Through cooperative agreements to better publicize veteran suicide prevention strategies, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced this week $10 million in new funding and technical assistance for eligible states, territories, and Tribal governments to establish, coordinate, and manage suicide mortality review committees. For more information on the funding, click on the button below. The committees identify and characterize suicide deaths, bringing about an increase in understanding of suicide in a given local community, identification […]

Join the virtual meeting of the Dog Handlers Outreach Program scheduled for Tuesday, July 16, at 4:00pm Eastern Time via Zoom as attendees recap the BVA 79th National Convention. Plans for other activities, including a guest speaker, are also in the works by Program Chair Michaun Harrison and will be announced as the date approaches. Although the meeting is still three weeks away, the button below and additional joining information here will serve as your […]

The BVA Women Veterans Outreach Program will meet via Zoom next Thursday, June 27, at 6:00pm Eastern Time. The meeting will be conducted in the format of a roundtable in which participants will share ideas and suggestions for upcoming meetings and activities for the next fiscal year beginning July 1. Bring a few of those creative ideas with you to the meeting!  All blind and low vision women veterans are encouraged to attend this Thursday […]

Join the Blinded Veterans Association’s VetTech Team for next week’s Weekly Wednesday Webinar (June 26) via Zoom at 2:00pm Eastern Time. We will welcome Neva Fairchild of WayAround as she discusses the WayAround mobile app with a special focus on its use at the upcoming 79th National Convention.  WayAround is an app for your smart device that provides on-demand details about everyday things. The simple tag-and-scan approach lets you quickly and easily identify things around you. […]

Father’s Day is a time to celebrate dads everywhere. However, those who served our country in uniform deserve special appreciation for the unique challenges they faced while serving and for the Father’s Days they may have missed with their children growing up. Unbeknownst to most of us in 2024, the history of Father’s Day involves a dad who was also a veteran.  The Father’s Day holiday was first introduced in 1910 in Spokane, Washington, by […]

Join the Blinded Veterans Association’s VetTech Team for its Weekly Wednesday Webinar on June 19 at 2:00pm. The Team will welcome Envision and the products that enable the unprecedented experience of unobtrusive access to the visual world and a new life of independence. Envision empowers people who are blind or who have low vision to access everyday visual information for themselves.  Not a BVA member? Not a problem! All VetTech sessions are open to everyone—blind […]

Marisa Gerlach-Blanco, Service Dog Program Manager at Dogs, Inc. (formerly known as Southeastern Guide Dogs), will address the topic of anxiety and depression in service animals after the loss of a handler, or the handler’s retirement from work, and how to medically treat the animal.  All past, present, and prospective dog handlers among BVA’s blind and low vision veterans are invited to attend this Tuesday’s virtual meeting of the Dog Handlers Group, scheduled for 4:00pm […]

Juneteenth National Independence Day, to be celebrated in 2024 next Wednesday, June 19, became the newest federal holiday in 2021 when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act. The holiday commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.  A combination of the words June and nineteenth, Juneteeth recalls the events of a day more than two months after the end of the Civil War and more than two years after Abraham […]

This week, June 10-16, is Vision Rehabilitation Week. Three weeks from now the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Blind Rehabilitation Service (BRS) will commemorate 76 years of residential programs beginning with the original dedication of the Hines Blind Rehabilitation Center (BRC) on July 4, 1948.  Unfortunately, fewer than 5 percent of Americans who could benefit from vision rehabilitation programs currently take advantage of them. For the more than a million veterans with blindness or low […]

Requirements for Regional Group Delegates to be Seated at 79th National Convention   The following minimum requirements must be met no later than June 20, 2024 (5:00pm Eastern Time) for regional group delegates to be recognized and/or seated at convention: Submission of two (2) sets of regional group meeting minutes for the current Fiscal Year (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024) denoting business transacted to include: election and/or naming of officers, election and naming […]