December 14, 2006

Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs hosts Women Veterans Forum

(MADISON) -- About 50 participants, comprised of women veterans, legislative staff, representatives of federal, state, and local agencies, and veterans organizations, participated in a Wisconsin Women Veterans Forum hosted at the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs (WDVA) on December 13th.

The goal of the forum was to identify the needs of women veterans in Wisconsin in five areas:  health care, mental health care, benefits, economic success, and outreach.  Working groups discussed current initiatives for women veterans, issues of concern to the women veterans' community, and recommendations to address these issues through legislative, programmatic, and outreach activities.

Department Secretary John A. Scocos said, "This is a great opportunity to focus on the issues and concerns of women veterans.  This forum has brought together both women veterans and key providers such as the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (USDVA), WDVA, Wisconsin Departments of Workforce Development and Commerce, the reserves, guard, and many others.  The WDVA has goals of working to ensure the needs, benefits, and services of women veterans are met."

The special guest speaker at the forum was Betty Moseley Brown, Ph.D., Associate Director of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VA Center for Women Veterans, who traveled from Washington, D.C. to participate.  The Center was created in November 1994, Public Law 103-446 to oversee VA programs for women.

"This Wisconsin Women Veterans Forum," Moseley Brown said, "is important because the USDVA wants to ensure that:  women veterans have access to VA benefits and services on par with male veterans; that VA programs are responsive to the gender-specific needs of women veterans; to provide outreach to improve women veterans' awareness of services, benefits, and eligibility criteria; and, to ensure that women veterans are treated with dignity and respect."

The next goal from the forum, according to WDVA's Wisconsin Women Veterans Coordinator Gundel Metz, is to form a Wisconsin Women Veterans Coordinating Committee that would meet two to four times a year to plan a statewide Women Veterans Conference in 2007.

For more information about women veterans' initiatives, go to the WDVA website at www.dva.state.wi.us and click on the link for Women Veterans.  Also available on the department website are links to the federal VA and various veterans service organizations.