I'm compiling a list of non-VA, non-governmental services for veterans. For those outside the U.S., the VA system is the medical/psychological and benefits system that has the mission of caring for military veterans. "VA" stands for "Veteran's Affairs."
I found this list:
http://coalitionforveterans.org/volunteer/ ; which is pretty good, but am interested in finding any kinds of groups and services that may be under the radar -- community, religious group, school-based, etc -- to get a fuller flavor of how people are responding to the needs of returning soldiers (from past and present service and wars).
If you know of anything -- no matter how small, please let me know. And please, not limiting to the U.S. I would love to know how people all over the world deal with the issue of welcoming soldiers home and helping them re-integrate into civilian life.
The purpose is several-fold:
-- to create a resource list for veterans who, for one reason or another, don't feel comfortable turning to the VA for services.
-- educate VA personnel about what else might be out there, as clues to needs that may not be being met through the official system.
-- get ideas from different communities about service opportunities and projects that might be translatable to other communities.
thanks in advance!
(edited for punctuation)
