Rally Point: Connecticut.
VetFuel™ was created with the assistance of Yale Law School’s Jerome Frank Legal Services Organization in 2014 to: Create, Maintain, & Preserve an ever present beacon of health equity. We are thankful to Connecticut’s legal community that helped us create VetFuel, Inc. & continues to help us with our expansion. With 200k Veterans spread out across 5,543 square miles, including 40k newly classified rural veterans, we understand that one of the greatest barriers to access education, treatment & employment is travel & logistics. Sometimes, barriers can be an Other Than Honorable discharge status with a lack of due process, a removal from the military under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, a historical criminal record, or simply the lack of fuel / a working vehicle. We aim to remove or limit the effect of these barriers, many of which have been worsened by the post pandemic economy.
Please read on to learn more about our relentless advocacy—. Drew Messore, M.S., M.P.H.
Advocate
VetFuel™ is relentless in surveying areas that have geographic, educational, & economic disparities. In looking for answers, we invite stakeholders to identify concerns, needs, and deficits in preexisting systems & address those systems on a federal, state, & local level. We’ve been very good at getting the ear of the Federal Department of Transportation, the V.A. Office of Rural Health, & local Social Services offices. One common misconception is that veterans can’t receive Medicaid or have their veteran disability rating increased by a state entity via state medical review.
Innovate
To decrease the Years Projected Life Lost in veteran populations, VetFuel™ establishes where the existing gaps are that limit access to care, education and employment for the veteran community. Pulling from best practices models across the United States, we convene with all interested parties to engage & compliment best practice civilian re-entry models. We’ve been very successful with lack of due process / undue influence complaints to the Office of Inspector General, which allows for new discharge upgrade hearings. Getting historical criminal records erased has also become one of our specialties as well as pre-sentencing support. This innovation includes Amicus & Brandeis Briefs, as long as the crime did not include a sexual crime, arson. vehicular assault, and/or domestic violence. VetFuel™ will not waiver on this policy.
Measure
Life is not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, but engagement in all aspects of public good. We measure how well veterans are living & how well our interventions are working on public health scales. One measure we use is called Social Determinants of Public Health At The Local Level. VetFuel™ then publishes these results for our grantors to see with anonymized data. Veterans deserve a complete life with: Liberty, access to health care, community & family engagement, higher education, & employment. The end goal— is a total you.
