Gov. Asa Hutchinson approved Monday a plan proposed by the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs that its director said will make the department a more active advocate for the state's veterans.
The agency will rebrand itself with new mission and vision statements, as well as a new slogan. It also plans to build relationships between veterans and Arkansas communities and businesses; develop a long-range plan for aging veterans; and improve the effectiveness of county veterans service officers who help veterans receive their government benefits.
Matt Snead, who was appointed as the agency's director in February, started working on the plan soon after he was sworn in. He worked with the governor's office and gathered a group of approximately 40 veterans, agency employees, Arkansas National Guard leaders and others to target areas that needed improvement.
Before now, he said, the role of the state Department of Veterans Affairs had not been well-defined.
"I pulled out of the law what it says we're supposed to do," Snead said. "Of the four components, there's one that's not as defined, and that's advocacy. It's that one, in my opinion, that the agency has not done in the past. It's been passive, not proactive."
The agency, first named the Arkansas Service Bureau, was created in 1925 for the purpose of helping World War I veterans obtain their benefits.
The state Department of Veterans Affairs now operates two veterans cemeteries and the Fayetteville Veterans Home, and it is managing the project to build a new veterans home in North Little Rock. Keeping to its original purpose, it also employs veterans service officers to help veterans and their dependents receive benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
According to the plan handed to Hutchinson on Monday morning, the group found that the department had not been advocating for veterans or using its resources effectively. It had not established a way to measure its success, and it had no plan for the long-term care needs of veterans.
It did not have a vision statement, and it did not communicate its mission or purpose to the public, the plan states.
"All in all, it was needed because there wasn't a document that laid out where we are going and what our priorities are," said Don Berry, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel who helped develop the plan. "There wasn't really an understanding of what we're doing today and how that contributed to the long-range direction for the department. I think this certainly does that."
The plan was broken down into three goals, one of which is to better advocate for the state's nearly 250,000 veterans.
According to the plan, the agency will do this by telling veterans of the services and benefits available to them. Snead said he wants to develop a method for letting veterans know of credible organizations.
"There are definitely not-for-profits out there that may not have the best interests of veterans in mind. I get calls all the time," Snead said. "What we want to see is some sort of a certification program ... that way veterans would know they've been checked out by a state agency."
Snead said he will meet with the attorney general's office to determine how to move forward with that plan. The agency wants to have a certification process in place by November.
Also included in that goal is communicating to the public the value of having veterans in their communities and in the workforce. The agency will create a media campaign and produce monthly videos featuring veterans across the state.
Another goal is to address the long-term care needs of aging veterans, specifically the number and placement of new veterans homes in the state.
Construction is to start this summer on the $24 million veterans home in North Little Rock that will comprise eight residences housing a total of 96 veterans.
"Everybody is excited for the new home," Snead said. "But that only solves a problem for about 96 veterans at any given time."
The agency will create a plan for future veterans homes based on VA projections about how many veterans will be in Arkansas and where they'll be within the state. Department officials will then develop a business plan for how to finance the state's long-term care needs.
Berry, a member of the Arkansas Veterans Coalition, said the future long-term care needs of the state's veterans have been a "concern" of the coalition for about a year.
The previous director for the state Department of Veterans Affairs, Cissy Rucker, led the agency through a transformational period that included closing and selling the deteriorating Little Rock Veterans Home; starting the process of building the new veterans home in North Little Rock; and alleviating financial problems at the Fayetteville Veterans Home, which had been operating at a deficit.
Berry said the focus of the agency during that time was "tactical."
"But it left the organization without a strategic plan," he said. "My focus early on in this was making sure the long-term care plan really had a forward direction."
The final goal, which Snead said is the "most concrete," is an overhaul of the agency's county veterans service officer program.
Veterans service officers are employed by county judges but trained by the state Department of Veterans Affairs. Before she retired in January, Rucker said the number of these officers did not match the needs of each county and that the program required a "total re-haul."
According to the plan, the department wants to provide more in-depth training to county veterans service officers and reach out to county judges to explain the benefits of having these officers in their counties.
The program will also be restructured. Snead said he wants to relocate state employees to oversee the officers in seven- to 10-county regions. The agency's goal is to have five regional offices by June 2020.
Mike Ross, a retired Arkansas National Guard colonel who helped with the plan, said the restructuring would make the agency more "aggressive" in helping veterans receive their benefits.
Snead said he will talk about the changes at a county judges meeting later this week. He said that meeting is the kickoff for the strategic plan.
"This is the first time in the history of ADVA [Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs], that I'm aware of, that they've had a strategic plan," said Ross, who has been involved in Arkansas veterans organizations since the 1980s. "This right here addresses some of the key issues that really need to be looked at."
Last year, Rucker proposed changing the name of the department to clarify it was not part of the federal VA. Snead said in April that he was dropping that idea and instead finding new ways to rebrand the agency.
A branding plan was part of what Hutchinson approved Monday.
At a Memorial Day ceremony at the veterans cemetery in North Little Rock, Snead used the agency's new slogan publicly for the first time.
"We are not changing our name. We are proudly pronouncing our name," he said. "We are ADVA, advocates for Arkansas veterans."
Metro on 06/09/2015