Receive annual update on Yolo County Veterans Services Office operations, performance metrics, and recent activities. (No general fund impact) (Sullivan) (Est. Time: 10 min)

Receive annual update on the County Veterans Services Office operations, performance metrics, and recent activities. 

The County Veterans Services Office (CVSO) is an office established by the Board of Supervisors to assist veterans, their dependents, and survivors in obtaining benefits from federal, state, and local agencies administering programs for veterans. The CVSO is a county agency that assists veterans in dealing with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Salvador Torres, the Veterans Service Officer (VSO), and Kien Do, the Veterans Services Representative (VSR), are the two staff assigned to this function. They are tasked with conducting outreach to find veterans that may be unaware of benefits for which they are entitled as well as assist them in applying for those benefits through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The services provided by the CVSO are free to veterans and their families. While the mission of the CVSO is to assist veterans in obtaining their earned benefits from the VA, they also connect veterans to other state and county benefits/programs. While the team’s mission is to serve Yolo County veterans, they do provide services to out-of-county California Veterans as well.

VA benefits are unique to each veteran’s service and are therefore complex to qualify for, hence the need for assistance of a trained County VSO and VSR.

The majority of CVSO funding is provided by the county’s general funds, while the remainder comes from the state’s General Fund and other state programs. Currently, 56 of California's 58 counties have CVSOs. The CVSO system is the most widely used model by states to deliver services and assist veterans in obtaining federal and state benefits.

CVSO FY 2022-23 Performance
In FY 2022-23, the Yolo County Veterans Services Office aided 1,516 veterans in person and conducted outreach 10,200 times via phone or email. These outreach efforts resulted in 1,308 new claims filed with the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs and an increase of $4,646,342 new claims awards for veterans and their families. These new awards are paid directly to the veteran and are usually for the rest of their life.

The CVSO had an above average new award amount of $3,552 per person compared to the state average of $2,649.  This was the 10th highest average out of all 58 counties in California. The Yolo CVSO also managed to provide in-person assistance to 572 more veterans and submitted 735 more claims over FY 2021-22. The team also managed to increase the total new awards brought in by over $1 million over FY 2021-22 with an all-time high since FY 2014-15.

Unfortunately, along with these successes, the CVSO has encountered a few challenges centered around the lack of available staff for the program. We currently only have two staff members overseeing the Yolo County Veterans population, which exceeds 7,000. The limited staffing has led to high caseloads, limited outreach, as well as lack of availability during mandated conferences and trainings.

Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency