VAVS

Vet­er­ans Affairs Vol­un­tary Ser­vice (VAVS)

Founded in 1946 to pro­vide for vet­er­ans in VA health­care facil­i­ties, the Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs Vol­un­tary Ser­vice (VAVS) is the largest vol­un­teer pro­gram in the Fed­eral gov­ern­ment, with more than 350 national and com­mu­nity orga­ni­za­tions involved in sup­port of their mis­sion. Vol­un­teers assist patients by aug­ment­ing staff in such set­tings as end-of-life care pro­grams, fos­ter care, community-based vol­un­teer pro­grams, hos­pi­tal wards, nurs­ing homes and vet­eran out­reach cen­ters. AMVETS serves as one of the 60 major vet­eran, civic and ser­vice orga­ni­za­tions that com­prise the VAVS National Advi­sory Committee.

In the last fis­cal year end­ing Sep­tem­ber 2006, (2,904) AMVETS, AMVETS Ladies Aux­il­iary and Sons of AMVETS pro­vided a total of (208,907) hours of ser­vice. (89%) of those hours were “reg­u­larly sched­uled” hours. Based on the cur­rent Inde­pen­dent Sec­tor for­mula for cal­cu­lat­ing the value of vol­un­teer hours, the AMVETS fam­ily pro­vided $3,921,184 dol­lars worth of service.

To become involved, con­tact the VA facil­ity near­est you. Ask for Vol­un­tary Ser­vice and tell them of your inter­est in becom­ing a VAVS AMVETS vol­un­teer. Or bet­ter yet, call your VAVS Rep to get the details and accom­pany him or her on their next visit.

VAVS Appoint­ment of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and Deputies
The fol­low­ing res­o­lu­tion was passed as amended by the del­e­gates at the 2004 AMVETS National Convention:

RESOLVED, that bi-annually, at the time each Depart­ment elects their N.E.C., (A-M even years, N-Z-odd years) the new Depart­ment Com­man­der will recon­firm the health, inter­est and per­for­mance of each of their VAVS Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and Deputies no later than 31 July each year; and be it further

RESOLVED, The Com­man­der or his des­ig­nate will inform the National VAVS Rep­re­sen­ta­tive that a review has been com­pleted and if a change is required, the new Appoint­ment form will accom­pany the notification.

AMVETS Because We Care Day – Annu­ally, the first Wednes­day of April the AMVETS National Ser­vice Foun­da­tion pro­vides per­sonal care kits, that are dis­trib­uted to our vet­er­ans by our VAVS vol­un­teers at all of the VA Med­ical Cen­ters that have cer­ti­fied AMVETS Representatives.

Hol­i­day Phone Cards – Annu­ally, in the period between Thanks­giv­ing and Christ­mas the AMVETS National Ser­vice Foun­da­tion also pro­vides “phone cards” for our hos­pi­tal­ized veterans.

AMVETS National VAVS Lead­er­ship Awards

Help AMVETS say thank you in a big way by encour­ag­ing the VAVS Chiefs at your local VA Med­ical Cen­ters to use the appli­ca­tions they receive from the National Pro­grams Depart­ment to rec­om­mend an AMVET, a Ladies Aux­il­iary and/or a Sons of AMVETS vol­un­teer for this award. The nom­i­na­tions must be received no later than 30 April each year. Awards are pre­sented dur­ing the National Con­ven­tion as part of the Commander’s & President’s Banquet.

VA Med­ical Cen­ter Wel­come Home Events

AMVETS Reps & Deps
The list here in excel for­mat rep­re­sents the most cur­rent ros­ter for Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and Deputies at the VA Med­ical Cen­ters AMVETS cur­rently sup­port. (If you believe any infor­ma­tion to be incor­rect, please con­tact the appro­pri­ate depart­ment com­man­der and the National Pro­grams Department.)

Forms to Down­load
• VAVS Train­ing Guide

• VAVS Match­ing Funds Request Form

• VAVS Guidelines

• VAVS Rep/Dep Appoint­ment Form

• Ser­vice Refer­ral Con­tact Form

• VAVS Lead­er­ship Nom­i­na­tion Form

• VAVS Coor­di­na­tor Job Description

VAVS National Advi­sory Com­mit­tee Vol­un­teer of the Year Award
This award is given annu­ally by the NAC dur­ing their annual meet­ing. It is to rec­og­nize extra­or­di­nary ser­vice to our nation’s vet­er­ans. Posts or Depart­ments may sub­mit the name of an out­stand­ing AMVETS VAVS vol­un­teer for con­sid­er­a­tion. The award is not restricted to Reps and Deps., any active and ded­i­cated VAVS vol­un­teer may be con­sid­ered. Sub­mit to Nat. Pro­grams Dept. no later than 15 Feb each year.