This agency has been blessed for 97 years with support and leadership from our Executive Branch leaders, the Virginia General Assembly, and citizens. They have seen the value and commitment to support its veterans and families throughout their changing needs and the challenges that they face. This past year has similarly seen a continuation of changes, both among our veteran and family experience, and also within our agency, to meet these demands and better reach and serve the veteran community and our Commonwealth.

This year we completed the baseline functionality of the Virginia Veterans Network, a digital platform to deliver advice, services and support to Transitioning Service Members (TSMs), veterans, their families and survivors throughout their lives. Virginia is the proud home to one of the largest number of veterans and women veterans of any State in the nation. Without such a platform, we will be unable to reach a significant greater percentage of this population and scale our services to support them. The launch already has demonstrated a tremendous popular response by our service members and families considering transition, as well as our veterans and spouses seeking employment, accessing their benefits, or needing support or access to counseling for addiction, homelessness, or behavioral wellness. We are already working on next steps and making this a continuously improving network.

Our department for Veterans Education, Transition, and Employment (VETE) has continued to advance efforts to reach those service members and spouses much earlier (1-2 years before separation or retirement) in their decision process. They have also continued to expand the number of Virginia Values Veterans (V3) employers by over 550 new companies. Continuing to evolve this program will be critical to draw the talent required to draw more veterans and spouses to Virginia and help spur the economic potential of our state.

VETE is responsible for the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP), with a long history of ensuring education benefits earned by those who’s service during war and conflict were killed or critically disabled. The program came under threat of significant reduction this past year. With tremendous effort and support by our Executive leadership, Secretaries of Veterans and Defense Affairs and Education, members of the legislature, and significant active support of our veterans and families, the proposed reductions were voted down and the program fully restored. This “promise kept" to those families most impacted by war reinforces our commitment to the Veteran community and continue to benefit our state and our colleges and universities and add to retaining veteran and families in Virgnia.

The Department of Veterans Services’ Benefits division continues to be a leader nationally in providing expert counseling and support to veterans. Our team surpassed previous annual figures for claims and supporting documents submitted by nearly 64%. More importantly, due to the high caliber of expertise that our team brings to the detailed and confusing nature of claims preparation, Virginia’s veterans continue to receive among the highest successful claims rates in the country.

Our department for Virginia Veterans and Family Support (VVFS) deals daily in serving our veterans and family members in greatest despair. Our programs have been recognized at the national level and modeled by other states. While only in its second year, our grants programs have already shown impact and growth. Virginia was one of a dozen states funded in the inaugural Department of Veteran Affairs partnership agreement to build and expand suicide morality review capacity. The DVS Housing and Criminal Justice team has expanded their work with veterans on jail diversion programs, re-entry programs, housing and treatment access.

Our capital programs are nation leading as well. After a late 2023 opening, we brought our third veterans care center (VCC), the Jones & Cabacoy VCC, in Virginia Beach, into full operational status. Meanwhile, the Davis & McDaniel VCC in Roanoke, earned a rating as the 5th best nursing home in Virginia by Newsweek magazine in their 2024 national ranking. Similarly, the VA’s National Cemetery Administration presented its Operational Excellence Award to our state veterans cemetery in Dublin, one of only two awards issued annually.

None of the above is achievable without a team of talented, engaged, and dedicated professionals that work together as a high performing team. They continue to work on better outreach and communications with the veterans and families and welcome the feedback on evolving challenges and needs. It has been a tremendous privilege to serve alongside them serving those that serve us. I am confident that we will continue to do our Commonwealth proud in keeping Virginia the best place for our Veterans and families to live, work and raise their families.

Charles A. Zingler
Commissioner