Thanking Our Veterans: Part three

I am speaking of the volunteer individuals and organizations that devote their time to serving Veterans who may not share in that bounty. For example, members of VA Voluntary Service (VAVS) are helping Veterans and their dependents who struggle with homelessness.

Volunteering to help Veterans secure a good home. Can anyone deny that a person who served our Nation deserves a safe, clean and pleasant place to live? Yet in 2014, the National Alliance to End Homelessness identified nearly 50,000 homeless Veterans or about 8.6 percent of the total homeless population in the United States. While this figure, thanks to the initiative by VA, represents a 67.4 percent decrease since 2009, Veterans are still overrepresented within the homeless population.

Fortunately you can do something to see that these Veterans have a home. VAVS offers you a chance to make a difference. Individuals as well as partnerships are working with the VA to provide more than shelter: a place that a Veteran can genuinely call home. To see an example of how much volunteers can accomplish, visit the  in Massachusetts. It was originally started as a storefront – staffed largely by volunteers – to serve Veterans of the Vietnam War. Today it can accommodate some 36,000 regional Veterans with food, shelter and education benefits. In fact, the organization is opening a new home for Veterans and their dependents coinciding with Veterans Day.

Most of us take a roof over our head for granted. Soldiers in the field, as they protect us, never do. How valuable it is to honor their service with a comfortable home

In addition to volunteering opportunities, the VA also offers a wide variety of career positions in many different areas. Interested? Join VA today.