The Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA) received an Abraham Lincoln Pillars of Excellence Award from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for its PA VETConnect initiative. Brig. Gen. Maureen Weigl, deputy adjutant general for Veterans Affairs, received the award on behalf of DMVA during the National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs Mid-Winter Conference, which was presented by Denis Richard McDonough, secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

PA VETConnect is an outreach program that enables the DMVA to concentrate services from within communities where Pennsylvania veterans live and that allows the DMVA to utilize community-based providers to fill gaps in services. Since PA VETConnect launched in 2020, DMVA has made more than 16,000 connections with federal, state, and local government officials; nonprofit organizations; and community leaders.

The Abraham Lincoln Pillars of Excellence Award was established in 2012 by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to evaluate state programs, establish best practices for other state agencies to follow with the goals of greater success and efficiency, and highlight great work done at the state level.

To learn more, visit http://www.dmva.pa.gov.