This week the executive director of a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to guiding veterans and their families through the myriad benefit programs designed to help them navigate military life and beyond.
Megen James addressed the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly on Tuesday night and was on KDLL's Kenai Conversation yesterday. Thursday night, she'll be addressing the Soldotna City Council, telling them what the coalition is all about.
"The Alaska Coalition for Veterans and Military Families has three pillars of service; we collaborate. So we work with service providers throughout the state of Alaska, employment, So employers behavior health providers, in rural Alaska, we also work with the medical providers, and we just make sure that we share services and share information so that we can better serve our service members, veterans and their families," James said. "We also educate so we go around the state and we educate our providers, as well as our communities on things like military cultural competency, suicide prevention, and other issues that affect the military community. And then the third pillar of service is advocacy. So we work with our state legislators and our congressional delegates on issues that are important to our veterans and military families to make sure that they have all the support and services that they need to thrive in Alaska."
The coalition has been around for almost 10 years, and became a 501c3 nonprofit earlier this year.
"The coalition started back in 2011, under the former name, Alaska Forget me not coalition. And we recognize the need because the VA and Department of Defense and the state of Alaska can only do so much because of federal and state regulations. But some needs, we're still not being met. And we knew that there were people in the community, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and other agencies in the community that could help meet those needs," she said. "So we came together to kind of figure out how we could work with those entities to be able to fill those needs. And so now we have a partnership with the state of Alaska Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, all the installations in Alaska, and also Veterans Affairs here in Alaska, and we just when they have any issues that they, 'you know, it's a solvable problem, but we can't do it. Do you have someone for us?' so then that way we can come step in and help that individual or that agency help their client. I refer to myself as a traffic director. A lot."
James said that since the coalition isn't a government agency, it's not limited in who it can serve.
"The unique thing about the coalition too, is we work with all veterans regardless of discharge status. We have helped many, many veterans get their discharge statuses upgraded if they were eligible for it, and then get them access to benefits," she said. "We have helped mediate issues with the VA before so I mean we can we pivot to the needs of the individual and to the community."
James will address the Soldotna City Council Thursday night at its regular meeting, which begins at 6 p.m.
