Lawmakers and veterans advocates gathered at Piedmont Virginia Community College in September to address a persistent gap in how military service members and their families access federal and state support. The town hall brought together state representatives, the Virginia Department of Veterans Services, and community members to discuss resources available for veterans, military families, and first responders, but it also revealed how many people remain unaware of the assistance they may qualify for.
The event underscored a fundamental challenge: veterans and their families often do not know which benefits exist or how to pursue them. Stanley Thomas, a member of the organization Parade Rest, attended the town hall hoping to find help for his brother, a Navy veteran from the late 1960s now living with dementia. “Being a veteran, maybe the government is offering some services that we don’t know about,” Thomas said. “So that’s one of the reasons why I came out today.”
For Thomas, the town hall offered direction without immediate resolution. He said he left with “ideas and avenues” to pursue rather than solved problems. That gap between available support and awareness of it has become a practical focus for some state lawmakers preparing for the next legislative session.
How State Leaders Are Addressing Resource Gaps
Delegate Katrina Callsen, who co-organized the event, said the town hall grew directly from a previous community meeting. A veteran raised a specific question about state veterans services that Callsen could not answer on the spot. “I should make sure I put people in the room that have the answer,” she reflected. That simple realization led her to convene representatives from the Virginia Department of Veterans Services and fellow lawmakers to address questions about everything from health care and disability benefits to education support.
Delegate Michael Feggans, who served 20 years in the Air Force, shared his own experience struggling to access care after retiring from active duty in September 2021. He described multiple canceled dental appointments through the Department of Veterans Affairs, eventually forcing him to use his TRICARE retiree benefits to receive care elsewhere. Feggans stopped short of blaming individual VA staff, instead pointing to broader staffing and resource constraints within the system itself.
Callsen is also drafting legislation to ease a different burden: military spouses who move with their families for duty stations often face obstacles when transferring employment between local government positions. She drew on her own childhood in a military family, watching her mother repeatedly change jobs as the family relocated. “We’ve done a lot, but there’s more work we can always do,” Feggans said, adding that he and his colleagues plan to continue addressing these issues when the General Assembly reconvenes.
Connecting Veterans to Existing Support
Representatives from the Virginia Department of Veterans Services attended the town hall to help veterans and families navigate available programs. These included claims assistance and information about benefits many attendees had not previously known existed. The event also gave lawmakers a chance to highlight recent legislation and funding approved specifically for veterans, military families, and first responders.
Callsen said conversations with veterans at events like this one continue to shape how she and her colleagues approach upcoming legislative priorities. The town hall demonstrated that access to information remains as important as the benefits themselves. Many veterans qualify for support but never pursue it, not because the programs lack funding but because they lack visibility.
For attendees like Thomas, the immediate value lay in new contacts and directions to explore. He did not leave with a solution for his brother’s dementia care, but he had specific avenues to investigate, a practical outcome that mirrors the town hall’s larger purpose. By placing veterans in direct conversation with decision-makers and resource specialists, the event created a channel for both immediate problem-solving and longer-term policy feedback.
The event reflects how state-level support for veterans depends on awareness as much as availability. Lawmakers say they will continue gathering input from veterans and their families as they prepare for the next legislative session, making town halls like this one a recurring part of how Virginia’s government identifies and responds to the needs of its military communities.
