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DWD wins additional federal funding to serve more veterans
Madison – Department of Workforce Development (DWD) Secretary Roberta Gassman, while addressing the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs Stakeholders’ Legislative Conference today, announced that Wisconsin has successfully won additional federal funding from the Department of Labor to increase by $412,000 the Disabled Veteran’s Outreach Program (DVOP) and the Local Veterans’ Employment Representative (LVER) Program for the 2004 fiscal year.
“The men and women who have voluntarily risked their lives in defense of our nation deserve every bit of assistance we can provide them,” Secretary Gassman said. “I am grateful for this opportunity to further assist veterans and their families in achieving the employment outcomes they desire.”
The $412,000 is in addition to the original $3,039,000 funded by the federal Department of Labor, bringing the total amount for the grant to $3,451,000. The additional funding is allocated such that DVOP is to receive $329,000 of the increase, while the LVER program will receive $83,000.
Under the new grant, total funding for fiscal year 2004 will be $1,859,000 for DVOP and $1,592,000 for the LVER program.
Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program (DVOP) specialists develop job and training opportunities for veterans, with special emphasis on veterans with service-connected disabilities. DVOP specialists provide direct services to veterans enabling them to be competitive in the labor market. They provide outreach and offer assistance to disabled and other veterans by promoting community and employer support for employment and training opportunities, including apprenticeship and on-the-job training. DVOP specialists are employees of the state and are generally located in state employment service offices.
Local Veterans’ Employment Representatives (LVERs) are state employees located in state employment service local offices to provide assistance to veterans by supervising the provision of all services to veterans furnished by employment service employees, including counseling, testing, and identifying training and employment opportunities. They also monitor job listings from federal contractors to see that eligible veterans get priority in referrals to these jobs.
