships are available from LVMAC. Veterans have a record of success in college. An application has never been received from a Reservist or Guardsman from a local military unit, except for their children. Those recognized, together with their families, were: (more…)
LEHIGH COUNTY SEES ITS VETERANS’ MENTOR PROGRAM AS A SUCCESS
Steve Luksa, First Assistant District Attorney for Lehigh County, spoke to the Council on 20 June at its business meeting about the District Attorney’s Veterans’ Mentor Program. Other program team members present with him were: Debbie Garlicki, Executive Aide (Public Relations), DA’s Office; Brenda Trayes, Administrative Assistant, DA’s Office; Shane Schmeckenbecker, Probation Officer II; and Maureen McManus, Executive Director of Lehigh Valley Pretrial Services
According to Mr. Luksa, the one-year old, Veterans’ Mentor Program (whose motto is “Leave no veteran behind.”) started out as part of Team MISA (Mental Illness and Substance Abuse), now in its seventh year and an effort which has reduced cost and recidivism while still protecting the community. An increasing number of veterans were using the that program, but there was no way to address treating them uniquely (as he believed they should be). Hence the program was created. (more…)
Treatment Trends Announces Suspension of Operations
It is with profound dismay that the Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council informs you of Veterans Sanctuary’s suspension of operations. It was our only local, long-term residential addiction and PTSD services treatment facility exclusively dedicated to military veterans. This important asset to our veterans statewide is no longer accepting clients. (more…)
LANG EMPHASIZES ROLE OF THE STUDENT VETERANS OF AMERICA, INC.
On 16 May 2012, Mr. Joshua Lang, Vice President, National Leadership Council, Student Veterans of America, spoke to the Council at its business meeting on the topic of “Student Veterans of America and Returning Veterans.”
Mr. Lang served in the 82nd Airborne Division from 2005 to 2008 and was deployed to Afghanistan. Subsequently he has served in the National Guard. He is one from the youngest generation of veterans.
At the beginning of his talk, he highlighted the process of “getting out.” In his experience, many veterans, especially the younger ones, are not set up for success when their term of service expires – both financially and mentally. The Department of Defense has acknowledged this and begun taking steps forward. The Student Veterans of America, Inc. (SVC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is all about “setting up veterans prior to their getting out and sending them on the path to success.” (more…)