Get Involved
- Support the therapeutic rehabilitation and healing of veterans through arts, crafts, and hobbies.
- Support veteran caregivers, family members, and survivors.
- Volunteer at local VA facilities, including state VA facilities in your area.
- Collaborate with organizations that support veterans and their families, such as Wreaths Across America, Honor Flight Inc., and the Military and Veteran Caregiver Network.
- Look in your community for opportunities to support veterans, their caregivers, their families, and their survivors.
- Support The American Legion’s Be the One mission.
Working with Outside Organizations
- Wreaths Across America
- Take part in local wreath placement at a national cemetery.
- Sponsor wreaths for placement through Wreaths Across America.
- Honor Flight Inc.
- Volunteer with local hubs.
- Utilize your unit’s poppy funds to support important aspects of Honor Flight activities. For more information, please see www.legion-aux.org/Poppy-Funds.
- Participate in welcome-home events.
- Coordinate the creation and delivery of cards and letters to Honor Flight hubs for mail call.
- Consider volunteering as a guardian for an Honor Flight. Please note — there is an associated cost.
- Military and Veteran Caregiver Network
- Learn who is considered a caregiver. This will help you identify caregivers in your community and maybe even as a caregiver yourself. If you identify as a caregiver, consider joining their online peer support community.
- Familiarize yourself with local caregiver resources found in the Hero Care Resource Directory
- Refer to the MVCN’s community calendar for educational and volunteer opportunities
- Quilts of Valor
- Learn about the mission: Understand that Quilts of Valor Foundation (QOVF) honors servicemembers and veterans who have been touched by war with comforting, handmade quilts to recognize their service and sacrifice.
- Partner with local QOV groups: Reach out to nearby QOV chapters to collaborate on sewing days, donation drives, or joint recognition ceremonies.
- Host or sponsor quilt presentations: Work with other organizations, nursing homes, or VA facilities to organize formal presentations of Quilts of Valor to eligible veterans — especially during patriotic holidays.
- Contribute materials or funds: Members who don’t sew can donate fabric, batting, thread, or funds to help cover quilting costs. Your unit can even hold a “fabric drive”.
- Volunteer in non-sewing roles: Assist with labeling, packaging, delivering quilts, or photographing presentations for publicity and member engagement stories.
- Recognize and nominate veterans: Encourage ALA members to nominate veterans in their communities to receive a Quilt of Valor through the QOV Foundation’s nomination process.
- National Veterans Creative Arts Festival
- Promote awareness of healing through arts, crafts, and hobbies.
- Donate to the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival through the American Legion Auxiliary Foundation.
- Donate to local Veterans Creative Arts Festivals (e.g., time, supplies, money).
- Identify arts, crafts, and hobby projects targeted to veterans (writing, oral history recording, visual and performing arts, quilting, and gardening).
- Donate art supplies to your local U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs facilities including state veterans homes, community living centers, and VA medical centers.
- Plan and organize a local Veterans Creative Arts Festival.
- Advocate for art therapy, music therapy, drama, and recreational therapy programs within the VA healthcare system.
- Apply to the ALA Foundation for Veterans Creative Arts Festival Grants to be used for local competitions and festivals in your community. For more information, please go to https://alafoundation.org/vcaf-grants/.
- Center for Development and Community Engagement (CDCE, formerly known as VAVS)
- Recruit Auxiliary members as volunteers for the VA Center for Development and Community Engagement at VA healthcare facilities.
- If you see a need in your community that is not being addressed, contact your local VA.
- Familiarize yourself with the service of the VA caregiver support program
- Volunteer at your local VA facility for events such holiday gift shops, Bingo, baby showers, etc.
- Don’t forget to include all American Legion Family members in your VA events.
- Coordinate a supply drive for the needs of hospitalized veterans by gathering items such as socks, underwear, toiletries, etc. Please contact your local VA facility or American Legion Auxiliary CDCE representative for needed items.
- Don’t forget your state VA facilities, such as state veterans homes. The veterans who reside there have needs that we may fill as well. For more information and local points of contact, please refer to https://nasdva.us/resources/.
Service to Veterans (Outside of VA Facilities)
- Support veteran caregivers, family members, and survivors in your local community.
- Provide a spa day or caregiver day out for community veteran caregivers.
- Connect caregivers with outside organizations that offer support, such as the Military and Veteran Caregiver Network.
- Offer to sit with a veteran while the caregiver runs errands.
- Offer to run errands for a caregiver.
- Prepare information for units concerning the needs of caregiver support.
- Offer to provide meals, or arrange a meal train for the families of hospitalized or recently deceased veterans.
- Connect the families of recently deceased veterans to outside resources to ensure they get the support they need. For example, TAPS or the local service officers.
- Contact an American Legion Service Officer at your post and offer to be on the list of people to call when a veteran’s family needs help.
- Look for ways in your community to ensure the ever-changing demographics of veterans and their families are supported.
- If your area has many working-age veterans or veterans with families:
- Take part in a veteran job fair by organizing or working at an informational table.
- Promote local veteran-centric job fairs in your community. Support The American Legion by helping host a local job fair at your post home or community center.
- Buy school supplies, host a baby shower, or send care packages to veterans’ children who are headed to college.
- If your area has older or homebound veterans:
- Adopt a local veteran — find a veteran in your community who faces loneliness and isolation. Offer care and support, such as morale phone calls, running errands, and ensuring they are receiving proper nutrition.
- Transportation of veterans to appointments or running errands.
- Look for Community Veteran Engagement Boards in your area (CVEBs) and provide support in the form of information, donations, or volunteers to the events in your area.
- Become the catalyst to find needs and encourage members to help veterans in their community.
- Promote volunteer opportunities in veteran-centric activities in community settings.
- Utilize websites, newsletters, and other media to promote your events and gain community support.
- Report your ALA Service to Veterans hours to your unit VA&R chair.
Support The American Legion’s Be the One Mission
For veterans: ANY veteran in suicidal crisis can now be seen at any VA or non-VA health care facility FREE OF CHARGE. The veteran does not even have to be enrolled in the VA system for this benefit. It includes up to 30 days of inpatient or 90 days of outpatient care at any VA or non-VA facility.
The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — 988 then press 1 — helps make it easier to remember and share the number to access help in times of need. This service is free and confidential. When you call, chat, or text, a trained responder will listen and help. You decide how much information to share. Support doesn't end with your conversation. Responders can connect you with the resources you need.
You can also send a text message to 838255 to communicate with trained professionals.
For more information, please visit www.veteranscrisisline.net.
BUDDY CHECKS: Contact your local American Legion post to see if you may volunteer with their Buddy Check Program or during Buddy Check week Oct. 20-24, 2025. For more information, please visit www.legion.org/buddycheck/about.
VA S.A.V.E.: Suicide Prevention Training
S.A.V.E. stands for:
- Signs of suicidal thinking should be recognized.
- Ask the most important question of all: “Are you thinking of killing yourself?”
- Validate the veteran’s experience.
- Encourage treatment and expedite getting help.
Additional information may be found at www.mentalhealth.va.gov/suicide_prevention/prevention/index.asp.
More information is available in this video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eljsbl3zu-A.
More mental health support information offered by the VA may be found at www.mentalhealth.va.gov.
Deadlines/Important Dates
- Year-end reports — May 15: Department chairmen reports due via email to division chairmen with a copy to national chairman.
- Department and Unit Award Nomination Form Completed and Submitted: June 1.
- NVCAF Award: NVCAF Support Award — Send donations to the ALA Foundation to National Headquarters for the current calendar year by Dec. 31.
