VEAC-SSB (Final) 09012022

SUPPORTING STATEMENT – PART B

Veterans Engagement Action Center (VEAC) Surveys

1.  Description of the Activity

The VEAC gathers feedback from Veterans, Active Military, Guard/Reservist, Family members, caregivers, providers, and survivors. The VEAC then provides that feedback to VA leaders to measure the success of the outreach event and measure the ease, effectiveness, emotion, and trust from the participants as they exit.

The surveys will further allow the Veterans Experience Office (VEO) to measure whether the needs of the participants were met. Additional areas where the survey results will provide meaningful value and impact:

• Identify gaps and challenges in health care, benefits, and service delivery.

  • Gaps and challenges in healthcare, benefits, and service delivery are identified throughout all stages of VEAC execution. The VEAC customer engages with numerous representatives during their VEAC appointment which allows for gaps and challenges to be shared and often resolved in real-time. Additionally, the VEAC survey captures feedback from VEAC customers, and the impact of VA and local community resources and services provided. Feedback is used to enhance the VEAC experience for future customers and to narrow in on gap and challenges.

• Identify areas for how VA can best support local efforts in a holistic fashion.

  • The VEAC is connecting with underserved Veterans and their families through a collaborative effort across Federal, State, county, and local community partner organizations providing outreach and active engagement to Veterans, Service members, family members, caregivers, and survivors.

• Identify areas where there may be barriers to access to VA products and services, and the extent to which outreach tailored to local communities is valuable and effective.

  • The VEAC is designed to reach Veterans wherever they are and provide a personal connection to VA, including peer-to-peer Veteran support networks who are trained in suicide prevention and crisis intervention to help other Veterans transition from military service to civilian life. Through VEAC events customers are offered access to VA Subject Matter Experts from VHA, VBA, NCA, BVA, VA Program Offices, state resources, community partners, and available programs and services in their local areas.

2.  Procedures for the Collection of Information

Describe any of the following if they are used in the collection of information:

a. Statistical methodologies for stratification and sample selection;

• Overall: No stratification is anticipated at this time. The sample will be selected randomly from the population.

• VEAC Exit Survey: Outreach event staff will verbally administer the survey to event attendees as the last step in the overall event process. The outreach staff will fill out the web-based survey on behalf of the outreach event participant.

• VEAC Email Survey: A survey will be sent via email to event attendees that were not able to take the VEAC Exit Survey. The email survey will not be sent to event attendees that opted out of the VEAC Exit Survey.

• Peer-to-Peer Survey: The survey is completed via an email-based survey design. After a Peer-to-Peer organization interacts with a VEAC Representative, the VEAC Representative will send an email to the Peer-to-Peer organization with a link to the Vsignals survey. The Peer-to-Peer organization can take the survey and share the survey to Veterans via email at the conclusion of each Peer-to-Peer interaction. Peer-to-Peer organizations and veterans will choose whether they want to participate in the survey.

b. Estimation procedures;

Not applicable.

c. Degree of accuracy needed for the Purpose discussed in the justification;

Not applicable since only descriptive statistics will be calculated.

d. Unusual problems requiring specialized sampling procedures; and

None known.

e. Use of periodic or cyclical data collections to reduce respondent burden.

Not applicable.

3.  Maximization of Response Rates, Non-response, and Reliability

Events are held in different states and use different staff members from the local areas. It is important to collect feedback at each event to provide insights on attendee experience at the local level and tailor process improvements to specific areas. Every effort is made to afford all VEAC event participants the opportunity to complete the appropriate survey for that event. At a minimum, each participate is asked, either in person, virtually, or via email, if they are willing to participate in the survey for the event in which they participated.

4.  Tests of Procedures

In addition to staffing, testing, and validation at the end-user (VFCE) level, an abbreviated Human Centered Design (HCD) process was conducted to gather feedback from previous survey participants. The information gathered was used to improve internal consistency and effectiveness of revised surveys.

5.  Statistical Consultation and Information Analysis

a. Provide names and telephone number of individual(s) consulted on statistical aspects of the design.

• Evan Albert, Dir. of Measurement and Data Analytics, Veterans Experience Office, VA (202) 875-9478

• Dan Ostrow, VSignals Implementation Lead, Veterans Experience Office, VA, (414) 690-8587

b. Provide name and organization of person(s) who will actually collect and analyze the collected information.

• Carmen M. Gamble, Data, Insights, and Analytics Division Chief, VFCE, Veterans Health Administration, 314-488-8615

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