Gov. Tom Wolf recently presented 12 members of the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA) with Governor's Awards for Excellence for their work to improve the lives of Pennsylvania's nearly 800,000 veterans. The awards recognize commonwealth employees for exemplary job performance or service that reflects initiative, leadership, innovation, and increased efficiency.
Ten of the award recipients are members of the Veteran Outreach Team. Local members of this team recognized for their dedicated advocacy and networking across Pennsylvania are Erica Lynn Moore of Harrisburg and James Stafford of Lancaster.
Veterans and their family members face a wide variety of needs after their service, from reintegration to civilian life to aging-related concerns. There are many programs and support services that can be leveraged to address these needs. The DMVA's Veteran Outreach Team has removed barriers to these services by uncovering, raising awareness of, and streamlining connection to resources across the Commonwealth. The team has done this primarily through PA VETConnect, an outreach program allowing the DMVA to concentrate on delivering services from within the communities where veterans live. It also allows the DMVA to utilize community-based providers to fill gaps in services.
Another local award recipient is Richard Hamp of Fostoria, special assistant to the DMVA's deputy adjutant general for Veterans Affairs. He is the agency's key advocate for reducing veteran suicide across the commonwealth. Hamp is Pennsylvania's lead on the federal Veterans Administration - Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Governor's Challenge to Prevent Suicide Among Service Members, Veterans and Their Families. He works diligently to build strong collaboration between government, non-government, and nonprofit partners to help veterans in their communities, including writing grant proposals resulting in over $7 million for programs that help veterans in crisis. Hamp has been instrumental in rolling out several veteran suicide awareness programs and most recently served as a subject-matter expert on the DMVA's virtual town hall on preventing veteran suicide.
Learn more about the DMVA by visiting http://www.dmva.pa.gov or http://www.facebook.com/padmva.
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