Programs & Services
Resources for Vets
Military Veteran Peer Network
The Military Veteran Peer Networks’ mission is to establish camaraderie and trust with each other, identifying and vetting community resources and, collectively, contributing to the communities where we live.
The mission of Grace After Fire is to provide the means for women Veterans to gain self-knowledge and self-renewal. Grace After Fire does this through its programs teaching, developing, and listening to the woman Veteran and her needs upon returning home. They are committed to assisting in her transition back into family life, achievements in the workplace, and her pursuit of happiness.
The Greater Houston area is home to more than 300,000 military veterans, one of the largest concentrations in the nation. In the past 10 years, Houston has seen amazing growth in all of its sectors, from workforce, to neighborhoods, to culture, to schools. Time and time again, Houston has appeared in the top of many lists about best places to live, work, and grow in the United States.
The goal of Combined Arms is to foster and perpetuate a long-standing culture of collaboration among military service organizations in the Greater Houston Area. By integrating the network, Combined Arms will reduce inefficiencies in the transition process, increasing the impact veterans have in our community, and making Houston the place for veterans.
TexVet connects Texas Military, Veterans, and Family members with people, events, and resources down to the local level across the state. TexVet is an Initiative of the Texas A&M University Health Science Center and The Texas Department of Health and Human Services.
2-1-1 Texas/United Way HELPLINE
Whether you need help finding child care, food stamps, care for an aging parent or a haven from domestic violence, 2-1-1 is the number to call when you don’t know who to call. Our trained HELPLINE specialists are good listeners, blending understanding and expertise to provide information and referrals drawn from a comprehensive database of social services. The 2-1-1 Texas/United Way HELPLINE answered a record 972,600 calls for help in 2016. Basic needs, like food, utilities, and health care, topped the list of requests last year, followed by rent assistance and help to find shelter.
Community Service
The Mission Continues empowers veterans who are adjusting to life at home to find purpose through community impact. The Mission Continues deploys veterans on new missions in their communities, so that their actions will inspire future generations to serve, and operates in cities alongside non-profit partners and community leaders to solve some of the most challenging issues facing our communities: improving community education resources, eliminating food deserts, mentoring at-risk youth and more. Through this unique model, veterans build new skills and networks that help them successfully reintegrate to life after the military while making long-term, sustainable transformations in communities and inspiring future generations to serve.
Economic
Family Service of Greater Houston- Veteran Services
Family Houston believes veterans are owed thanks for their service and want to help by easing the transition from military to civilian life. Family Houston helps veterans and their families rebuild their lives and relationships by providing financial assistance during emergency situations and connecting veterans to financial coaching, employment services, individual/family counseling and marriage and co-parenting resources.
NextOp provides Energy, Construction and Healthcare companies with world-class, skilled candidates and coaches them on how to be effective employees. Mentors work with each transitioning veteran to adjust to their new roles and cultivate the necessary skills to excel in field work, increasing satisfaction and reducing turnover for these positions.
The EBV National Program is a novel, one-of-a-kind initiative designed to leverage the skills, resources and infrastructure of higher education to offer cutting-edge, experiential training in entrepreneurship and small business management to post-9/11 veterans with service-connected disabilities and a passion for entrepreneurship as well as military family members who serve in a caregiver role to a veteran with a service-connected disability. The aim of the program is to open the door to economic opportunity for our veterans and their families by developing their competencies in creating and sustaining an entrepreneurial venture.
Legal
Lone Star Legal Aid is the fourth largest service provider of free legal aid in the United States. Lone Star Legal Aid serves 72 counties in Texas and four in Arkansas, an area that covers one-third of the state Texas, including almost 60,000 square miles from Texarkana, to the Louisiana-Texas Gulf Coast state-line, down to Matagorda Bay, and four counties of southwest Arkansas. Lone Star Legal Aid has 14 offices throughout east, southeast, and northeast Texas. Legal Services Corporation, Texas Access to Justice Foundation, and multiple grants generously fund Lone Star Legal Aid. Lone Star Legal Aid service area has nearly 1.5 million income-eligible Texas residents.
Beacon Law provides high quality, courteous, and effective legal services to low-income individuals and communities. In collaboration with community partners, we work to identify and address the causes and effects of poverty and inequality. Their priorities consist of five practice areas: access to safe and affordable housing, access to income and employment, access to healthcare, economic justice, and consumer rights. These priorities reflect Beacon Law’s strategic focus to remove barriers to escaping homelessness, support individuals, and families, preserve homes, maintain economic stability, ensure stability and health, and to identify and address the needs of the vulnerable population.
Health
Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center – Houston, Texas
The Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center serves as the primary health care provider for almost 130,000 veterans in southeast Texas. Veterans from around the country are referred to the MEDVAMC for specialized diagnostic care, radiation therapy, surgery, and medical treatment including cardiovascular surgery, gastrointestinal endoscopy, nuclear medicine, ophthalmology, and treatment of spinal cord injury and diseases.
The Harris Center for Mental Health and IDD
The Harris Center provides or ensure the provision of services and supports in a respectful fashion that is high quality, efficient, and cost-effective such that persons with mental disabilities may live with dignity as fully functioning, participating, and contributing members of our community as possible, regardless of their ability to pay or third-party coverage.
- Persons with severe mental illness should be able to live in homes of their own, develop relationships, work, and remain out of hospitals and jails.
- Persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities should be able to acquire the skills and access community resources to develop networks of human relationships, learn, work, and live in environments of their choosing.
- Children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance should be able to live in homes with families, develop normal relationships with their peers, attend school, and remain out of hospitals and juvenile justice facilities.
City, County, and State
City of Houston- Veterans Affairs Office
Assist Houston in becoming the best city in the nation through unparalleled service to our serving military, veterans, and their families. Assist veterans of the United States Armed Forces to ensure that neither they, their dependents, nor survivors are denied access to the entitlements promised them by a grateful nation.
Harris County Veterans Services Office
The Veterans Services Office assists veterans and their dependents with applications for compensation, pensions, hospitalization and other benefits through an intake process that includes information and referral services. The Veterans Services Office works with the Department of Veterans Affairs and other nationally chartered veterans service organizations to ensure that veterans, their dependents, and survivors receive their richly deserved entitlements.
The Texas Department of Transportation – Veteran Discount Program
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is waiving tolls on several Texas toll roads for eligible veterans, who must be in a vehicle registered with the State of Texas and displaying a qualified specialty license plate. Qualifying Texas license plates are recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor, Air Force Cross (Legion of Valor) or Distinguished Service Cross (Legion of Valor), the Army Distinguished Service Cross (Legion of Valor), Navy Cross (Legion of Valor) and Purple Heart.
The purpose of the Texas Veterans Commission is to act as the state-appointed advocate of Texas veterans as they attempt to secure the benefits rightfully earned in exchange for their service in our nation’s armed forces. This is achieved through four program areas: 1) Claims Representation and Counseling; 2) Veterans Employment Services; 3) Veterans Education Program, and 4) Texas Veterans Commission Fund for Veterans’.
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