VA Watchdog Stuff
cups, hats, shirts
click here to
support the site





Be sure to get all four
VA Watchdog dot Org
RSS feeds --
Daily VA
News Flashes
House CVA
Veterans' News
Senate CVA
Veterans' News
VA Press
Releases

Download your
free copy of the
2007 VA benefits
handbook here...

$20 MILLION LILLY GRANT WILL HELP VETERANS -- VA hospital

in Indianapolis gets largest share of gift.

For more about Eli Lilly, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/ses
search.php?q=lilly&op=and

We have two pieces of information.  First, a news story...then, a VA press release.

News story here... http://www.indystar.
com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/
20071010/LOCAL/71010027

Story below:

-------------------------

$20M Lilly grant will help vets

Star staff

The Lilly Endowment this morning awarded four grants worth $20 million to help Indiana veterans.

Endowment officials said the gifts recognize the ongoing conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan and the impact it is having on Indiana and the rest of the country.
The grant winners are:

- Indiana National Guard Relief Fund Inc. -- $570,000.
- Crane Technology Inc. -- $400,000.
- Purdue University, Military Families Research Institute -- $8.9 million.
- Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center -- $9.9 million.

The increased reliance on Guard troops in Iraq and Afghanistan is putting more pressure on local communities, said Craig Dykstra, senior vice president for religion at the Endowment in a news release.

"These are part-time service members who live in their own homes, have regular jobs and are called up for active duty only in times of national emergency," he said in a prepared statement. "These service members are now being called upon more heavily than ever before.”

Dykstra said the Endowment identified three broad categories of needs and problems faced by many returning combat veterans: financial and employment issues; medical, rehabilitation and permanent disability issues; and a wide range of family issues.

He said the grant recipients already had programs that are addressing one or more of these challenges and additional funding would enable them to raise their level of impact significantly.

The $570,000 grant to the Indiana National Guard Relief Fund will augment the Endowment’s three previous grants, which have totaled $750,000.

The fund provides grants of up to $10,000 per year to Indiana Guard members and/or their families who suffer significant financial hardship as a result of active duty service. This new grant will add another $350,000 to that fund and also support the Guard's new Families First Initiative.

The $400,000 grant to Crane Technology Inc. will support a pilot project called the Crane Learning & Employment Center for Veterans, which will be the first comprehensive program of its kind in the country to help veterans with disabilities enter or reenter the workforce.

The $8.9 million grant to the Purdue Research Foundation will support the work of the university’s Military Family Research Institute. The only such university-based research center in the country, the institute was established in 2000 with funding from the U.S. Department of Defense to compile and analyze existing research on issues facing military families, their ability to adapt and cope with situations they face and the resources available to them.

The $9.9 million grant to the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center will support the Indiana Veterans Enhanced Services Initiative, which focuses primarily on combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan and secondly on veterans who have previously served their country. Since 2004, the Medical Center has treated a total of almost 3,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. This patient population
nearly doubles every year.

-------------------------

VA press release here... http://www.vawatchdog
.org/07/vap07/vap101007-1.htm

Press release below:

-------------------------

Lilly Grant to VA Will Enhance Services for Returning Combat Veterans

October 10, 2007



INDIANAPOLIS – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will augment its world-class health care to local veterans with a $9.9 million grant received today from the Lilly Endowment Inc.

The Indianapolis-based philanthropic foundation is providing the funds to the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center to support a new clinic for injured service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and other projects, including a "comfort home" serving families of hospitalized service members while their loved ones undergo rehabilitation.

"The generosity of the Lilly Endowment will help VA to continue to provide our wounded warriors with the best in rehabilitation medical care," said VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Michael J. Kussman, who accepted the grant on behalf of VA.

The grant will provide $5.8 million for a 24,000-square-foot Seamless Transition Integrated Care Clinic where returning troops will receive comprehensive multidisciplinary health care. Another $3.5 million will be used to build a 28-suite comfort home that will provide accommodations for veterans’ families during extended periods of care.

In addition, the endowment is funding retreats at which veterans and their spouses or loved ones can reunite and learn to work through readjustment issues typically associated with returning from deployment.

Another $500,000 is designated for rehabilitation events, including the National Veterans Golden Age Games, which the Roudebush VA Medical Center will host in the summer of 2008. This senior adaptive rehabilitation program is designed to improve the quality of life for older veterans, including those with a wide range of abilities and disabilities.

VA provides a comprehensive array of benefits and services tailored to meet the unique needs of America’s latest generation of combat veterans, including special access to VA health care for two years for those having no service-connected illnesses or injuries; polytrauma centers caring for the most severely injured that are setting new standards for multi-disciplinary treatment of complex medical problems; world-class clinical care and research for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); and aggressive outreach program to help veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan access the benefits they have earned.

The Lilly Endowment was established in 1937 by members of the Lilly family as a vehicle to pursue their personal philanthropic interests. It is separate from the Eli Lilly and Co. pharmaceutical firm and is independently managed.

-------------------------

Larry Scott  --

Don't forget to read all of today's VA News Flashes (click here)

Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage

email Larry

(go back to VA Watchdog dot Org Home Page)

VA Watchdog Stuff
cups, hats, shirts
click here to
support the site