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AGENCY TESTIMONY
Veteran self-identification challenges and outreach efforts
0:26:45
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3 min
Commissioner Hendon discusses the challenges of veteran self-identification and DVS's efforts to improve outreach and engagement with the veteran community. He emphasizes the department's flexible approach to service delivery and the various touchpoints DVS has with veterans.
- Highlights the low rate of veteran self-identification in NYC (24.1%) compared to national averages
- Describes DVS's dynamic approach to service delivery, including flexible meeting times and locations
- Lists various engagement methods, including community summits, workshops, and digital outreach
James Hendon
0:26:45
It is critical that we make sure that the plan dovetails with existing reporting and oversight mechanisms.
0:26:50
This is all in support of working smartly and efficiently.
0:26:53
Service delivery recommendations.
0:26:55
When it comes to our veteran resource centers, or VRCs, the key issue is not where is each VRC located or can a DVS employee be available during non traditional hours to receive clients involved.
0:27:06
The issue is, do veterans know DVS so they know that they can reach out to us and ask us for help?
0:27:13
We meet and serve veterans during non traditional times always.
0:27:16
If veterans are not able to meet in person at a veteran resource center during the VRC's stated hours, then we flex to meet them remotely and or in person on a case by case basis.
0:27:24
We take a dynamic approach as opposed to a static one with both this and our presence in the shelter system.
0:27:30
The pain point is making sure that veterans are aware of DVS.
0:27:33
This goes back to the plan that was discussed during the previous section.
0:27:36
It outlines how we intend to have more constituents learn who we are as we facilitate increased touches and go viral.
0:27:43
Earlier in this testimony, we addressed the scorecard's comments on the disconnect between how DVS views its operations versus the feedback from the 21 respondents to the report.
0:27:52
And then for the sake of efficiency and recognizing that internal audit and oversight mechanisms exist between those established by the Office of Management and Budget, the mayor's office of operations, the comptroller's office, the Department of Investigation, and the New York City Council.
0:28:05
DVS will not perform internal audits of its operations.
0:28:08
We trust the overlapping audit, oversight, and investigative mechanisms, systems that exist within city government.
0:28:14
Also, recognizing that we must be smart with our resources, it is vital to have more people doing things worth measuring at DVS than to have staff members internally measuring those things.
0:28:24
To relationships and collaboration.
0:28:26
The agency has several existing touches with veteran community members.
0:28:30
These include, but are not limited to, veteran and military family community summits.
0:28:34
We hold these at a rate of one to two times per year.
0:28:36
Community engagement sessions held quarterly with veteran community leaders.
0:28:40
Employment workshops held two to four times per year.
0:28:42
Entrepreneurship sessions held two to four times per year.
0:28:45
Women veterans luncheon held one time per year.
0:28:47
Veterans mental health coalition meets two to four meets four to six times per year.
0:28:51
Community survey conducted once every four years with 1,500 plus respondents.
0:28:56
Veterans Advisory Board meetings.
0:28:57
DVS attends and addresses these meetings five times per year.
0:29:00
And then a veteran feeding program, each Wednesday on 50 out of 50 two weeks per year.
0:29:05
Various veteran community gatherings and events agency attends more than two fifty veteran community events each year, and Mission VetCheck, approximately 16,000 plus buddy check wellness calls to veterans each year.
0:29:17
For digital engagement, there are approximately 10,000 veterans who subscribe to our weekly newsletter, nyc.gov/vetnewsletter.
0:29:23
We grew from having two forty five to three sixty two to four seventy four thousand social media impressions over the last three years, and our website was visited 28, then 125, then 161,000 times over the same interval.
0:29:37
Those numbers are separate from the direct services work we've done in housing, VA claims, barrels, and employment, among other things.
0:29:43
To reiterate, the number of veterans and military families we've served from the mayor's management report has increased from 1,068 to 3,338 to 10,701 over the past three years, fiscal years '22, '20 '3, and '24.
0:29:59
I push back on the notion conveyed by 21 individuals that we are not present and that we do not listen to the needs of the community.
0:30:07
There's a broader issue which bedevils all municipalities and states, including the federal government, about how to tackle the challenge of veteran self identification.
0:30:14
The question, how can we best attract our brothers and sisters to our services and those of our partners in order to bring them to the light?
0:30:20
That's the question.