RI VETERANS AFFAIRS

Veterans Affairs Office Awards $200,000 for Services Supporting Rhode Island’s Veterans??

Rhode Island Veterans Affairs Director Kasim Yarn announced that the Office of Veterans Affairs has awarded $200,000 in five Veteran Supportive Services Grants to four organizations. The grants are designed to improve services to Veterans in the areas of housing, legal assistance, and transportation.

???Our support grants help advance one of Governor Raimondo???s highest priorities: strengthening the state’s sacred commitment to those who have served,??? Yarn said. ???We???re proud to support these great organizations and the services they provide to our Veterans.???

The four awardees are Operation Stand Down Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority, the YWCA, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars of Rhode Island.

Operation Stand Down Rhode Island (OSDRI) will receive two grants of $50,000 each. The first grant will provide temporary financial assistance and coordinated supportive services to low-income Veterans to promote housing stability and prevent homelessness. The program will focus on Veterans not otherwise eligible for existing U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ assistance.

The second grant awarded to OSDRI will support a pilot program to give Veterans help in overcoming legal obstacles that hinder them from attaining from employment and housing. The program will provide legal assistance in the areas of Veteran benefit claims, misdemeanor criminal matters, traffic tribunal matters, expungements, debt collection social security claims, bankruptcy, and child support matters.

The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) will receive $60,000 in grant funding to enable the authority to provide Veterans with fare products who rely on public transportation. This initiative will build on a current program under which the Office of Veterans Affairs and the Division of Elderly Affairs are already purchasing $5 fare cards to distribute to low-income passengers who need travel assistance and who are enrolled in RIPTA???s Reduced Fare Bus Pass Program. This grant money will expand the population of Veterans that will receive tickets, passes, or other fare products and will not be limited to only those in the Reduced Fare program. As funding allows, RIPTA is also looking to further assess Veterans??? transportation needs. Studies show that at least half of Rhode Island???s Veterans live in communities where public transportation is readily available.

YWCA Rhode Island will receive a $10,000 grant to support Veterans transitioning from homelessness as part of the organization???s Gateway to Independence transitional housing program. The funds will provide formerly homeless Veterans with “Welcome Home Kits” to help meet their basic needs and provide basic household necessities as the transition from the YWCA Rhode Island’s Gateway to Independence transitional housing program into permanent housing.

Veterans of Foreign Wars of Rhode Island (VFWRI) will receive a $30,000 grant to support a program that provides assistance to Veterans with filling out and filing their VA disability claims. The VFW is the nation’s oldest Veterans Service Organization and has 26 VFW Post Service Officers throughout Rhode Island to help those who have served and their families.

Eligible entities for the Veteran Supportive Services Grants included government agencies, non-profit organizations, or veteran service organizations that currently provide assistance or similar assistance to veterans and/or their families. The grants are funded by a General Assembly community service grant to the Office of Veterans Affairs included in the FY 2017 budget. Using a newly-overhauled open competitive bid process in partnership with the Division of Purchasing, the Office of Veterans Affairs convened a Technical Evaluation Committee to screen, review, evaluate, rank, and recommend grant applications for awards.