Arizona Department Of Veterans' Services

**Mission** We are committed to serving and honoring Veterans, Service Members and their families by ensuring they receive the highest quality services so they can thrive for a lifetime. **Vision** Arizona Veterans, Service Members and their families will have no barriers to benefits and services they have earned. Serving Arizona's Veterans as They Have Served Us The Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services (ADVS) provides direct services to Veterans through the administration of 50+ professional benefit counselors located throughout the state - helping Veterans connect with their VA benefits, two skilled-nursing Veterans' Home facilities in Phoenix and Tucson provide short and long-term care (with new homes in Flagstaff and Yuma), and three Arizona Veterans' Memorial Cemeteries: in Sierra Vista, Camp Navajo near Flagstaff, and in Marana north of Tucson. In addition, the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services provides critical, state-wide coordination and technical assistance to services and organizations serving Veterans. This includes activities such as coordinating services across private and public sectors in serving targeted populations such as Veterans experiencing homelessness, and special needs for the growing population of Women Veterans - many of whom are at-risk, as well as building community capacity to address Veteran employment and higher education. Services provided by the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services were instrumental in connecting Arizona’s over 500,000 Veterans with over $399 million in Compensation, Pension, Educational and Medical benefits, and grants from the [United States Department of Veterans Affairs](https://www.va.gov/) in FY 2017. With each passing year, we strive to Serve More Veterans Better. A Brief Department History Arizona has provided services to Arizona Veterans since 1925, when it created the position of Veterans’ Service Officer. This position was abolished in 1951 and replaced by the Arizona Veterans’ Service Commission. In 1973, the Commission was integrated into the Department of Economic Security. Primarily at the request of various Veterans’ organizations, the Governor reestablished the Commission as a separate agency in 1982. In 1999, the Legislature separated the Commission from the agency by making the Commission an advisory body and creating a separate Department of Veterans’ Services headed by a governor-appointed director.