NVTI Resources

With so many available resources, sometimes it can be a challenge to determine what resources are most appropriate for your needs. Below we have aggregated, vetted, and described a list of helpful resources that you may refer to during your work.

Serving Rural Veterans

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Community Clergy Training Program (CCTP)
The goal of the Community Clergy Training Program (CCTP) is to provide rural clergy with specific skills in supporting veterans and their families and to better equip clergy with the resources and information necessary for referring veterans in need of physical or mental healthcare to VA and community facilities.
https://www.ruralhealth.va.gov/docs/Community_Clergy_Training_to_Support_Rural_Veterans_Mental_Health-FINAL508c.pdf

Community Facilities Direct Loan & Grant Program
This program provides affordable funding to develop essential community facilities in rural areas. An essential community facility is defined as a facility that provides an essential service to the local community for the orderly development of the community in a primarily rural area, and does not include private, commercial or business undertakings.
https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/community-facilities-direct-loan-grant-program

Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
CSP helps agricultural producers maintain and improve their existing conservation systems and adopt additional conservation activities to address priority resource concerns.
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs-initiatives/csp-conservation-stewardship-program

Corporation for National & Community Service (CNCS)
The Corporation for National & Community Service (CNCS) works with veterans in communities across the U.S., tapping their unique skills and leadership abilities to tackle assignments ranging from disaster response and mentoring at-risk youth to building homes and helping soldiers returning from war. CNCS provides assistance to nearly 500,000 veterans and military families by connecting them to education opportunities, jobs, and the benefits they have earned. Many veterans also volunteer with CNCS so they can continue to serve their country.
https://www.grants.gov/learn-grants/grant-making-agencies/corporation-for-national-community-service.html

Department of Housing and Urban Development–VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program
This program, through a cooperative partnership between HUD and the VA, provides long-term case management, supportive services, and permanent housing support for LGBTQ+ veterans. Eligible veterans receive VA-provided case management and supportive services to build stability and recovery from physical and mental health, substance use, and functional concerns contributing to or resulting from homelessness. HUD provides Section 8 vouchers designated for HUD-VASH to participating Public Housing Authorities that assist with rent payment. The program’s goals include promoting maximal veteran recovery and independence to sustain permanent housing in the community for the veteran and the veteran’s family. Among VA CoC programs, HUD-VASH enrolls the largest percentage of veterans who have experienced long-term or repeated homelessness.
https://www.va.gov/homeless/hud-vash.asp

Direct Single Family Housing
Also known as the Section 502 Direct Loan Program, this program assists low- and very-low-income applicants obtain decent, safe and sanitary housing in eligible rural areas by providing payment assistance to increase an applicant’s repayment ability. Payment assistance is a type of subsidy that reduces the mortgage payment for a short time. The amount of assistance is determined by the adjusted family income.
https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/single-family-housing-direct-home-loans

Environmental Quality Incentives Program
EQIP provides technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers and forest landowners to address natural resource concerns.
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs-initiatives/eqip-environmental-quality-incentives

Farm Loans
The Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Home Loan benefit may be used to purchase a farm. There must be a farm residence on the land, and the Veteran must live in it as his or her primary residence.  VA-guaranteed loans can only be used for residential purposes, and not to purchase a business.  This means that some farm properties may not be eligible for purchase using a VA-backed home loan.
https://www.benefits.va.gov/BENEFITS/factsheets.asp#BM5

Food and Nutrition Service
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) can also assist veterans by ensuring that they and their families have access to nutritious meals. USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service can connect them to information on resources and benefits.
https://www.fns.usda.gov/military-and-veteran-families

Housing Loan Program
Veteran Affairs (VA) helps Servicemembers, Veterans, and eligible surviving spouses become homeowners. As part of their mission to serve these individuals, the VA provides a home loan guaranty benefit and other housing-related programs to help eligible individuals buy, build, repair, retain, or adapt a home for their own personal occupancy.
https://www.benefits.va.gov/homeloans/

Military Medics and Corpsmen (MMAC) Program
Modeled after the Veterans Health Administration Intermediate Care Technician Pilot Program, MMAC pairs medically trained veterans with healthcare systems to receive specialized training, maintain medical skills, and work toward civilian medical credentials.
https://www.dvs.virginia.gov/education-employment/military-medics-corpsmen-mmac-program

Multi-Family Housing Programs
Provides affordable multi-family rental housing in rural areas by financing projects geared for low-income, elderly and disabled individuals and families as well as domestic farm laborers.  We extend our reach by guaranteeing loans for affordable rental housing designed for low to moderate-income residents in rural areas and towns.
https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/all-programs/multi-family-housing-programs

Multi-Family Housing Rental Assistance
This program provides payments to owners of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-financed Rural Rental Housing or Farm Labor Housing projects on behalf of low-income tenants unable to pay their full rent.
https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/multi-family-housing-rental-assistance

National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) provides leadership and funding for programs that advance agriculture-related sciences. We invest in and support initiatives that ensure the long-term viability of agriculture. NIFA applies an integrated approach to ensure that groundbreaking discoveries in agriculture-related sciences and technologies reach the people who can put them into practice.
https://nifa.usda.gov/

National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) believes that hiring and caring for veterans and military spouses strengthens their cooperatives and communities. The NRECA has created the Vets Power Us Initiative.
https://www.electric.coop/vetspowerus

Office of Rural Health (OHR)
Congress established the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Rural Health (ORH) to conduct, coordinate, promote and disseminate research on issues that affect the nearly five million Veterans who reside in rural communities. The mandate also requires ORH to develop, refine and promulgate policies, best practices, lessons learned, and innovative and successful programs.
http://www.ruralhealth.va.gov/

People’s Garden
All around the country, people are learning where their food comes from and participating in a movement to beautify and feed their communities through community gardens. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) People’s Garden can get veterans started with information on how to build and give back to their community through gardening.
https://www.usda.gov/peoples-garden

Programs & Services for Businesses
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides funding opportunities for rural small businesses through loans, loan guarantees, and grants.
https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/business-programs

Rural Health Information (RHI) Hub
The Rural Health Information (RHI) Hub, formerly the Rural Assistance Center, is funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy to be a national clearinghouse on rural health issues. Use the Am I Rural? Tool to determine whether your specific location is considered rural based on various definitions of rural, including definitions that are used as eligibility criteria for federal programs.
https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/am-i-rural

Rural Veteran Outreach Toolkit
Using the Rural Veteran Outreach Toolkit can increase partnerships between Veteran Affairs (VA) and rural communities and enhance VA’s ultimate goal of “improving the quality of life for Veterans who live in rural communities.”
https://www.ruralhealth.va.gov/partners/toolkit.asp

Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Program
The Section 202 program helped expand the supply of affordable housing with supportive services for the elderly.
https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/housing/mfh/progdesc/eld202

Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities
Through the Section 811 program, HUD provides funding to develop and subsidize rental housing with the availability of supportive services for very low- and extremely low-income adults with disabilities.
https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/housing/mfh/progdesc/disab811

Self-Help Housing Program:
Provides grants to qualified organizations to help them carry out local self-help housing construction projects. Grant recipients supervise groups of very-low- and low-income individuals and families as they construct their own homes in rural areas. The group members provide most of the construction labor on each other’s homes, with technical assistance from the organization overseeing the project.
https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/mutual-self-help-housing-technical-assistance-grants

Service Centers
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Service Centers are designed to be a single location where customers can access the services provided by the Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Rural Development agencies. This website will provide the address of a USDA Service Center and other Agency offices serving your area along with information on how to contact them.
https://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/app?state=us&agency=rd

Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program:
The Section 502 Guaranteed Loan Program assists approved lenders in providing low- and moderate-income households the opportunity to own adequate, modest, decent, safe and sanitary dwellings as their primary residence in eligible rural areas. Eligible applicants may purchase, build, rehabilitate, improve or relocate a dwelling in an eligible rural area with 100% financing. The program provides a 90% loan note guarantee to approved lenders in order to reduce the risk of extending 100% loans to eligible rural homebuyers – so no money down for those who qualify.
https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/single-family-housing-guaranteed-loan-program

Single Family Housing Repair Loans & Grants:
Also known as the Section 504 Home Repair program, this provides loans to very-low-income homeowners to repair, improve or modernize their homes or grants to elderly very-low-income homeowners to remove health and safety hazards.
https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/single-family-housing-repair-loans-grants

Single Family Housing Programs
USDA Rural Development offers qualifying individuals and families the opportunity to purchase or build a new single family home with no money down, to repair their existing home, or to refinance their current mortgage under certain qualifying circumstances.
https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/single-family-housing-programs

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training (SNAP E&T)
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training (SNAP E&T) program to help SNAP participants gain skills and find work that moves them forward to self-sufficiency.
https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap-et

Together With Veterans (TWV) Rural Suicide Prevention Program
Together With Veterans (TWV) Rural Suicide Prevention Program recruits, trains, and organizes veterans and supporting organizations to lead evidence-informed veteran suicide prevention strategies in their communities.
https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/project-examples/1077

USDA Cooperative Research and Extension Services
Funded by the USDA’s Rural Development Program, Cooperative Extension Service offices are conveniently located in rural community courthouses, post offices, or other local government buildings to improve the quality of people’s lives by providing research-based knowledge to strengthen the social, economic, and environmental well-being of families, communities, and agriculture enterprises.
https://www.usda.gov/topics/rural/cooperative-research-and-extension-services

United States Department of Agriculture
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
EQIP provides financial and technical assistance to agricultural producers to address natural resource concerns and deliver environmental benefits.
https://www.usda.gov/topics/rural/cooperative-research-and-extension-services

Veteran Population, 2021
This map shows county-level data on the percentage of the civilian population 18 and over that are veterans. It was created using data from the U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS), 2011, 2016, and 2021 5-year estimates.
https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/charts/97

Veterans Administration: Housing Assistance
VA housing assistance can help Veterans, service members, and their surviving spouses to buy a home or refinance a loan. They also offer benefits and services to help you build, improve, or keep your current home.
https://www.va.gov/housing-assistance/

Veterans Employment Program Office
The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Veterans Employment Program Officecan help veterans interested in working at USDA with matching skills and qualifications to federal careers, reviewing and providing feedback on resumes, and explaining the federal hiring process.
https://www.dm.usda.gov/employ/vepo/services.htm

Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISN) Rural Consultants (VRCs)
Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISN) Rural Consultants (VRCs) serve as communication conduits between VA Central Office, the Office Rural Health (ORH) and VHA field operations. The United States is divided into 18 VISNs, each with a VRC.
https://www.ruralhealth.va.gov/aboutus/vrc.asp

Veterans Rural Health Resource Centers (VRHRCs)
Veterans Rural Health Resource Centers (VRHRCs) are Office of Rural Health (ORH) field-based satellite offices that serve as hubs of rural health care research, innovation, and dissemination.
https://www.ruralhealth.va.gov/aboutus/vrhrc.asp

Veterans Transportation Program
VA’s Veterans Transportation Program (VTP) offers Veterans many travel solutions to and from their VA health care facilities.
https://www.va.gov/healthbenefits/vtp/

Use of the links on this page to find training information, resources, and a multitude of other information to assist you with your important mission. This project is funded by Department of Labor Veterans' Employment & Training Service (DOL-VETS) contract number DOL-OPS-16-D-0022. It does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The U.S. Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership. This product is copyrighted by the institution that created it. Internal use by an organization and/or personal use by an individual for non-commercial purposes is permissible. All other uses require the prior authorization of the copyright owner. Contact Management Concepts at NVTI.ManagementConcepts@ManagementConcepts.com for information on re-use permission.