By Cheri Fisher
The Southern Nevada Veterans Community Engagement Board and Department of Veterans Affairs co-hosted an Employment Boot Camp and Veterans Town Hall meeting on July 19th.
Tammy Ray, a vendor at the Employment Boot Camp told us that since July 23th, Pecos Bridge is closed and will be closed for next 4 months. People that are going to the VA Medical Center will have to use S. Lamb Boulevard or Losee Road to go westbound on the 215.
The Employment Boot Camp included free resume reviews and eight sessions providing Veterans, active-duty service members, reservists, guardsmen and their families with information on civilian and federal resumes, the federal employment application process, entrepreneurship and small business, and dressing for success.
The Town Hall included updates from local VA leadership on improvements and advancements in the delivery of health care, benefits and services to Veterans in Southern Nevada.
Representatives from VA benefits, enrollment and eligibility, non-VA care, patient advocacy and other entities will be on hand from 2-3 p.m. to assist Veterans with individual concerns and needs.
At the Employment Boot Camp, a V.R.N. reporter talked to Tina Tallerico, Service Manager of Veterans Benefits Administration for Nevada. They asked her, “How can veterans maximize their benefits with your department?”
“We offer a lot of services. We offer home loan services, if you’re a veteran, mostly if you’re service connected, you’re able have the VA pretty much sponsor your loan and it makes it so you don’t have to pay closing costs. We have vocational rehabilitation which helps veterans go through schooling programs and now there’s the forever GI bill from 10 to 15 years and if you don’t use it you can pass it on to your dependents, that’s actually a really neat benefit that they’ve expanded lately and then there’s compensation, where we monetarily pay for benefits or monetarily for basically injuries that are caused from disservice or active duty service. Then the hospital of course, the hospital provides those healthcare services. I would just, through the use of a power of attorney of veteran’s service organizations, they know a lot of information. Otherwise these claims clinics that they do, the Benefits Division always staffs them and our folks are really-”
What do you mean by power of attorney?
“Like Veteran’s service organizations, that would be, DAV (Disabled American Veterans) and VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and the Nevada Department of State services. They’re all co-located in the benefits office with us.”
They come into meetings with you?
“Yes, and we actually meet with them once a month to provide them information. The big-thing right now is decision ready claims. It’s that, getting the packets ready so we can immediately provide a decision, instead of having the drawn-out process of them having to wait for us to process it. We’re helping them understand, what the new benefits are and how they can take advantage of those.”
Group Photo
