Seattle disabled veterans need help through volunteers, donations
Nov 9, 2023, 10:49 AM
WWII and Korean War Veterans participating in a Honor Flight from North Dakota tour the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
As we near Veterans Day this Saturday, there are calls to help disabled veterans around western Washington.
“We’re helping veterans get their benefits,” Dan Clare, from Disabled American Veterans (DAV), said on Seattle’s Morning News. “We’re helping them get to the medical appointments they have. We’re also helping veterans with employment connecting them with employers educating employers about the value of hiring veterans.”
DAV, has successfully helped veterans for decades.
“We’re a 100-year-old organization,” said Clare, the chief communications and outreach officer. “And we’re focused on keeping promises to veterans. We help over a million veterans every year in life-changing ways in Seattle. We’re also all over the country.”
Clare explained a new category of assistance is entrepreneurship. DAV assists vets in creating businesses.
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“DAV makes business accessible for veterans who want to find their own companies,” Clare explained. “We have a program called Patriot Boot Camp where we connect veterans with resources, find out about funding, government contracting, marketing, branding, just the basic tools they need to start a business so they can become benefits providers and job creators.”
KIRO Newsradio’s Dave Ross wanted to know if discrimination in hiring veterans is still a problem.
“Unfortunately, we see that if a veteran were to post about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), for instance, on their social networks, we’re finding companies are less likely to hire them,” Clare said. “Unemployment is pretty good nationwide, but there’s still that stigma.”
Clare explained that two invisible injuries are very prevalent in the U.S.: brain injuries and PTSD.
“The most common cause of that in the United States is car accidents. You’d never not hire someone because they were in an auto accident,” Clare explained. “Unfortunately, if someone has PTSD or traumatic brain injury from military service, there’s that crazy veteran thought.”
He said that DAV was the organization that funded the research that led to PTSD being recognized.
DAV also has a great need for volunteers. Clare explained the group has seen a decline in volunteerism since the pandemic.
“In Seattle, we have a great transportation network that helps veterans get care there. And without this program, a lot of veterans would not make it to their medical appointments,” Clare stated. “So it’s accessing the care that they’ve earned. That’s sometimes life-changing life-affirming care.”
He said DAV has provided 88,000 rides and driven more than 5 million miles to Seattle’s medical centers.
“We rely on volunteers for that program. We donate vans to the Department of Veterans Affairs. And then we have this great corps of people who come in and they’re willing to give some of them three or four days a week just getting veterans to and from their appointments,” Clare stated. “So we need help with that program that people who participate in that program as volunteers usually say they get more out of it than the veterans they’re serving, which is incredible when you consider how life-changing or what that does to the quality of life for the veterans they help.”
DAV also helps veterans in helping them get their benefits.
“This, like every service DAV offers, is free,” Clare explained. “But here you have some advocates right there in town. We’re going to help you walk through that process. Getting your benefits isn’t a guarantee. So we want veterans not to go it alone. We want them to reach out to our service office there and get help.”
Clare said that DAV is a lobbying and legislative group as well to make sure veterans get the funding they need.
You can find out more at DAV.org or Veterans.org.
Veterans Day is a federal holiday that honors military veterans of the United States Armed Forces and is observed annually Nov. 11, regardless of the day of the week.
Veterans Day was originally known as Armistice Day and was set as a legal holiday to honor the end of World War I, which officially took place on November 11, 1918. In 1938, Congress made November 11th a legal holiday.
Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
