Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced on Monday the launch of the Virginia Veterans Network (VVN), a comprehensive online hub for veterans, service members and their families to access benefits and resources more easily.
Billed by Youngkin as being “built by veterans for veterans,” VVN links hundreds of state, federal and local organizations, consolidating essential resources in a single platform. It is designed to provide veterans with direct access to critical benefits, from health care and disability assistance to employment support, education opportunities and mental health resources. VVN addresses a recurring challenge faced by many in the military community — navigating the vast network of services for which they are eligible, but which are often dispersed across multiple agencies and organizations.
With Virginia being home to 700,000 veterans, the VVN will be a critical statewide resource for those who served and their families, the governor said.
“We go to work every day to ensure that Virginia is the best state in America for veterans, military service members and their families to live, work and raise a family,” Youngkin said in a statement. “VVN is truly the gold standard of service for Virginia veterans and delivers on our promise to give [them] the best available resources.”
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears said the new platform ensures veterans “are never alone in their journey.” VVN features like its streamlined appointment system — which allows veterans and their families to arrange in-person support from the Department of Veteran Services — are designed to provide a helping hand precisely when it is needed.
The system, Chuck Zingler, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Veterans Services, said, also in a statement, “offers real solutions in real time, connecting the right people to the right resources at the right time.”
