Located in:
- Jobs for Veterans’ State Grants
(OMB Control Number: 1293-0017)
Components of the Jobs for Veterans State Grants State Plan
Jobs for Veterans State Grants (JVSG) recipients must provide a four-year state plan as a condition for the receipt of annual funding in accordance with 38 U.S.C. § 4102A(c). This plan must include responses to each of the components below.
a. Describe how the state intends to provide employment, training, and job placement services to veterans and eligible persons under the JVSG program (i.e., virtually and in-person).
Current Narrative:
The primary objective of Jobs for Veterans State Grants program is to develop and support activities to increase employment and job training opportunities for veterans and eligible persons. Disabled Veterans Outreach Program (DVOP) and Consolidated Positions (CODL) Specialist staff will provide individualized career services to:
- A special disabled or disabled veteran, as those terms are defined in 38 U.S.C § 4211(1) and (3); Special disabled and disabled veterans are those:
- Who are entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs; or,
- Were discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability;
- Homeless, as defined in Section 103(a) of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11302(a));
- A recently separated service member, as defined in 38 U.S.C § 4211(6), who at any point in the previous 12 months have been unemployed for 27 or more consecutive weeks;
- An offender, as defined by VPL 03-14 Change 2 who has been released from incarceration within the last 12 months;
- Lacking a high school diploma or equivalent certificate; or
- Low-income (as defined by VPL 03-14 Change 2)
- Any veteran ages 18-24;
- Vietnam-Era veterans (IAW VPL 03-19);
- Transitioning Service Member in Need of individualized career services as outlined in current guidance;
- Injured and Wounded Military, Family Members/Caregivers as outlined in VPL current guidance.
Disabled Veteran Outreach Program (DVOP) Specialists and Consolidated Position Staff (CODL) Specialists conduct outreach to those organizations and entities where there is a potential of veterans/eligible persons with Significant Barriers to Employment (SBEs) who would visit those organizations. One of the purposes of this outreach is to develop a relationship with these organizations so veterans/eligible persons can be referred to the DVOP or CODL even when the DVOP or CODL is not physically at the location.
During outreach, DVOP and CODL specialists provide itinerant services at homeless shelters and other sites where homeless veterans congregate.
DVOP and CODL specialists provide individualized career services to incarcerated veterans by partnering with the Missouri Department of Corrections to identify those veterans recently released or are scheduled for release from a corrections facility.
The goal of DVOP and CODL outreach is to locate veterans and eligible persons with SBEs and assure that they are provided individualized career services through the case management framework and given enhanced opportunities for successful careers. The provision of individualized career services will result in successful transition into civilian employment for separating service members, reintegration into the workforce for the homeless and reduced recidivism for the incarcerated veterans.
Missouri participates in mobilization and demobilization briefings for the National Guard/Reserve soldiers and their spouses. Missouri collaborates with the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), Veterans Commission, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), Department of Corrections, Department of Mental Health, Federal Bureau of Prisons and other public organizations to identify veterans with SBE and provide them individualized career services with the goal of meaningful employment.
Missouri provides individualized career services to targeted veterans and eligible persons through a variety of means. DVOP and CODL staff are assigned to four Veterans Administration (VA) medical facilities to assist veterans with SBEs with their efforts to reintegrate into the workforce. DVOP and CODL staff conduct outreach to Missouri Probation and Parole offices and prisons so they can work with released veterans to assist them with their employment needs. DVOP and CODL staff provide itinerant services at homeless shelters and at other locations frequented by homeless veterans.
DVOP and CODL staff will provide outreach services to veterans at service delivery points (SDPs) that have no LVER, DVOP or CODL assigned. In rural areas, Missouri assigns CODL staff to maximize services, affording regularly scheduled availability at remote Job Centers or other sites where DOL funded programs operate to maximize opportunities for veterans and minimize travel requirements for unemployed veterans. Outstation or outreach sites may include Job Centers, military installations, National Guard and Reserve component armories, Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) facilities, homeless shelters, prisons and other sites as appropriate and agreed to by impacted parties. CODL staff conduct outreach to employers, veterans' organizations, and other community agencies to share information gained from these contacts with SDP staff.
As established in legislation, the JVSG program is but one component of an umbrella of programs that are required by law to provide priority of service to veterans. The DVOPs, CODL specialists and LVER staff funded by the grant fill a particular niche in the overall program of services to veterans. As indicated in Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS) policy, DVOP and CODL funded staff provide individualized career services to veterans and eligible persons with Significant Barriers to Employment (SBE). The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) provides for the provision of individualized career services to certain eligible participants such as veterans and eligible spouses. Likewise, the DVOP and CODL staff should be used to target specialized individualized career services to those veterans and eligible persons with SBE who are most in need.
It is vital to the success of the veteran and eligible person job seeker that an effective partnership between the DVOP, CODL, LVER, Job Center programs, other federal, state, and local agencies and veteran organizations are fostered and maintained.
The DVOP and CODL share case management for veterans enrolled in WIOA and other programs with the providers of those programs. Dual case management ensures maximum cooperation between programs and enhanced employment for veterans and eligible persons with SBE. Common measures, business knowledge gained through outreach, and a shared interest in exiting participants at an appropriate time makes it feasible for multiple staff to assist with job search and job development activities.
LVER and CODL staff participate on business teams as outlined within the workforce region’s “single point of contact plan.” The plan outlines the Job Center’s strategy to promote the area’s workforce services, including promotion of veterans and eligible persons among employers. This approach assures maximum opportunity to promote the veteran and eligible person as trained, skilled and reliable products to market to the employer. All staff who conduct employer contacts promote veterans and veteran programs and document their contacts in the state’s electronic data system.
Because the JVSG grant provides funds to exclusively serve veterans, other eligible persons as defined at 38 U.S.C. 4101(5), VPLs 03-14, Changes 1 and 2, 07-14, and 3-19, Missouri will not assign DVOP, CODL or LVER staff to functions that may conflict with this purpose or which conflict with Title 38, Chapter 41 requirements, applicable regulations (20 CFR 1001, et. seq.). They will not provide services to non-veteran customers or be assigned to tasks that will lead non-veterans to request or expect to receive services from the DVOP, CODL or LVER. Contact with customers who are not veterans is inevitable. When such contact occurs, the DVOP, CODL or LVER will exercise tact and courtesy in directing the customer to the appropriate service.
Missouri’s automated data system (MoJobs) provides reports identifying veterans registered with no services, disabled veterans and all veterans registered within a county. Reports are also generated that depict Job Center staff activity including referrals, services provided, employer and provider contacts and job developments. Those reports, as well as the 9173 reports from Workforce Integrated Program System (WIPS), Managers Report on Services to Veterans, and the required Self Assessments monitored by local and Central Office management to verify the provisions of the Veterans State Plan are being observed.
Missouri conducts monthly internal audits of the JVSG program and looks at the veterans and eligible persons served to ensure that only those with SBE are receiving services from the DVOP, as well as to ensure they are receiving individualized career services through the case management framework.