December 16, 2011 – Fortbragg.patch.com

Police serving a Fort Bragg soldier with a domestic-violence protective order searched the home and uncovered two M-4 rifles, two handguns, a shotgun, military-grade explosives and other military equipment according to a Fayetteville Observer news report.

Joshua Robert Kompf’s Bahama Loop residence also revealed he was in possession of steroids and drug paraphernalia, police said.

The woman that Kompf is accused of choking did not suffer major injuries, Fayetteville police said on Wednesday.

According to the police, officers seized the weapons and CID seized the military equipment and an EOD team removed the explosives.

Kompf is charged with possessing steroids, maintaining a drug house, possessing drug paraphernalia, assault by strangulation, cyberstalking and making harassing phone calls. The possession of military weapons is under investigation, police said.

Read the full article.

December 15, 2011 – Washingtonpost.com

Who would have guessed that some of the most innovative designs in accessible housing would develop on the Army base at Fort Belvoir? Goodbye, dreary exteriors of standard military units. Hello, vibrant colors and crisp white trim. Circular accent windows, angular roof lines and window trellises give these homes a strikingly contemporary look.

The cheerful curb appeal is intentional — these homes are created for severely injured active-duty soldiers returning from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. While medical advances save lives on the battlefield, many soldiers return with injuries that will require lifelong accommodations and many of those choose to stay in the service.

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December 12, 2012 – USA Today

It wasn’t until five months after Army Staff Sgt. June Moss returned from the Iraq war in 2003 that her real battle began. The horrors of the war — witnessing decapitated and burned bodies amid mass destruction — led to post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I do notice when I’m stressing out that I start having dreams about what I saw and how I felt,” says Moss, now 40 and retired from the Army. “It does come back as if to haunt you.”

The percentage of women in the military has doubled in the last 30 years, with more than 350,000 serving as of 2009, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ latest figures. With more female troops in combat, there has been an increase in PTSD diagnoses: One in five female veterans suffer from PTSD, according to the VA.

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December 16, 2011 – PBS Newshour

In 2009, the Army launched a program designed to help the country’s 1.4 million people in uniform cope after tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Betty Ann Bowser reports on the goals of the $140 million Comprehensive Soldier Fitness initiative and the controversy it has created.

Read the article. Listen to the MP3.

General Information

The Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) Program is a new VA program that awards grants to private non-profit organizations and consumer cooperatives who will provide supportive services to very low-income Veterans and their families residing in or transitioning to permanent housing.  The grantees will provide a range of supportive services designed to promote housing stability.

UPDATE!! 

The 2011 SSVF Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) has been published in the Federal Register!  Please click on the links provided below to view the NOFA as well as for resources and instructions regarding the grant application process.

SSVF 2011 NOFA

2011 SSVF Application for Supportive Services Grant (New Applicants)

2011 SSVF Renewal Application for Supportive Services Grant

2011 SSVF Applicant Budget Template

2011 SSVF NOFA Workshop Schedule and Registration Form

SSVF NOFA Workshops

To learn about the NOFA, application, and scoring process, please view the National Center’s SSVF Program Overview Webcast.  This webcast was recorded on September 30, 2010, however, the procedural information is applicable to this year’s NOFA announcement and grant application process.

Note: To view these files, please download VLC Player at  http://www.videolan.org/vlc/.

For more information, please see the SSVF Program Fact Sheet, the Webcast: An Introduction to SSVF, the Final Rule, the list of  SSVF Frequently Asked Questions (Updated October, 2011) and the list of   Network Homeless Coordinators.  Please note that NHCs provide information regarding SSVF as well as any other Homeless Programs offered by the VA.

If you are an SSVF Grantee, please view our Grantee Resources webpage  for information pertaining to the development and implementation of your program.