The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Washington, DC, recently announced its six winners of the 2011 Veterans Affairs Innovation Initiative (VAi2) Employee Innovation Competition. For the competition, employees submitted ideas designed to assist veterans with disabilities related to their military service in obtaining meaningful employment. 

Two of the six winning ideas included support systems for Post-9/11 veteran-students with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and a paid internship program to help veterans gain private-sector work experience.

Allison A. Hickley, Under Secretary for Benefits, explains, “Every Veterans Benefits Administration employee who participated in VA’s 2011 Employee Innovation Competition helped to improve service to our veterans. Through the ingenuity of our employees and their deep understanding of what today’s veterans need to gain good paying jobs we have a terrific set of innovations to pursue.”

Selected innovations were reportedly chosen based on their potential to significantly improve the quality of services provided to participants in VA’s VR&E Program. The innovations were also chosen for their potential to reduce the cost to taxpayers of delivering those services.

Visit http://www.va.gov/VAi2/FundedInnovations_VBA.asp

Source: United States Department of Veterans Affairs