Veterans\u27 Outreach

The Military and Veterans Affairs Office of Monterey County works to connect veterans to services they qualify for and need. After separation from the military many veterans do not receive the medical care they need, which leads to them losing self-sufficiency due to medical, and/or substance dependency issues. The MVAO works hard to reach these veterans and inform them about the services available to them and helps them to process the claims that they need in order to access those services. One of the biggest barriers to delivery of services is that not all veterans are being reached because they are not aware of the services the office provides. The capstone project aims to reach out to even more veterans in order to get them connected to the office. They will do this by reaching out to the local colleges as well as to organizations that service homeless veterans, and through the veterans’ court. The outreach has been conducted via email as well as by holding drop in webinars. At the end of the project we hope to have reached more veterans as well as gain insight as to what services need more awareness in the community. Through outreach the project was able to identify 957 veterans that could benefit from being connected to our office and its services. While the survey responses have been minimal the project shows great promise and could really help the agency in improving is services to the veteran community