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Strategic Objective

Amplify Awareness of Services and Benefits Available to Veterans through Improved Communications and Outreach

Strategic Objective

Themes:

Veterans Benefits and Services

VA.gov

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Overview
Progress Update

Overview

Summary:

The benefits, services, and resources available to our current and future clients, and the means and mechanisms for delivering them, must be widely-known and well understood. We will expand the ways in which we connect to our clients to amplify awareness of the services and benefits available to Veterans and eligible beneficiaries. We will connect with Veterans and eligible beneficiaries, our partners, and the Nation through clear, aligned, and proactive interactions.

Strategies:

VA will establish a robust, authoritative communications capability that provides and

Progress Update

Final Assessment: VA, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, determined that performance toward this objective is making noteworthy progress.

Achievements: For FY 2015, VA pushed 56 communiques about town-hall events, VACAA, Veterans employment resources, Fry Scholarship, Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program Grant, and others – to external stakeholders serving Veterans, their families, Survivors, caregivers, and other beneficiaries. Also, during FY 2015, VA published 110 press releases regarding information on VA benefits and services.

Also, VA updated the VAntage Point^{^[1]} blog in March 2015, which serves as the bridge between VA’s social content and VA.gov. Overall traffic has nearly doubled compared to the previous version of VAntage Point. Visitors are remaining on the site for longer and clicking on to other content more often. Tablet and mobile device use has increased nearly 100 percent more than use on personal computers (due to mobile responsiveness). From December 2014 to October 2015, VAntage Point had 2.7M page views, 1.6M sessions, and 1.2M users.

The Explore VA^{^[2]} campaign remains on-going. The VA homepage site continues to improve information on VA services and benefits and how to apply. Explore VA includes dozens of testimonial videos by Veterans discussing how VA benefits and services improve their lives. Explore VA also is host to monthly digital media events such as Google Hangouts, twitter chat, subscriber emails, and Crowd Hall forums to specifically discuss a VA service or benefit in focus. The objective of these tools is to drive Veterans and family members to VA.gov to increase awareness and access.

From April 2014 to October 2015, VA’s Facebook page added 605,709 likes for a total of 944,000 (up 122 percent), reached 289.5M (up 240 percent) people and engaged 21.1M (up 354 percent). VA’s Twitter gained 105,000 followers for a total of 254,000, (up 70 percent) and 224,310 mentions. In addition, VA uploaded 912 videos to YouTube and gained

10,111 subscribers (up 51 percent). VA’s Instagram had 606 photos and 13,733 followers.

Challenges: Integrating messaging opportunities across not only the main VA digital channels, but administration, program office, and facility accounts continues to be a work-in-progress. Developing quality content and executing sustained messaging from the field level up will be a focus of traditional and digital media efforts going forward.

[1] http://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/

[2] http://explore.va.gov/

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Strategic Goals

Strategic Goal:

Enhance and Develop Trusted Partnerships

Statement:

Enhance and Develop Trusted Partnerships

Strategic Objectives

Enhance VA’s Partnership with DoD

Statement:

Enhance VA’s Partnership with DoD

Description:

Summary:

VA’s life-long engagement with its clients begins when Servicemembers first enter service and continues through the remainder of their lives. In support of this engagement, VA and DoD are working together to improve the access, quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of health care, benefits, and services provided to Servicemembers, Veterans, and other beneficiaries. VA will work closely with DoD to ensure that these benefits and services are delivered through an integrated client-centric approach that anticipates and addresses client needs; that the delivery of health care is provided through a patient-driven health care system that delivers quality, access, satisfaction and value consistently across the Departments; and through the efficiency of operations that are delivered through joint planning, training, and execution. The Departments must ensure that authorized beneficiary and health information is accessible, usable, shared, and secure in order to meet the needs of clients, customers, and stakeholders.

Strategies:

VA and DoD will continue to work towards achieving these goals with its many DoD partners through the VA-DoD Joint Executive Committee (JEC) in order to improve business practices, ensure high-quality, cost effective services for both VA and DoD beneficiaries, facilitate opportunities to improve resource utilization and sharing, and to remove barriers that might impede collaborative efforts.

VA and DoD will create an authoritative source of health information for DoD and VA beneficiaries, which will include the delivery of a highly flexible, reliable, secure, maintainable, and sustainable systems. VA and DoD will jointly implement the separation health assessment based upon the joint common criteria established by the Departments. VA will continue to partner with DoD and increase the information and self-service capabilities available through the eBenefits portal for active duty Servicemembers and Veterans and eligible beneficiaries.

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Enhance VA’s Partnerships with Federal, State, Private Sector, Academic Affiliates, Veteran Service Organizations and Non-Profit Organizations

Statement:

Enhance VA’s Partnerships with Federal, State, Private Sector, Academic Affiliates, Veteran Service Organizations and Non-Profit Organizations

Description:

Summary:

While VA is not the sole provider of benefits, services, and resources to Veterans and eligible beneficiaries, we hold ourselves accountable for each Veteran’s success, no matter who provides assistance. To provide Veterans and eligible beneficiaries an integrated, coordinated, personalized portfolio of benefits and services efficiently and effectively, we must improve our communication, coordination, and relationships with our partners in other Federal agencies; state, tribal, and local governments; VSOs; MSOs; academic affiliates; unions; nonprofits; and private industry. We must develop a partnership culture that entails trust, transparency, mutual benefit, responsibility, productivity, and accountability. Increased public-private partnership opportunities empower staff with effective tools and resources for collaborations, and allow for building open innovation platforms.

Strategies:

VA will leverage responsible and productive partnership opportunities that can supplement VA services and help fill urgent or emerging gaps in services. We will pursue opportunities for partnering with organizations that can best provide what we cannot or should not.

VA will establish a partnership award program to acknowledge and recognize successful partnerships in various organizational and service categories.

VA will foster stronger collaboration and information exchange with across the spectrum of care, benefits and services providers.

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FY 14-15 Priority Goal: End Veteran Homelessness

Statement:

In partnership, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and VA aim to reduce the number of Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).

Indicators:

Reduction in homeless Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
The “Number of Homeless Veterans” on a single night is determined by the PIT Count, which is conducted annually the last week of January each year “The PIT Count reflects the results of the work performed and the fiscal obligation/budget made in the prior fiscal year.”
Reduction in total homeless Veterans temporarily living in shelters or transitional housing to 12,500 (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).

Description:

VA has taken decisive action toward its goal of ending homelessness among Veterans. The End Veteran Homelessness initiative is intended to prevent Veterans and their families from entering homelessness and to assist those who are homeless in exiting as safely and quickly as possible. VA’s “no wrong door” philosophy will ensure that homeless and at risk for homeless Veterans have timely access to appropriate housing and services. Any door a Veteran comes to - at a medical center, a regional office, or a community organization - will lead to the tools to offer Veteran assistance. Ending homelessness among Veterans will advance the mission of VA by ensuring that all Veterans and their families achieve housing stability.
On a single night in January 2014 during the Point in Time (PIT) Count ^[1], there were 49,933 homeless Veterans in the US. Effectively ending homelessness among Veterans requires rapid access to permanent housing, health care, employment, benefits, and other supportive services. VA works closely with community partners to meet current and new demands for any Veteran who is experiencing or is at imminent risk of homelessness. Housing First and Rapid Re-housing are two of the many evidence-based approaches VA uses to end homelessness. The Housing First model follows the philosophy of providing permanent housing as quickly as possible to Veterans/individuals experiencing homelessness and then wrapping health care and other supportive services as needed around the Veteran to sustain housing and improve their quality of life. Rapid Re-housing is a set of strategies to help families quickly move out of homelessness and into permanent housing. It typically involves: housing search and landlord mediation assistance, short-term or flexible rental assistance, and transitional case management services. Rapid Re-housing provides crisis intervention services to quickly place an individual or family who is currently homeless into a permanent, sustainable housing situation.

[1] The annual PIT estimates are a snapshot of homelessness. They are submitted to HUD each year by communities and account for homeless Veterans in emergency shelters or transitional housing on the night of the PIT count (i.e., sheltered) as well as homeless Veterans who are in places not meant for human habitation such as the streets, abandoned buildings, cars, or encampments (i.e., unsheltered). Communities typically conduct their PIT count during the last week in January when a large share of the homeless population is expected to seek shelter rather than stay outside. Because counting people in shelters is more precise than conducting street counts, the timing of the PIT count is intended to improve the accuracy of the estimates. (Source: Veteran Homelessness: A Supplemental Report to the FY 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress).

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Amplify Awareness of Services and Benefits Available to Veterans through Improved Communications and Outreach

Statement:

Amplify Awareness of Services and Benefits Available to Veterans through Improved Communications and Outreach

Description:

Summary:

Strategies:

VA will establish internal standardized enterprise outreach policies and procedures to coordinate efforts across the Department.

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Agency Priority Goals

FY 14-15: End Veteran Homelessness

Statement:

Indicators:

Reduction in homeless Veterans living on the streets, experiencing homelessness to zero (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).
The “Number of Homeless Veterans” on a single night is determined by the PIT Count, which is conducted annually the last week of January each year “The PIT Count reflects the results of the work performed and the fiscal obligation/budget made in the prior fiscal year.”
Reduction in total homeless Veterans temporarily living in shelters or transitional housing to 12,500 (as measured by the FY 2016 PIT Count).

Description:

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