VOLUNTEER
Help Veterans Get to VA Medical Appointments: Be a Volunteer DAV Van Driver
The DAV donates vans where needed in order for DAV and Auxiliary volunteers to drive veterans to and from VA hospitals and clinics. Other grateful Americans are helping too.
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 coordinator for your nearest DAV van program.
Volunteer at a VA Medical Center
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 may be 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 your local VA Hospital Service Coordinator (HSC) in the HSC Directory (PDF).
MORE INFORMATION:
- Locate your local VA medical facility in the VA Medical Center Directory.