VA’s Transition Assistance Program Participant Guide honored by marketing association

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today its Transition Assistance Program (TAP) was recently recognized by the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals during the 2020 Hermes Creative Awards, for the VA Benefits and Services Participant Guide — a publication that makes it easy for transitioning service members and Veterans to understand their benefits.

Recognized for two creative design awards in the Print Materials category, and evaluated solely on its own quality, creativity and resourcefulness — the Participant Guide received the Platinum award, the highest scoring category in the competition.

The Participant Guide is a print and digital resource available for all transitioning service members who participate in the in-person or online VA Benefits and Services course. The guide includes customizable resources such as checklists and contact lists that service members can customize for their own transition journey. The digital version of the guide can be downloaded to access fillable worksheets, checklists, save and print important resources while attending the course.

“By listening to our transitioning service members, Veterans and their families about what information they need before, during and after transition from military service, we were able to incorporate their feedback into the redesign of our participant guide, said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. “This guide is one of many tools we use to educate Veterans about their benefits and being recognized as an industry-best product — highlights VA’s effort to improve the user experience.”

The redesigned publication will make it easy for readers to reference important information on topics including family support, disability compensation and education and health care benefits.

Veterans Benefits Administration launched the updated VA TAP Curriculum known as VA Benefits and Services, Oct. 1, 2019, as part of the requirements outlined in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019 for the interagency TAP. The redesigned Participant Guide is part of this update.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense-issued Transition Assistance Curriculum Participant Assessment, the VA Benefits and Services course has a customer satisfaction rating of 95.8% for fiscal year 2020.

Learn more about TAP and a list of TAP interagency partners.