PHILADELPHIA –
A team from the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Regional Office and Insurance Center met with veteran and military employees from the Medical supply chain during a visit to the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support July 18.
The Medical culture improvement team organized the visit to help employees learn about VA benefits.
“We’re here today because we want to use this opportunity to inform veterans about benefits they earned from serving their country,” Robert Jones, a VAROIC outreach life insurance specialist, said.
The VA team informed 28 employees about programs for veterans and survivor spouses, non-service-connected pensions, filing claims for disability and how military personnel can prepare for separation.
“This is our initial attempt to bring outside speakers here to improve our culture as an organization and focus on our employees who are veterans,” Yvonne Poplawski, Medical’s CIT co-lead, said. “The goal today was to inform our employees of all the possible VA benefits available to them and continue to honor them as our military veterans.”
CIT members Paul Williams and Gertrude Wray organized the visit after they found many Medical employees were unfamiliar with veteran benefits. Poplawski and co-lead Ryan Jeffries hope it will lead to another one for the entire DLA Troop Support workforce.
The CIT hosts events throughout the year that address communication, training, onboarding and succession planning for Medical employees. The team was created in 2014 to help address the workforce’s needs based on their input through the DLA Culture Survey.
Visit the Veterans Affairs website for more information about veteran benefits.