the texvet initiative annual report for fy 2014 page 1...in 2014 we expanded our search options,...

The TexVet Initiative Annual Report for FY 2014 Page 1

This report documents the plans and activities of the TexVet Initiative and the Military Veteran Peer Network for State Fiscal Year 2014. It satisfies a legal requirement to assemble this material and serves as a record of the year in supporting the Texas Military, Veterans, and family members that sacrifice for all and keep Texas a great state.

Texas is home to 1.667 million Veterans, over 194,000 active duty troops on 16 military bases, the only full division of National Guardsmen assigned to a single state, and over 4,700 non-profit and community organizations working to provide a range of services to this population.

Since 2008, the TexVet Initiative has been the linchpin of connection for Texas Military, Veterans, and family members with the organizations, resources, and events that matter most to them. With the advent of the Military Veteran Peer Network, a statewide network of hundreds of volunteers anchored by a solid cadre of professionals working with local community centers and other organizations, we are able to reach out across this broad state, build trust, reduce isolation, and offer Veterans and their families a way to “get connected” and participate in the things they care about most.


Greetings;

The year past, 2014, was a time of opportunity and change for the TexVet Initiative. After several years of strong leadership and support from Dr. LeeAnn Ray in the Texas A&M Health Science Center's President's office, our program is now positioned in the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response. This agency is led by Dr. and retired Army colonel Gerald Parker. While he spends much of his energy protecting the world from pandemic influenza and other emerging epidemics, taking care of our Veterans and their families is a public health priority as well.

Along with new leadership came new staff members and we were pleased to welcome Dr. Kerri Harmon to the team. She brings an energy and freshness to our work and helps fill the space left by our hard charging Jonathan Schiffer. Kerri teaches us as much as she learns and Texas Veterans and we benefit from this Air Force Veterans' work daily.

You may have noticed some evolutionary changes in the website, as our web and information designer Jonathan Leistiko tightens up the mechanics behind the scenes, cleans up old processes, and readies our primary web platform for bigger and better things ahead.

We have worked hard this year to achieve even greater integration with and support of the Military Veteran Peer Network. The combination of TexVet's unique ability to connect Texas Military, Veterans, and family members with the resources that are important to them and the MVPN's volunteers is powerful and affects or saves lives every day. We will continue to push on content I community I collaboration, especially with MVPN, to build the hope I camaraderie I trust that it takes to reduce isolation in our Veterans and save lives.

Veterans and their supporters have a variety of ways to help and support each other. It is a privilege to play a small part in this. Time to get after it and stay after it.

Very Respectfully;

Perry Jefferies TexVet Initiative Manager

P.S. Remember - even one suicide is too much. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the Veterans Crisis Line at 1 ·800-273-8255, press 1


TexVet supports Texas military, Veterans and family members with information and referral services and by facilitating the delivery of these services. TexVet is dedicated to providing everyone with equal access to information. TexVet focuses on Texas services, but includes federal, state, and local Veteran Service Organization (VSO) information.

TexVet also serves as the hub for The Military Veteran Peer Network (MVPN), a statewide peer to peer counseling network and volunteers. TexVet documents and supports this network to facilitate delivery of services, increase engagement by volunteers, and ensure continuity of the network.

TexVet embodies and facilitates a “No Wrong Door" policy for the Veteran community, and strives to promote this policy with other Veteran service organizations. As VSOs become more knowledgeable about the services available to Veterans, more Veterans will connect to the services they need.

The TexVet website is bigger, faster, cleaner, and easier to search than it was in 2013. In 2014 we stripped out unused features, enhanced anti-spam safeguards, moved the website to a less expensive and faster hosting service, upgraded the program that runs the website, and laid the technical groundwork for a planned 2015 design upgrade to make the website even more accessible. The TexVet Initiative is an information and referral service; our resource connection database and website are key to our success.

Extensive The heart of the TexVet.org website is our curated database of partners, resources, and events. The TexVet database contains 500+ Partners, 400+ Resources, and hundreds of one-time and recurring events. Our calendar is the most comprehensive calendar of Veteran and Veteran-related events in Texas.


Accessible Anyone can access our database and calendar by going to TexVet.org – no password or sign-in needed. Visitors can search for what they need in many different ways or use special pre-sorted “category” or “event” pages. Visitors can also contact TexVet staff via online form, email, or phone for assistance. We adjusted TexVet’s contact information (in the footer of every page on the website) to improve readability and include contact information for Holly Lambert, our media contact at Texas A&M.

We made each entry’s contact information larger and easier to read.

Searchable Visitors can search the site in several different ways (text, ZIP code, map), or refer to one of our specialized content pages. They can also contact us by webform, email, or phone for assistance.

In 2014 we expanded our search options, augmenting our website’s Solr search with a custom Google search. Search results now return two sets of searches: A site-specific Google search and our own Solr-powered search. Each search works differently from the other; each returns different results. This combination of searches is better than either one by itself.

TexVet.org also consistently ranks in the top five results in standard Google searches (for relevant content); Google searches for resources and partners often bring up TexVet pages before the resource or partner’s own web pages.


Accurate Every TexVet entry provides up-to-date information about every common way to contact that entity. TexVet.org has an exceptionally accurate and up-to-date database of Texas-based Veteran-focused partners, resources, and events. Dr. Kerri Harmon – Air Force Veteran, wife of a Veteran and mother of active duty military – joined the TexVet team as our Communications Director in May of 2014. Through a combination of intelligent outreach and diligent follow-up, the contact name, phone number, email address, address, and website for every partner and resource on TexVet.org has been verified in the past 4 months. Our records are 95%+ accurate.

When appropriate, we embed resources from partners to ensure we’re sharing the most up-to-date information.

In the examples above, the map of MVPN coordinators and the DAV mobile office schedule are actually on their respective websites, but embedded in relevantTexVet pages with their source pages properly cited.


Informative To increase engagement and make it easier for Veterans to decide to use or visit our partners and resources, we’re expanding our records to include new pictures, videos, and additional descriptions.

In the examples above, the R.O.C.K. and Flying S Ranch information pages at TexVet have a short videos introducing some of the staff at their locations and explaining the services they provide.

Collaborative Any service can add comments to their TexVet page. Services can also contact us by webform, email, or phone to contribute or update their information. When a service contacts us, we suggest that they create a TexVet.org user account (if they don’t have one already) and offer the service direct control over their information at TexVet,org. If needed and appropriate, we can also empower services to post events, add new partners and resources, create news articles and opinion pieces, and post jobs. To date, TexVet has nearly 100 external site contributors.

Dependable In 2014, we moved TexVet.org from Blackmesh to Pantheon (http://getpantheon.com/). Pantheon meets, and often exceeds, all of Blackmesh’s security, backup, uptime, and recovery metrics and procedures. Since moving to Pantheon, TexVet has had better than 99% uptime. Additionally, Pantheon makes many tools available to TexVet that empower us to address situations ourselves so we can react to unexpected situations more quickly. Pantheon’s best-practice multi-site git-based versioning structure also enhances site availability by making large-scale updates much easier to test and by permitting deployment with much less down-time than our previous web host.


Engaged The TexVet staff, though small, is accessible and engaged. TexVet staunchly stands by our “no wrong door” policy. When someone contacts us, we consistently follow-up. We are frequently told, “you are the first person to call me back.” When a contact’s needs go beyond what we can do at TexVet, we hand that contact off to the next appropriate agency – typically MVPN. The warm hand-off system between TexVet, MVPN, and other partners is a key to Veteran support in Texas. In 2014 we augmented CiviCRM – our contact management system – with CiviCase, a case management system. CiviCase helps us do high-quality warm hand-offs by letting us email complete case details to partners taking over a case – even if the new case owner does not have an account in our system.

Respected as a reliable information source and thought leaders in the Veteran community, TexVet staff has been interviewed, presented keynotes, or sat on panel discussions more than twice per month in 2014. Perry Jefferies sits on the board of the Fund for Veterans Assistance, the state program responsible for disbursing more than $40 million to NGOs that serve SMVF across Texas. TexVet staff also attended numerous VSO meetings and Veteran-focused fairs across Texas, making face-to-face connections with hundreds of SMVF and distributing literature to thousands.

TexVet hosts pages for special events like Veterans Day, Memorial Day and Patriot Day. These pages are one-stop sources for all the information we have for the event, gathered in one convenient location.

TexVet also has special pages for organizations like the MVPN and Joining Community Forces, and coalitions like the Central Texas Veteran Services Coalition (CTVSC).


Facebook Texvet.org is a persistent, searchable knowledge resource – It’s the TexVet “brain.” If TexVet.org is the brain, then our social media presence is our “mouth.” We use Facebook to connect with Veteran Service Organizations and Veterans, promote upcoming events, and direct our fans to notable articles on TexVet.org and elsewhere. We reached a Facebook milestone in September 2014 when total page likes exceeded 2,500.

As you can see, likes for TexVet steadily trend upward with occasional jumps. This trend is consistent across past years and is rather exceptional given that we have never bought advertising on Facebook.

Twitter Knowing that not everyone likes Facebook, we use Hootsuite (A social media account management tool.) to cross-post the majority of our Facebook posts to Twitter.

Pinterest This year, thanks to Dr. Harmon, we’re re-engaging with Pinterest, focused on collecting an array of relevant and useful images and sharing those to other VSOs. This is a very recent development, but initial reaction from the community has been positive.


How many visitors? In FY 2014, TexVet.org averaged 4,000 sessions per week (208,000 sessions per year) from 3,510 unique users per week (182,520 users per year).

Where did visitors come from? 66% of TexVet’s visitors were Texans. (Second and third place were California and Florida at 4.6% and 2.3% respectively.)

The most Texas visitors came from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex (15%), then Houston (13%), San Antonio (11%), and Austin (9%). El Paso, Killeen, College Station, and Waco are also notable traffic sources


What did they look at?

60% of our visitors started on one of seven pages:

• The Hazlewood Act information page (13%: 27,000+ hits in 2014) • The Disabled Veterans Texas Property Tax Exemption information page

(11%: 23,700+ hits in 2014) • The TexVet events calendar (11%: 22,500+ hits in 2014) • TexVet’s front page (10%: 20,800+ hits in 2014) • The Partners index (10%: 20,800+ hits in 2014) • The Free Hunting/Fishing License info page (3%: 7,000+ hits in 2014) • The Free Toll Roads for Vets info page (2%: 5,000+ hits in 2014)


People also contacted TexVet staff by phone, email, and in person.

• We directly assisted approximately 400 SMVF in 2014. • 56% of them were male Veterans or active duty, %16 were female Veterans or active

duty, and 28% of them were non-Veterans. • 42% of the people we helped served in 2001 or later. 22% were family members. 12%

were on active duty. 11% last served between 1990 and 2001. Another 11% last served in Vietnam. 2% last served between Vietnam and the first Gulf War.

• The majority (85%) of our assistance included information and referral to basic needs resources. 22% of our assistance included referral to the MVPN. 9% included referral to a county Veteran Service Officer. 3% included referral to a peer-to-peer support group or mental health counselor. Note that the preceding percentages add up to more than 100% because one contact can encompass multiple types of assistance.

TexVet designed and produced animated banner advertisements used by Local Mental Health Contractors and partners across Texas to connect them to the MVPN.

TexVet has a number of marketing materials to promote awareness of TexVet and what we do, including: an array of brochures designed to appeal to different demographics, two-sided business cards with useful phone numbers, stickers, window clings, bumper magnets, and reusable tote bags.

• Case Management: Activated CiviCase. • Improved performance: Upgraded Drupal version. • Better Contact Management: Upgraded CiviCRM • Faster & Cheaper: Switched to less expensive web host with faster servers and better

services. • Easier to Maintain: Added git-based version control. • Better Search Results: Added custom Google search to the search engine. • Industry-Standard Tagging: Added the LA 211 Taxonomy as a tag set for classifying

content. • Improved Performance: Upgraded PHP version. • Improved Accessibility: Started first steps away from static layout toward flexible,

universal layout.


Our success is measured by how helpful we are to the community of SMVF and VSOs, and how well we facilitate communication and collaboration between VSOs and SMVF. This includes, but is not limited to:

Community Leadership This year, TexVet attended, supported, or led:

• Texas Coordinating Council for Veterans Services • Texas Alliance of Information & Referral Services

o Premium membership o Board member

• Association of the United States Army meetings at Camp Mabry o Member of the executive committee

• Sponsor of the Heroes Night Out picnic • Panel member at the TAMU Military Friendly Symposium • Invited to the premier event of the Meadows Foundation Texas State of Mind project • Texas State Suicide Symposium • DrupalCon • AUSA Officer Training • Texas Veterans Commission & Justice Involved Veterans Conference • Austin Honor Flight • The Central Texas Veteran Services Coalition

Internal Improvements • Case management • Website updates

o Drupal, CiviCRM, PHP, search engines, faster webhost • Learning and incorporating best practices

o DrupalCon o Social media for noon-profits seminar o The LA 211 Taxonomy system o Three-stage web development with local development environments o Git-based version control

• Training o The Suicide Symposium o BEITZ o DrupalCon


• Enhance Accessibility: Redesign the site to dynamically adapt to and present optimally on all current and future platforms: desktop, portable, tablet, smartphone, printers, screen reader, Google Glass, etc.

• Reduce Multiple Entry: Re-architect TexVet.org and TexVet’s CiviCRM (contact and case manager) database so the TexVet website and CiviCRM pull organization info from the same database.

• Improve U.I.: Redesign content presentation to highlight the most-used features. • Improve Indexing: Increase use of the LA 211 Taxonomy to categorize content. • Improve Contact Management: Upgrade CiviCRM. • Prepare for Future Improvements: Upgrade PHP. • Prepare for Drupal 8: Migrate off of all modules not used in Drupal 8. We will move to

the Drupal 8 platform when it is ready to support our mission. This will give us better access to the semantic web, make it easier to maintain and find information, and create an easier and richer experience for our visitors.

• Promote Community Collaboration: Create “subsite” page designs for non-TexVet entities so they can “host” their pages at TexVet.

• Promote Community Collaboration, Part 2: Open the case management system (CiviCase) to outside agencies to promote inter-agency communication and collaboration.

In June of 2014, TexVet and MVPN conducted a survey of staff at LMHAs across Texas. 140 staff members from 23 LMHAs responded with their contact information, their counselor status, and with military experience,

The 23 LMHAs who responded were: Andrews Center, Austin Travis County Integral Care, Betty Hardwick Center, Bluebonnet Trails, The Burke Center, Camino Real Community Center, The Center for Life Resources, Central Counties Services, Central Plains Center MHMR, Costal Plains Community Center, Community Healthcore, Concho Valley MHMR, Emergence Health Network, Gulf Bend Center, Heart of Texas Region MHMR, Helen Farabee Center, Hill Country MHMR, Pecan Valley Centers, Permian Basin Community Centers, Spindletop Center, StarCare Specialty Health Care, Tarrant County MHMR, Tri-County Services,

Information for staff who responded, grouped by knowledge, experience, and willingness to be contacted for military-focused counseling is available upon request: [email protected].


Regional SMVF popluation and resource summary

TexVet.org has more than 900 partner and resource entries, located in Texas and across the nation. The following map shows where these resources are located across Texas.


The map below shows Veteran populations in the Texas counties with the greatest Veteran populations.

Comparing the two maps, you’ll see that the greatest concentrations of Veteran-focused services are in the areas with the most Veterans.


The chart above condenses the data from the Region Demographics table on the next page. The greatest population of Veterans is in region 2, where the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is. The second-greatest Veteran population is in region 3, where Houston is.


Grand

Total 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

VC

OSA

T R

egion

Region D

emographics

1,811,660

325,305

229,991

49,535

74,696

376,158

503,527

52,448

Estimated

Total V

eterans

1,478,082

291,953

205,794

45,563

68,701

350,173

467,399

49,499

Estimated

Total Male

Veterans

132,578

33,352

24,197

3,972

5,995

25,985

36,128

2,949

Estimated

Total Fem

ale V

eterans

217,065

56,410

39,180

6,570

13,892

40,838

54,298

5,877

Gulf W

ar II (9/2001 or later)

246,339

55,502

39,381

6,412

11,728

52,853

74,125

6,338

Gulf W

ar I (8/1990 to 8/2001)

221,720

41,047

29,157

5,714

9,246

57,030

72,949

6,577

Between

Gulf

War and

Vietnam

Era

537,065

104,911

71,795

16,706

24,206

127,983

174,098

17,366

Vietnam

Era (8/1964 to 5/1975)

389,471

67,435

50,478

14,133

15,624

97,454

128,057

16,290

Prior to 1975, Including K

orea &

WW

II

18,253,902

3,360,929

2,207,265

392,298

871,791

5,011,714

5,776,582

633,323

Estimated

total population

The table above is the Region Demographics table graphed on the prior page.


Sessions at TexVet.org

208,000 Unique TexVet.org Users

82,520

MVPN Service Interactions

73,490 Veterans Helped by MVPN

33,629

(All numbers cited are for FY 2014)

Note that TexVet is the primary resource for several of the following cited sources. TexVet is gathering important, useful, real data from LMHAs across Texas – data that no other agency is gathering.

• TexVet 2014 FY Q1, 2, 3, and 4 VVET reports • TexVet & MVPN 2014 Texas LMHA Staff Survey • American Community Survey, 2012 5-year summaries


www.facebook.com/texvet

@texvet

[email protected]

(512) 341-‐4924

3950 North A.W. Grimes Round Rock, TX 78665

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