Vet News: VA to Conduct Nationwide Series of Events to Celebrate Women Veterans

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will conduct a series of one-day events to raise awareness and celebrate the stories of women Veterans. The events, to be held in five locations across the country, will provide an overview of services and benefits available to women Veterans. Experts will be available to answer Veterans’ questions, and exhibitors will share information on their many resources.

“We have found that our women Veterans often put the needs of others’ first,” said Elisa Basnight, Director of VA’s Center for Women Veterans (CWV). “We encourage them to make themselves a priority, to learn about the benefits and services which they’ve earned through their dedicated service. We are bringing our experts to them, where they are.” 

VA staff, as well as local community supporters and agencies that assist women Veterans, will be available for face-to-face interaction. All VA facilities are encouraged to participate in activities to celebrate and honor the women who answered the nation’s call. 

The scheduled events and local activities are part of a new national VA campaign, Women Veterans: Celebrating Our Stories of Service, which launched in late March 2015. The vision for the national VA campaign was born out of the realization that when our women Veterans from all eras and generations surrender the uniform, they retain the intangible—that combination of resolute resilience and the unbeatable skills they will incorporate into their reintegration and readjustment process.  Through this campaign, CWV will be engaged in going to these women Veterans to raise the awareness of VA’s commitment to them, and to facilitate the conversation around what more needs to be done in serving the unique needs of women Veterans.

The sessions for women Veterans will be held between June and September at the following locations:

• St. Petersburg, FL – June 12, 2015
• San Diego (Oceanside), CA – July 10, 2015
• Houston, TX – August 7, 2015 
• Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN  – September 14, 2015
• Washington, DC –  September 22, 2015 

Women Veterans represent one of the fastest growing segments of the Veterans population—about 9.2 percent of the total Veterans population. Today there are an estimated 2 million women Veterans nationwide. VA continues to improve benefits and services for women Veterans and is diligently transforming its culture to embrace this growing population, through other collaborative initiatives with Federal/state/local governmental and non-governmental stakeholders.

For more information about VA’s Women Veterans Campaign and VA’s commitment to women Veterans, visit va.gov/womenvet.

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