Report 2015-505 Recommendation 2 Responses

Report 2015-505: Follow-Up—California Department of Veterans Affairs: Better Collection and Use of Data Would Improve Its Outreach Efforts, and It Needs to Strengthen Its Oversight of County Veterans Service Officer Programs (Release Date: July 2015)

Recommendation #2 To: Veterans Affairs, Department of

Veterans Services should develop and implement a plan by December 31, 2015, to routinely analyze and use myCalVet data to identify trends in the services veterans and their families indicate they are most interested in and incorporate the results of such analyses into its outreach efforts.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From July 2017

As described in the July 2016 response, CalVet continues to deploy the VSD Outreach Operations Guide (Attachment 1) and CalVet Outreach Analytics Desk Reference (Attachment 2), to compile and evaluate myCalVet data by region and category of interest on a quarterly basis. Attachment 3 shows the data for the first quarter of 2017, veterans/families expressed greatest interest in Education (e.g. GI Bill, education benefits for veterans' dependents). As a result, Veterans Services conducted extensive outreach efforts on Education also shown in Attachment 3.

CalVet is currently developing the California Transition Assistance Program (CalTAP), in an effort to streamline the delivery of electronic information to service members, veterans, and their families via the CalVet website, and more specifically myCalVet. Please reference Attachment 4, which describes the ongoing data analysis and targeted outreach that CalTAP accomplishes.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

Between January and June 2016, CalVet continuously analyzed myCalVet data, and used the results to guide its outreach efforts. This has been in accordance with the plan implemented in November 2015 (comprised of the attached VSD Outreach Operations Guide (Annex 1) and CalVet Outreach Analytics Desk Reference (Annex 2)), to compile and evaluate myCalVet data by region and category of interest ("pillars"). As shown in Annex 3 (myCalVet Data Analysis), the data showed that for Q4 CY2015 and Q1 CY2016, veterans/families expressed greatest interest in Education (e.g. GI Bill, education benefits for veterans' dependents); the sole exception was the Central Coast, which expressed greatest interest in Health Care during Q4 CY2015. As a result, Veterans Services conducted extensive outreach efforts on Education, as shown in Annex 4 (Outreach Action), during the first six months of CY2016; in addition the Central Coast LINC targeted Health Care during Q1 CY2016 efforts. A recent example of successful outreach engagement is attached as Annex 5 (In the News). To optimize efforts for the second half of CY2016, Veterans Services has improved the reporting tool used by its outreach workers to more clearly identify the links between myCalVet data results and each outreach event, as shown in Annex 6 (OOM). For the second half of CY2016, Veterans Services will continue to plan each outreach worker's monthly schedule based on myCalVet data results from the previous month and quarter. CalVet will communicate the results of these efforts in December 2016.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Not Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

The Plan, implemented in November 2015, is comprised of the attached reports, VSD Outreach Operations Guide, and CalVet Outreach Analytics Desk Reference. The Plan details the specific steps taken to routinely analyze and use myCalVet data for outreach efforts focus. In addition, an overview and implementation plan for additional sources of data compilation, analyses, and resultant outreach focus are also included in the Operations Guide and relevant attachments. Data collection and compilation (per the Desk Reference) was initiated for the 4th Quarter of CY2015 (completed in December 2015), with ensuing analysis and action (per the Operations Guide) scheduled to take place the first week of January, 2016, with resulting incorporation into outreach efforts commencing throughout the remainder of Q1 CY2016, across each LINC Outreach Region.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

CalVet continues to gather demographic information and conduct needs assessments through a variety of channels including the Geographic Distribution of Expenditures report, County Veterans Services Office (CVSO) Subvention Reports, and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VetPop Data, while continuing to connect veterans and their families with services and benefits through ongoing strategies and partnerships. CalVet understands the significance of the myCalVet site and its potential to supply information statewide in an ongoing and cost effective way. CalVet is exploring the feasibility and cost required to use an external vendor in order to fully implement the recommendation to develop a marketing plan to analyze data from the website to target outreach. The scope of work in development and includes an analysis of the website profile data, development of a targeted outreach plan to increase awareness of benefits and services as well as encouraging veterans to create profiles regionally in the state through a digital marketing campaign. A plan for utilizing myCalVet data will be developed by December 31, 2015.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2015-505

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.