The two-day summit is one of five planned in each region to help women veterans and those transitioning out of service with VA health care enrollment, benefits and more.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Center for Women Veterans is bringing the VA to women veterans and transitioning servicemembers with its new Women Veterans Enrollment Initiative called “Boots on the Ground for Boots on the Ground.” The first of five reginal summits will take place July 24-25 in San Antonio, Texas, at the Henry B. González Convention Center.
Register here for the summit.
“Every woman veteran in attendance is one more woman veteran connected to her health care, her benefits, her end-of-life planning, and her VA support she earned,” said Jacquelyn Hayes-Byrd, executive director for the Center for Women Veterans, during a VSO communicators meeting. “The focus is going to be enrollment, enrollment, enrollment. We have a million women veterans who are enrolled in the VA, and over a million women veterans who are not enrolled in VA. So our focus is to have those two groups of women come to the summit, along with our transitioning servicemembers, because one of the things that we don't want to do is five minutes after a servicemember leaves the military, we don't want her to say, ‘You know what, I need the VA Where do I start?’ This gives her the opportunity, right here, to get to know the VA and vice versa.”
The summit will include:
· A claims clinic to enroll, review or increase benefits
· Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Resources
· Job Information Fair to Explore VA Opportunities
· Federal Resume Workshop
· Legal Assistance Information
· Tribal Health Services
· Whole Health and Wellness Resources
· Mobile Medical Support and Enrollment Assistance
· Reproductive Care, Menopause and Breast Health Education
· Benefits and Health Vare Enrollment Opportunities
· Learning about Federal Contracts
· Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Trauma Support Services
· Community Connections and Networking for Sister Veterans.
· Justice Involved VA Re-Entry Support
“One of the things that we're really proud of is our justice-involved veterans support and getting them to reenter society so that they know that they have people there that are going to help them along,” Hayes-Byrd said. “We need them to understand and want them to understand that they're not by themselves – they have a whole community of sister veterans that are here to help them get through and navigate through the VA.”
Future summits will be held in the Southeast, West, Northeast and Midwest.
“Women are the fastest growing populations in the veteran community. We decided that we would put together five different regional summits across the nation to reach the most amount of women veterans,” Hayes-Byrd said.
- Women Veterans