Service members and their families are entitled to certain resources and benefits in Kentucky, but they don't always know about them.

That's why the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs held its first ever veteran and military family conference earlier this week.

All right.

I'll give you a.

Today's event is to provide benefit and resource information and networking opportunity for veterans, military personnel and their families here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

And the bottom line is providing information for veterans and their families.

So they can improve the quality of their life.

A lot of veterans are when they leave service, they they look at getting a job, getting their family settled, and they don't think about these things until later on.

So it is common for an average veteran not to know the services, and that is why we have events like today.

There are thousands and thousands of veterans service organizations and charities across the country, and it's hard to know about all of them.

So I think educating people on what is available is incredibly important.

You have to continue to reinforce these programs because without that education and and understanding, people will will never know about these.

Because with as many veterans as there are in this country, you can't talk to every single one of them.

And let them know about all of those thousands of programs.

It's really about understanding who the right people to talk to, to get your foot in the door and then have them be a guide to help you as a veteran understand those programs.

Who have a variety of classes or seminars, as you call it.

Some of it is on caregiver support, others is on employment, financial management.

We're also going to have a topic we covering in cannabis here in Kentucky.

So it is a variety of topics that these veterans and their family members can take home with them.

They're all interconnected, plus more.

So let's say we get veterans their benefits now they're able to have good health care, access to health care.

They also have some type of pension and income coming in that improve the quality of life.

If they have the information about how to find the right jobs or start a business, then increase their income in standard of living for their families.

And in most importantly, if you have all the stabilities in their life that reduces mental health challenges problems and prevents suicide for suicide.

Having all these support organizations here means a lot.

Having the the state government and the federal government here supporting our programs actually assists a lot.

It actually reinforces the point that I think there is a greater need within the state to reach more people.

We have well over 200 people registered for this conference since the first ever that we ran this.

So I believe this will actually lead to much bigger, larger conferences in the state, inviting all veterans and military family members to.

Be veteran families and the component that they bring to support their veterans or their service members is very important.

I mean, you you don't sacrifice as a single soldier.

You tend to have your family be there to support.

And whether it's family or friends or community.

It's all about the team.

And that's what the military really supports, is about a team.

Everything we do is about a team effort.

The Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs has more programing, including a seminar for female veterans planned throughout 2025.