Additional Support for Vets Found At Library, Notes Tampa Veterans Lawyer
Feb 15, 2013
Tampa, FL (Law Firm Newswire) February 14, 2013 – Single Stop has been providing government and private anti-poverty benefits counseling to clients at or below the poverty level for more than ten years.
Single Stop uses a specialized computer system which calculates each client’s program eligibility and indicates the appropriate social service offices for assistance with child care, food pantry access, transportation services and welfare benefits.
Now, the people at Single Stop have teamed up with financial support from the Robin Hood Foundation to help military veterans reintegrate after service in a pilot program scheduled to run to the end of September, 2013. They hope their system will be able to decipher the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs benefits program maze.
Their effort, the Single Stop Veterans Initiative, includes the people of Single Stop, the financial support of The Robin Hood Foundation, and a non profit, Mission Continues, which focuses on placing new vets in community service fellowships. Veteran counselors head up all but one of the Single Stop offices, overseeing the proprietary computer system, as it calculates eligibility for clients for the more than 40 different available government and private programs. Single Stop Veterans Initiative works out of libraries for easy public access.
While Single Stop Veterans Initiative has an extensive collection of the federal programs available to recent vets, the Department of Veterans Affairs has so far not allowed the counselors of Single Stop to use their online system to submit applications. The system is mainly used to explore what options are available and directing the vet to next steps, tasks traditionally managed by veterans services organizations.
“The teaming up of multiple nonprofit organizations to offer efficient support to our military veterans shows that it can be done, and done effectively,” notes Tampa veterans lawyer David Magann.
Mission Continues arranges six-month fellowships for recent veterans; current Mission Continues Fellows have been intensively trained to utilize Single Stop’s comprehensive Benefits Enrollment Network (BEN), including how one benefit package may negatively impact another service and how to negotiate multiple programs. Fellows also follow up with vets to ensure that the benefits and services available to them are received.
To learn more about the Tampa veterans attorney David W. Magann and his law practice, go to http://www.tampaveteranslawyer.com/ or call 813-657-9175.
David W. Magann, P.A.
Main Office:
156 W. Robertson St.
Brandon, FL 33511
Call: (813) 657-9175
Tampa Office:
6107 Memorial Hwy
Tampa, Florida 33615
South Tampa Office:
Bank of Tampa Building
601 Bayshore Blvd Ste 105
Tampa, FL 33606
