About the Disabled American Veterans
Our veterans need our support!
Disabled American Veterans (DAV) is the leader in providing direct one-on-one assistance to veterans.
- More than 37,000 men and women have been injured in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Many face serious injuries, endure extensive recoveries and are not receiving the care they have earned or deserve.
Please show that you remember their service and sacrifice! These brave servicemen and women have given so much for their country; they deserve the recognition and honor that their actions should receive ...
With trained personnel on military bases worldwide and thousands of volunteers, DAV ensures veterans receive the medical treatment they have earned.
- Appropriate medical treatment
- Provides transportation to/from hospitals
- Delivers relief from disasters
- Public awareness on disabled veterans's issues
Your support will enable DAV to provide our new and seasoned veterans with the care, support, and benefits these brave men and women deserve.
During these times of uncertainty, disabled veterans and those issues so important to them always fall by the waist side.However, through loyal and committed supporters, we continue to stand-up for their rights. Help build better lives for our nation's heroes.
Volunteer Opportunities:
Local Veterans Assistance Program (LVAP)
The work of the DAV's Chapters, Auxiliary Units, state-level Departments and associated organizations on behalf of disabled veterans in the communities they serve is substantial.
As a new generation of disabled veterans survives devastating injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan and our World War II, Korea and Vietnam veterans age, our nation's heroes need your help.
The Disabled American Veterans Local Veterans Assistance Program (LVAP) is designed to facilitate and recognize creative volunteerism to support veterans and the DAV's mission.
From DAV member support of chapters and departments to direct assistance to veterans, widows or families, the program is a flexible way for everyone to honor the service and sacrifices of our nation's veterans.
If you would like to be a volunteer, please contact the DAV.
Volunteer at a Hospital
What volunteers do for disabled veterans can be as basic, and as important, as just being a friend in the trying days of illness and therapy.
Like all medical facilities, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics need volunteers. These volunteers are needed because many hospitalized vets have no family or friends, and they are very far from home.
Volunteers perform a wide range of duties. Some enjoy direct contact with patients, participating in recreational programs and other activities on the wards. Other volunteers assist the VA's professional staff in several ways that involve little patient contact. Your role as a volunteer at a VA medical facility can be as basic, and as important, as just being a friend to a patient in the trying days of illness and therapy.
DAV and Auxiliary VA Voluntary Service (VAVS) volunteers bring a touch home...a personal contact with the world outside the hospital walls...the feeling that patients are remembered, that they're still a part of the community.
No matter what your inclination may be, there's a volunteer role you'll enjoy. Show our country's hospitalized vets you're grateful for their sacrifices….Volunteer today!
If you would like to be a volunteer, please contact the DAV.
Drive a Van
Travel benefit cuts left many vets with no way to get to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities for needed treatment. They're men and women who answered our country's call in times of war. Many lost limbs, sight, hearing, or good health.
They may live a great distance from a VA hospital, and because so many exist on small fixed incomes, they find that the cost of transportation to a VA hospital is just too high. They're left with two choices. They could go without the treatment they need, or skimp on food or other necessities to pay for transportation.
Vets disabled in our nation's service should never face such dire options. So DAV and Auxiliary volunteers respond, driving vets to and from VA hospitals and clinics. The DAV has also donated vans, where needed, to make the program work. Other grateful Americans are helping too. It's all part of the DAV Transportation Network, administered by DAV Hospital Service Coordinators (HSCs) at the VA's 172 medical centers.
If you would like to be a volunteer, please contact the DAV.
Veterans Outreach Programs
Homeless Veterans
Many thousands of veterans who defended our country's freedom have been unable to find their way in society. They live in a bleak, hopeless world without decent shelter, adequate nutrition, or medical care. Some of these people are true war heroes who received physical and psychological injuries during horrific combat that few could imagine.
The DAV helps homeless veterans make the transition from life on the streets to one of productivity and normalcy. Our motto, "We Don't Leave our Wounded Behind," is a heartfelt principle, a rule, and a promise that we, as a grateful nation, must keep. We must remain steadfast in our efforts to fulfill our promise to veterans by ensuring that no veteran who honorably served his or her country is ever left behind.
Are You in Need?
If you or someone you know is a homeless veteran in need of assistance, please contact the DAV. They can counsel individuals on the many VA benefits for which they may be entitled.
"We Don't Leave Our Wounded Behind"
The DAV Homeless Veterans Initiative, which is supported by DAV's Charitable Service Trust and Columbia Trust, promotes the development of supportive housing and necessary services to assist homeless veterans become productive, self-sufficient members of society. Our goal is to establish a partnership between the DAV and Federal, state, county, and local governments to develop programs to assist homeless veterans in becoming self-sufficient.
Without question, proper VA assistance—including health care, substance abuse treatment, mental health services, education, and job training, etc.—will enable homeless veterans to improve their situations and begin the transition to once again become productive members of the society they served and defended.
Disaster Relief
The DAV has always been there when disasters strike to offer aid and assistance to our members and all affected veterans.
The September 11th terrorist attacks were tragic and terrifying to say the least. Many veterans and their families who were adversely impacted by the tragic events visited National Service Officers (NSOs) National Service Officers (NSOs) who provided these individuals with DAV Disaster Relief grants on the spot, without lengthy delays or red tape.
The DAV has provided millions of dollars in disaster relief grants in the aftermath of natural disasters and other emergencies in various areas around the nation.
Eligibility
To be eligible for a DAV disaster relief grant, the following criteria must be met:
- The applicant must be a service-connected disabled veteran or the spouse thereof (same household).
- The applicant must be the victim of a natural/national disaster.
- The applicant's claimed loss must not be covered by insurance.
- The applicant's claimed loss must not be covered by other emergency relief agencies.
DAV Disaster relief grants may be issued for the purpose of providing: food, clothing, and temporary shelter or to obtain relief from injury, illness, or personal loss resulting from natural/national disasters that are not covered by insurance or other disaster relief agencies.
The Gulf Coast hurricanes, the Iowa floods, tornados and fires are just some of the natural disasters that have adversely impacted veterans and their families. As many residents of stricken areas were evacuated to other communities, the DAV assisted qualified veterans at the various evacuation sites, and participated in outreach events coordinated by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
While the events surrounding these natural disasters have been devastating, the victims of these disasters and the entire nation are proving that the human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it.
DAV Stats
In 2007, over 200 grants totaling $148,860 were disbursed to:
- forest fire victims in California
- flood victims in Ohio, Minnesota and South Dakota
- tornado victims in North Dakota, Alabama and Kansas
Since the program's inception in 1968, $7,133,759 has been disbursed.
Information Seminars
This program is designed to educate disabled veterans and tehir families on specific veterans' The work of DAV's National Services Officers extends well beyond their offices and deep within the veterans community.
Part of their outreach activities involves DAV's Veterans Information Seminars. This program is designed to educate disabled veterans and their families on specific veterans' benefits and services.
This outreach program generates considerable claims work on behalf of veterans and their families. The job of the NSO is to seek out veterans, to discover if they have a claim, and to follow that claim through to a successful conclusion.
Highly trained members of DAV's National Service Officer corps conduct these workshops. These experts in veteran's benefits offer the best counseling and claim filing assistance you and your family can get. This exceptional service is available to you free of charge and you do NOT need to be a DAV member to take advantage of this service.
Mobile Service Office
By literally putting our service offices on the road, assisting veterans where they live, the DAV is increasing accessibility to the benefits our nation provides to its veterans.
The work of NSOs extends well beyond their offices and extends deep within the veterans' community.
Part of their outreach activities involves DAV's Mobile Service Office (MSO) Program. This program is designed to educate disabled veterans and their families on specific veterans' benefits and services.
This outreach program generates considerable claims work on behalf of veterans and their families. NSOs, often aided by Department and Chapter Service Officers, travel to communities across the country to counsel and assist veterans with development of evidence, completion of required applications and prosecution of claims for veterans benefits administered under federal, state and local laws.
The DAV's Mobile Service Office (MSO) program was revitalized in March 2001 and is the most extensive outreach effort in the history of our organization. Thanks to the generosity of a $1 million pledge from the Harley-Davidson Foundation in 2007, the DAV expanded the sites visited by the MSO to include Harley-Davidson dealerships, where benefits assistance is offered to veterans of all generations in communities where they live.
These distinctive- looking and well equipped "offices on wheels" eliminate long trips some veterans in smaller towns and rural communities must take to visit our National Service Offices. The MSO program enhances DAV service to more veterans and their families.
