As we celebrate this New Year, I look back with pride at the work the National Veterans Foundation (NVF) was able to do in 2009, serving America’s Veterans.  I also remain deeply concerned about the future of America’s growing Veteran population.

Last year the NVF was fortunate to serve thousands of Veterans in need.  Our Lifeline for Vets™ program assisted Soldiers and Veterans with crisis counseling, PTSD counseling, help access their VA benefits, job help, homelessness intervention and many other services.

The NVF team has done great work, and we are helping many Veterans, but when I think about the state of our Veterans lives, I am very concerned for these men and women who have served our country so bravely. 

News breaks almost every day about returning Vets from the current wars, struggling with their transition to civilian life.  Unemployment, homelessness, Traumatic Brain Injury, post-traumatic stress, and drug and alcohol abuse are issues that too many of our returning Veterans face after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Moreover, they are dealing with these problems without the proper support from their government and their communities. 

Many young Veterans have been trained in combat and immersed in bloody fighting and long deployments. Then they are returned to their hometowns and left to adjust to civilian life on their own. Too many are ending up with a host of problems, including trouble with the law.   More and more women veterans are facing homelessness than ever before, and often with their children. 

The number of backlogged VA benefits claims is now at one million.  Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans are waiting more than a year to have their disability claims processed. Vietnam era Vets who are just now developing life-threatening conditions connected to Agent Orange exposure are experience much longer claims battles.

There are bright spots in this gloomy landscape—people like Dr. William Brown, who is working in Oregon with Veterans accused of violent crimes, to get them justice tempered with an understanding of the effects their military service has had on their actions.  And Barbara Stahura, who has just published a new therapeutic journaling tool for sufferers of Traumatic Brain Injury—After Brain Injury: Telling Your Story.

The new Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gary Shinseki seems to be, slowly, moving the huge bureaucracy that is the VA in a positive direction.  $17 million in grants has been made available to community groups to create beds for homeless Veterans this year.  The emergency Post 9/11 GI Bill advances, helped thousands of student Veterans who needed the money for school, books and rent.  And the VA recently announced plans to add Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease and hairy-cell leukemia to the list of illnesses connected to Agent Orange exposure, which will help many ill Vietnam War Veterans. 

A few of the many obstacles to our American Veterans’ journey have been cleared out of their path, but the road is still a difficult, uphill one for them, scattered with other barriers.  Our Veterans and the National Veterans Foundation need your support more than ever.

Thank you so much to all of our supporters for their ongoing commitment to our critically important work.  You make it possible for us to help thousands of Veterans each year.