By David West, Nevada County Veterans Services Officer
I started my position as the Nevada County Veterans Services Officer (CVSO) in September 2018. When I sat in that empty office on my first day, I swore to myself that I would always advocate for the veterans in this community, use the lessons I learned from past professions, and continually focus on offering the best services possible to veterans in our community. In 2020, your Veterans Services Office released its first annual “All Veterans Survey” to the veterans of Nevada County and we used the responses that you provided to develop our strategic plan for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
Last year’s survey results led to significant changes, improvements, and more diversity in how we offer our services to veterans. Past survey results have led to the development of our online booking feature, which allows clients to schedule their own appointments with a member of our staff and apply for selected benefits through our county webpage. Based on your feedback, we have increased our efforts to reach more veterans and collaborated with organizations like Guitars 4 Vets to offer free guitar lessons to veterans in our office. Previous survey results also allowed us to set the goal of reducing veterans’ homelessness in our county to functional zero based on the community’s overwhelming response to addressing this complicated issue.
In our continued effort to improve how we provide services to veterans, the Nevada County Veterans Services Office is once again creating an annual strategic plan. To develop the strongest plan possible, I am asking Nevada County’s active duty military members and veterans for their input by participating in this year’s All Veterans Survey online via Survey Monkey or by mail. The information provided will be used to develop our outreach strategy, priorities, and services to veterans. This is an opportunity for our veteran community to have direct input into how your CVSO operates and the areas that we focus on over the next year.
The information collected from this survey will be shared with our local Veterans Service Organizations, such as the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Vietnam Veterans of America, and more. Together, we plan to use this information to strengthen our coordinated efforts to offer overlapping services and ensure that no veteran in Nevada County slips through the cracks.
Please take the survey at www.NevadaCountyCA.gov/VSOSurvey or request a paper survey to be mailed directly to your home by calling 530-273-3396. The survey will close on May 15, 2023.
David West is the Nevada County Veterans Service Officer. You can reach him by phone at 530-265-1446 or by email at david.west@nevadacountyca.gov. The Nevada County Veteran’s Services Office, located at 988 McCourtney Road in Grass Valley, is open from 9:00 am to noon and 1:00 to 4:00 pm Monday through Friday.
