Paralyzed Veterans of America - New England Chapter

Chapter advocacy & legislative work as the Chapter's director of government and community affairs, staff member kristen mccone gordon ensured that our Chapter once again had a very productive and successful year, full of Chapter events, briefings with legislators, and New partnerships that have enhanced our Chapter's impact. Kristen has continued to manage and grow our Chapter's nationally recognized advocacy program while also working towards establishing a stronger community presence for the Chapter throughout New England following the pandemic. In fy23 we were pleased to also announce the creation of our New Chapter program "nepva Veterans with ms" in service to a growing population of Veterans in New England. Kristen is eager to continue to advance the mission of the Chapter alongside our Chapter president, board of directors, executive director, and dedicated volunteers. Our Chapter remains fully committed to offering quality programming, advocacy, and information to our members throughout New England. For our Chapter advocacy and legislation efforts, fy23 marked the end of a two-year congressional session and the beginning of another, so we placed a very strong emphasis on our federal advocacy efforts to best advance pva legislative priorities. Throughout the fall and early winter of 2022, we did a heavy advocacy push to encourage our congressional delegation to formally support our legislative priorities. Our Chapter finished the calendar year with our highest number of cosponsors in a congressional session. The air carrier access amendments act had fifteen cosponsors from New England, with the New England congressional delegation making up half of all cosponsors in the senate. The veteran families health services act, another priority of our Chapter, had nineteen cosponsors from New England. The originally filed auto for Veterans act also had seventeen cosponsors from the New England congressional delegation. We started the New congressional session focused on preparing to hit the ground running in Washington, d.c. after several years of being virtual for "pushing access forward 2023: pva's annual advocacy legislative seminar" which was held in-person in early march 2023. We had an opportunity to hear directly from the national staff and various government officials on pva's legislative priorities. We were also thrilled to get back into the capital building and meet with members of the New England congressional delegation and their staff. While zoom is efficient and helpful to reduce travel costs, it is always preferable to meet face to face with legislators to both enhance our relationships and leave an impression with our members' stories. We did both during our time in d.c. we changed our strategy for our hill visits to reflect our growing advocacy team and a New focus on priority legislation affecting caregivers. We brought a delegation of six people to d.c. and divided into teams to cover more ground. Our two nepva teams each included a staff member, veteran, and caregiver. This enabled us to meet with more legislative offices while also providing a more comprehensive account of the issues facing both Veterans and our caregivers. Kristen was joined by Chapter president and national director brad carlson and his wife kathy, board of director chuck houle and his wife eileen, and executive director mark murphy. Each team member contributed valuably to our advocacy efforts and their skills in articulating the significant challenges facing Paralyzed Veterans and their caregivers in New England were deeply impactful. In a two-day period, we met with the following 17 congressional offices: congressman pappas, congressman moulton, congressman mcgovern, congressman neal, congresswoman clark, congresswoman kuster, congressman lynch, congresswoman pressley, congressman larson, congresswoman hayes, congressman golden, congressman auchincloss, congressman neal, congresswoman pingree, congresswoman delauro, senator sanders, and senator welch. This was a remarkable undertaking for our advocacy teams, but we were committed to making sure our congressional delegation understood how pva legislative priorities impact the daily lives of Paralyzed Veterans in New England. It is important to note that our Chapter's advocacy efforts are not limited to the annual ad/leg week. We lobby congressional offices throughout the entire year on behalf of the Chapter. We have developed strong partnerships with congressional offices, which is reflected by our ability to often meet directly with our members of congress in their district offices as well. The Chapter advocacy program also places great importance on focusing our efforts across all six New England states evenly, a goal we accomplished this fiscal year. During the spring and summer of 2023, we continued our legislative briefings throughout New England. Kristen and brad and kathy carlson traveled to warick, ri to meet with congressman magaziner. They also met with senator reed in his cranston, ri district office, and senator warren's staff in boston. Earlier in the fiscal year they zoomed with congressman keating of ma. However, a highlight of the fiscal year was congressman larson and congresswoman hayes inviting our Chapter to speak at their joint press conference in farmington, ct on critical pva social security legislation. Chapter president brad carlson represented the Chapter and spoke eloquently and urgently about the need to protect social security for our Veterans. This event garnered significant local media attention. We also continue to promote national pva's votervoice platform, which is an essential tool in our advocacy efforts. We frequently advertise votervoice opportunities on facebook, in our newsletter, and at both Chapter and community events. As we enter a New fiscal year, our Chapter will continue to foster strong relationships with the New England congressional delegation to ensure they understand and remain responsive to the challenges facing our members. We will continue to monitor and engage on issues impacting our members at both the state and local levels as well.

Communication staying in touch regularly with our members via email and phone, producing and distributing regular newsletter publications, and creating public awareness of issues of concern for members is of utmost importance to the Chapter. Our "cordword" newsletter is published twelve times a year to provide current information about Chapter programs, activities, and other issues of importance to our members. Articles and information appearing in the newsletter contain reports from various program directors, Chapter officers, volunteers, legislative news (national and local) and other items of interest. The cordword is distributed to our members, affiliate members, patients on the sci units at the brockton and west roxbury vamc's, as well as the three clinics and three primary care clinics in our spoke system. Distribution extends to volunteers, vamc officials, pva national officers and directors, all congressional members representing the New England region, and all chapters of pva for a circulation of approximately 1,200, both in print and online. The Chapter primarily distributes the cordword via email to its readership, but also distributes it in print to each vamc and congressional legislator, as well as those members requesting copies. Current and archived copies are always available in the office and on the Chapter website. In addition to our Chapter website, which we constantly keep updated with fresh content and upcoming programs and events, we also email our members regularly to keep them up to date on what is happening throughout the Chapter. We conduct several direct mailings each year to stay connected with our members. Our Chapter facebook page has been an increasingly effective way to disseminate important information to members, and overall engagement on social media has increased exponentially over the past year.

Sports and recreation programs New England pva's sports and recreation programs provide our members and other persons with disabilities the opportunity to participate in quality programs with a variety of activities. We are proud to offer many opportunities for adaptive sports. Participation in adaptive sports and recreational activities provides immeasurable benefits to everyone involved as it can help improve self-esteem, encourage good health and hygiene practices, and promote friendship among our members. One of our most sought-after sports programs are the highly successful winter and summer sports clinics. These clinics are conducted through the va boston healthcare system in partnership with other vamc's who host them at different locations throughout New England. Each year the va New England healthcare system invites Veterans with spinal cord injuries, orthopedic amputation, visual impairments, certain neurological problems, and other disabilities to participate in these clinics. The winter sports clinic promotes rehabilitation by instructing physically challenged Veterans in adaptive alpine skiing and introduces other adaptive activities and sports as well, such as downhill skiing, air rifle shooting, seated yoga, massages, and sled hockey with the ice vets team. The New England pva bass trail program is run by members of the american eagle bass anglers with the support of local and federation members. Anglers with disabilities are paired with boaters for days of competitive fishing. The partners compete as a team and the team with the largest weight for their limit takes home the first-place trophies. The anglers can compete in as many events as possible, and lunker prizes are also awarded for the largest bass taken at each tournament. This tournament trail is completely free for Chapter members. Bass trail program locations include charles river, the newton yacht club, lake winnipesaukee, camp robindel, moultonborough, nh, and camp wavus, Maine. The New England pva air rifle program is also open to participants of all skill levels, from introductory to advanced. Trained coaches and top instructors from around the country donate their time to assist Veterans learn what it takes to compete in air guns and help seasoned competitors hone their skills. Bowling is also a great recreational and competitive sport that several New England pva members enjoy playing. It is easily adaptive, which allows people with almost any physical disability to participate in a wheelchair. Wheelchair bowlers use the same scoring system and lanes as bowlers who stand. Adaptive devices such as ramps, push sticks, and "handle balls" can be utilized to assist bowlers with less function. The team bowls every tuesday afternoon at the westgate lanes in brockton, ma starting at 12:00pm, with all Chapter members encouraged to participate when they are able. The league begins the day after labor day and runs for 35 weeks. Bowlers may pay every week or in advance. Curling has also been of growing interest to our members. On april 2, 2023 we partnered with home base on an exciting event to kick off our New Veterans with ms program. This event was open to all Veterans, but those with multiple sclerosis (ms) were especially encouraged to attend. We called it "the home base adventure series: curling with the New England Chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America- and it was hugely success. Veterans joined home base and our Chapter for "learn-to-curl" lessons at the cape cod curling club. This built camaraderie and confidence on the ice with an hour-long lesson and gave members the chance to learn what services home base and the New England pva can offer members. The club was fully wheelchair-accessible, and parking was free. Our Chapter has funded one of the adaptive sailboats fondly named "speedy" as a nod to pva's original logo mascot at the annual "sail to prevail" event that we sponsor in newport, ri each year. The "pva weekend" is held annually and it gets members and their families out on the water for a few days. We also offered several other sports and recreation programs throughout the year as well, such as golf, disc golf, snow skiing, basketball, boccia, and virtual activities as well.

Membership the New England pva has over 750 Chapter members. In terms of membership engagement and our community outreach work, we have rebuilt several programs that had been put on hold in previous years due to the covid-19 pandemic, and we are always seeking ways to connect with our members. A primary way of doing that is in partnership with the va. for example, our Chapter is proud to participate in the patient and family education program at the brockton and west roxbury vamc's. The program consists of educational workshops, demonstrations, and films about spinal cord injury. Chapter members also participate in other local organizations' awareness events and expos throughout New England. We are finding New ways to inform the public that our members are also available to participate in college research projects, speeches, interviews, and appearances for radio and television. Beyond engaging with our members through our historically strong sports and recreation programs and other more formal community outreach initiatives, we have also engaged our members in several other ways as well. We had a successful membership banquet in 2022, where over 100 of our members and their families gathered in fellowship and support of our Chapter. We also have periodic membership meetings that are held virtually throughout the year, where we address a particular topic of interest for our members. We typically use these meetings as a space where we can glean feedback directly from our members on what is going well at our Chapter and what can be improved. Benefit services connecting our members to benefit services is perhaps the most important thing that the New England Chapter, Paralyzed Veterans of America (New England pva) does. We routinely work with other community civic groups and agencies in making sure that our members have their earned benefits made known and available to them. Over the past year we are proud of the many ways in which we have assisted in identifying and securing Veterans' benefits for spinal cord injured and diseased Veterans. We have three Paralyzed Veterans of America (pva) national service officers (nso's) in our Chapter who help ensure that all benefit services to our members are made available, and we are fortunate to have a good working relationship with each of them. We are fortunate to have these nso's at the west roxbury & brockton va medical centers in Massachusetts and at the togus va medical center in Maine. These nso's are a dedicated and knowledgeable group of individuals available to assist our members, Veterans, and their families throughout the New England region. Since pva had previously and temporarily halted our hospital liaison program, we have been seeking to re-imagine this program to develop a better cooperative program between our Chapter and the sci centers we are proud to serve. Because of covid, even in 2022- 2023 we did not enjoy having unfettered access to the west roxbury va or the long-term care facility at the brockton va. access levels varied considerably throughout va facilities in fy23.