More than 55,000 veterans in southwest Michigan have now have easier access to health, employment, and education benefits. That’s thanks to a collaboration involving local, state, and federal agencies. The Veteran Community Action Team, or V-CAT, is a project coordinated by the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency in Lansing.
The MVAA is expanding V-CAT to veterans and their families in Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, and Van Buren Counties. The region has the fifth-largest veteran population among what the state calls its ten “prosperity regions.”
A recent V-CAT planning session at Western Michigan University included a room full of local service providers. Thelen says they were eager to learn about V-CAT and ways they can help provide services to veterans, including emergency housing assistance, food, employment, mental health counseling, and educational support.
Suzanne Thelen is MVAA's director of Veteran Engagement. She says something had to be done to improve Michigan's dismal record on services to veterans.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to take where we were when we stood up the agency, 53rd out of 53, behind Guam and Puerto Rico in terms in the amount of money per-capita that a veteran receives in the State of Michigan. And we’ve moved out of the basement...we’ve moved to 48th place in a little over two years."
V-CAT was first introduced in Metro Detroit as part of Governor Rick Snyder’s 2013 Regional Prosperity Initiative. The program then spread to West Michigan’s Region 4 covering 13 counties.
Region 8 MVAA Coordinator Mike Wilson remembers all too well his exit from the military in 2009. After 27 years in the Army and the Army National Guard, he retired as a command sergeant major.
“The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines do a great job at creating soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. They don’t do a great job at creating veterans. I don’t ever remember getting a class on finding veteran support while I was in the military.”
The problem was that Wilson couldn’t see himself out of the military. But combat injuries during a deployment to Iraq forced him to retire. And he soon discovered that much of his experience in uniform didn’t mesh well with civilian life. But after a little trial and error, he found a position with a Department of Defense contractor supporting families of those killed in action.
“And there I could use the things I learned about Veteran Services and the Veteran’s Administration, and I could use those things to help me with veterans as well.”
Wilson says the biggest challenge is getting former service members to think like civilians again, especially when they're interviewing for a job.
“Service members have their own lingo, and a lot of civilians don’t understand that. So if they are interviewing, they may have done their resume, or they may have had professional help with their resume, but when they start talking, things don’t translate. And the average citizen thinks, 'Ya know, you blew up a tank; you drove some stuff; but we really don’t do that here.'”
And that’s why Wilson says he’s excited about V-CAT working with local partners to get services such as employment assistance and readiness, closer to veterans who need jobs.
One line that came up often during the recent V-CAT planning meeting at WMU was: there’s no “wrong door” when it comes to connecting veterans with the services they need. But Suzanne Thelen says many need help, no matter what approach they take.
“They have a lot of questions. How do I access my benefits? How do I use my GI Bill? How do I transition into civilian employment? How do I use my military service to become better employed or to be fully employed?"
Thalen says the biggest benefit of the V-CAT partnership is that county veteran services offices, VA medical centers, and local service providers work together so that veterans get answers without hassle.
“No matter who you contact, we’re connected as community through the veteran community action teams...so that if you ask me a question, and I don’t have the answer, I know where I can refer you to...without having to start that questioning process all over again.”
V-CAT has a hotline - 800-MICH-VET (800-642-4838) - available to veterans 24 hours-a-day.
