The ability to express yourself is vital for your mental health. For veterans, this process can be extremely challenging. Just ask Miette Wells.A U.S. Air Force veteran and survivor of military sexual trauma and Traumatic Brain Injury, Wells struggled to both express herself and be understood after returning from her service in Panama and Kuwait.

Divide Camp is a place of refuge nestled in the Wallowa Mountains in Oregon. Each year, it hosts over 50 combat-wounded veterans, with the goal of providing hope and healing through encounters with nature and outdoor recreation.As the camp grows, more resources are needed. In 2018, the need for a permanent kitchen facility emerged –

The PIER Center in Long Beach, Calif., is a place made by veterans for veterans. PIER (Partnership in Effective Recovery) focuses on providing homeless veterans with basic needs so they can begin to rebuild their lives. The center hosts daily free lunches, provides access to showers and laundry facilities, and supports veterans through counseling. No

Many U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs medical centers across the country incorporate the creative arts as one form of rehabilitative treatment to help veterans recover from and cope with physical and emotional disabilities. When Paula Sellens became the American Legion Auxiliary Kansas District Eight president in 2016, she made expanding these programs her focus. Her

Most American Legion Auxiliary members know that the ALA Girls State and ALA Girls Nation programs provide incredible leadership development skills for high school girls across the country. But due to a lack of branding, some ALA Girls State participants will go through the program and never know who funded their opportunity to learn and

Members of Palmer-Roberts American Legion Auxiliary Unit 214 have seen the lives of homeless veterans transformed at the Volunteers of America Veterans Resource Center in Cleveland. To make an additional impact, Unit 214 applied for an American Legion Auxiliary Foundation Veteran Projects Fund grant to transform the common room at the Veterans Resource Center, a

The Pennyroyal Veterans Center in Hopkinsville, Ky., is no stranger to American Legion Auxiliary Fort Campbell Unit 233. The unit has been volunteering at the center each month since the facility opened its doors in 2012. Jane McKnight, a 26-year member of Unit 233, heard about the American Legion Auxiliary Foundation’s Veteran Projects Fund at

Members of the ALA Department of Texas; Dr. Karen Benson and her staff Dr. Karen Benson saw something unusual as she walked through the halls of Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center Community Living Center in Houston. The group of six or seven veterans that sits passively in this hallway every morning was engaged in

Sylvia Jackson, Nancy Reeves, Dept Secretary, Cathie Goth, VA&R Chair and Brandi Creighton Art is powerful. It’s a universal language that can bring people together, excite emotion in its audience, and heal wounds in its creators. This power was particularly evident as a Pearl Harbor survivor painted a picture of the ship he once served

During the annual Veterans Creative Arts Festival in Syracuse, New York, dozens of veterans had the opportunity to display their music, drama, and creative writing talents before an audience at the Syracuse VA Medical Center. Thanks to a $1,500 Veterans Creative Arts Festival grant from the American Legion Auxiliary Foundation, veterans taking part in the