The Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs (WDVA) casts a large net in order to help veterans.

Lourdes E. Alvarado-Ramos, the newly appointed director of the WDVA, believes that your (her emphasis) Department of Veterans Affairs is "one of the best in the country."

What follows is a baker's dozen of some the groundbreaking services available to veterans.  Visit www.dva.wa.gov for more information.

Outreach to Separating Servicemembers is a program that uses veterans' DD 214s to establish contact with all who claim Washington State as their state of residence upon discharge.  The governor sends a welcome letter; the WDVA follows up 90 days later reaffirming the Governor's offer for assistance and includes contact numbers.

A first in the country a decade ago, the Incarcerated Veterans Program works to keep jailed veterans from reoffending in order to establish productive lives in the community.  Both the Purdy Women's Prison and Mission Creek facility for women are now working to help female veterans from reoffending.

In another nationwide first, a multi-agency Memorandum of Understanding has been established with the WDVA, Active Duty, National Guard, Reserve, the Veterans Administration (VA), Employment Security, Veterans Services Organizations and other organizations to conduct "Family Activity Days" for drilling units.  These days bring information about claims assistance, Federal VA enrollment, job placement, job upgrades, financial assistance and readjustment counseling.

Established in 2006, the Veterans Innovations Program (VIP) provides case management and financial assistance for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  This assistance comes in the form of grants that provide gap funding while veterans find employment, assistance with special equipment or certification(s) to be job ready or assistance to fix a car or meet an emergency home repair.

The WDVA administers a program implemented by the State Legislature that provides priority inclusion of Afghanistan and Iraq Washington National Guard and Reserve veterans in a basic health plan that ensures there are no gaps in health care while veterans wait for VA benefits or when VA facilities are not conveniently located.

A first in the nation, the Veterans' Conservation Corps helps veterans find volunteer opportunities to restore waterways, replant forests and native plants and engage in salmon conservation.  Additionally, the Vet Corps has more than 40 "navigators" working at colleges and universities assisting veterans transitioning from the "sandbox to the schoolhouse." 

In another first nationwide, the Warrior Transition Battalion (WTB) and Reintegration Action Plan has partnered with Joint Base Lewis-McChord.  State employees from WDVA and the Washington Employment Security Department (ESD) are embedded with WTB and the Transition Assistance Office to provide services such as coordination with other states for a seamless Servicemember handoff, VA claims work and counseling.  The current Benefits Delivery at Discharge program that the Army uses worldwide began with the WDVA.

Building 9 For Veterans is a transitional housing model that provides safe and stable housing for both male and female homeless veterans.  It operates through a grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and it is the only program of its kind in the nation run by a state VA agency.

The Women Veterans Advisory Committee connects women veterans to their benefits through outreach events that culminate in an annual summit.

The WDVA oversees the Veterans Family Fund (VFF), a business-community venture begun by a group of Vancouver citizens.  Simply put, a person or business can open a VFF Certificate of Deposit with a minimum of $100 for six months.  At the end of the six months, the investor retains half of the interest; the other half is deposited into an account designed to provide assistance to military families.

The WDVA contracts with Veterans Service Organizations to provide training to their members in order to facilitate veterans as they navigate the claims system.  The goal is to enable the service organizations to prepare veterans' claims with no gaps so that Federal VA review and approval is seamless.  Before implementation of this program, only four out of ten issues presented to the VA were approved; now, nine out of 10 are approved.

Although maybe not the first, the WDVA provides Apprenticeships for Veterans in electrical and piping whereby veterans receive training while getting paid.

Implemented in 1996 in King County, the Incarcerated Veterans Re-Entry Services (IVRS) works to get veterans referred to this program and receive reduced sentences in exchange for drug and alcohol treatment and mental health evaluations.  This program's recidivism rate is currently at 10 percent; those not in the program reoffend at a 45 percent rate.

"The WDVA is an agency known for innovation, partnering to stretch resources and creative thinking," Alvarado-Ramos wrote in an email.  "Washington State is certainly a state that honors veterans."