The New Year is here and the Minnesota Department of Veteran Affairs (MDVA) has many programs and projects that are in full stride all over the state. In 2015 MDVA saw great results in many of the more diverse areas of the Veteran community such as Women Veterans, Tribal Veterans, and Homeless Veterans. The individuals who make up these groups raised their hands to serve our country, and thus deserve access to support services and programs they have earned. A few achievements are listed below; MDVA encourages all Veterans and their families to continually follow the events and opportunities listed on MinnesotaVeteran.org to bring an even bigger presence of diversity and prosperity into 2016.

Women Veterans
MDVA conducts a Minnesota Women Veteran Survey every two years. The 2015 biennial survey was open until August 15 and will help provide MDVA with local data on our women Veterans, allowing us to serve them better. Ashley Laganiere, Women Veterans Coordinator for MDVA, plans to use the results to better tailor MDVA's outreach events and strategies to the specific and unique needs of the Women Veterans of Minnesota. While the results of the 2015 survey will be available in the near future, we already know that Women Veterans make up 15 percent of the active duty military landscape and 18 percent of Guard and Reserve forces. With this growing community, continued surveys will help MDVA and Women Veterans Coordinators supply the benefits that Women Veterans need, deserve and have earned.

In 2016, Laganiere and MDVA are planning a 'Salute to Women Veterans' event based off the successful one of 2015. These will be one-day events created for women to join together across the state to receive specific resources and benefits as well as workshops for transitioning and empowering Women Veterans. The first one will take place Saturday, January 9 in Marshall, Minn. It is free to all women who have served or are currently serving, but registration is required at http://wvswmn2016.eventbrite.com.

Tribal Veterans
Native Americans have one of the highest levels of participation of military service per capita of any ethnic group. Although they serve in the military in large numbers, they apply for and receive fewer Veterans benefits than other ethnic groups. MDVA operates a Tribal Veteran Service Officers (TVSO) program to better assist the Native Veteran community in accessing their benefits and services that they have earned. These TVSOs have expanded from eight reservations to now being located on 11 reservations around Minnesota, and also serving in the Twin Cities metro area.

In conjunction with MDVA sponsored officers there are tribal sponsored officers that are members of the tribe they serve and are trained by and work closely with MDVA to ensure direct participation. In order to do this successfully and respectably many TVSOs are mobile within their operating area in order to fill the requests of each tribe and reservation. The mission is to maintain great relations and provide superior service to all Veterans in all tribes that continually serve Minnesota and the United States.

Veteran Homelessness
The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs' commitment to end Veteran homelessness recognizes that Veterans experiencing homelessness represent every race, ethnicity, gender, age, and ability among Minnesota's Veteran population. Our commitment also recognizes the profound racial and ethnic disparities among Veterans (and all Minnesotans) experiencing homelessness. These disparities are well documented. In its report Homeless Veterans in Minnesota 2012: Statewide Survey of Veterans without Permanent Shelter, Wilder Research noted that "about 37 percent of Minnesota's homeless Veterans are persons of color compared with less than 11 percent of the state's overall population."

On this basis, one critical performance metric for our efforts to end Veteran homelessness has been whether our efforts to identify and engage Veterans reflect the population of Veterans experiencing homelessness faithfully and also whether the housing outcomes achieved among the Veterans we serve demonstrates equity. That is, do the Veterans we've engaged reflect the racial diversity of Veterans experiencing homelessness, and have our housing outcomes been consistent across races and ethnicities?

The following chart shows the percentage of Veterans, by race and ethnicity, for three groups: those counted during the Wilder survey, those added to the Homeless Veteran Registry, and those housed once on the Registry.



Comparing the Veterans surveyed during the Wilder study (orange) with those on the Registry (blue) shows that if anything the Registry has successfully engaged a larger portion of Veterans of color: about half (49 percent) of the Veterans on the Registry are Veterans of color. The comparison between the Veterans on the Registry (blue) and those housed (green) shows that housing outcomes occur equitably across every racial and ethnic group: Veterans have been housed in the same proportions as they've been identified.

Our work is not done and must continue so long as there are Veterans facing homelessness. These results embody our commitment to diversity and equity, and show that our efforts to house every Veteran are working for Veterans of every race and ethnicity.