About Us
The US Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that Veterans comprise more than 6 percent of West Virginia’s population, with close to 118,000 Veterans calling the Mountain State home.
The West Virginia Department of Veterans Assistance (WVDVA) is the state agency that serves that population and their families. The department is a cabinet-level agency dedicated to providing services and benefits assistance to Veterans.
Our Mission
The West Virginia Department of Veterans Assistance's mission is to aid and advise honorably discharged West Virginia Veterans and their qualifying dependents and to ensure they are provided with the care, assistance and recognition they deserve. Numerous programs, statewide benefit offices and three facilities fall under the purview of the WVDVA, enabling the department to meet this goal.
Department History
The history of the West Virginia Department of Veterans Assistance began in 1945. At the end of World War II, the number of Veterans in the state and the number of benefits provided by the federal government increased dramatically. The West Virginia Department of Veterans Affairs was created to assist returning troops and ensure they could access those benefits.
The department has undergone several changes since its inception. About 40 years ago, the name was changed to the Division of Veterans Affairs under the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety Administration. In 2011, following an enthusiastic push by veterans across the mountain state, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin signed Senate Bill 238 into law, which restored the agency’s seat within the Governor’s cabinet and changed its name to the now-familiar Department of Veterans Assistance.
In recent years, the West Virginia Department of Veterans Assistance has been on a mission to improve our services for Veterans. We have been relocating our offices from older, less accessible locations to more convenient spots, allowing us to serve more veterans. In addition, we have modernized our benefits claims process, enabling our Veteran Service Officers to file claims electronically with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This has significantly reduced the time it takes for claims paperwork and supporting documentation to reach the VA’s system for processing.
Today, the West Virginia Department of Veterans Assistance is a cabinet-level agency dedicated to providing Veterans with comprehensive services and benefits assistance. Our Veterans, who bring in $5 Billion of federal benefits per year to West Virginia, are at the heart of our mission. Our accredited and dedicated Veterans Service Officers (VSOs) are instrumental in helping Veterans access these benefits. We operate Benefits Offices across the state, where our VSOs conduct hundreds of benefits consultations weekly. In addition, we manage the Donel C. Kinnard Memorial State Veteran Cemetery, a Veteran-only domiciliary, and a Veterans' nursing facility in Clarksburg.