Dear VSO partners,
Saturday was Women Veteran’s Day. To celebrate, VA’s Million Veteran Program (MVP) released a new 30-second PSA and VAntage Point blog to engage more women into VA genetic research (the goal is 5,000 new women Veteran enrollees by the end of September).
Why this is important:
MVP is one of the largest genetic research programs in the world. By collecting DNA from as many Veterans as possible, along with information on their health, lifestyle and military exposures, the program advances medical discoveries that will one day offer Veterans the personalized care they deserve.
But while there are roughly 2 million living women Veterans, only ~76,000 are enrolled in VA’s Million Veteran Program (MVP), representing just 9% of Veterans enrolled in the program. If more women join, VA can work on more discoveries and breakthroughs in diseases where women deserve specialized care.
Three easy ways you can spread the word:
1. Include MVP in your newsletter. Attached are two promotional blurbs you can choose from to include in your newsletters or email outreach to Veterans. If you need an image, you can use the one attached or download another graphic from our toolkit.
2. Post to Facebook and Twitter on Saturday, June 12th and during the rest of the month. Attached to this email is our social media toolkit, which includes three (3) Facebook posts and tweets to choose from for June 12th and five (5) additional posts that can be published anytime this summer as your social media schedule permits. VA has a scheduled Facebook post and tweet on Saturday, June 12th at 8:30AM ET if you prefer to share VA’s content.
3. Use our flyers and materials. MVP has a series of flyers/posters, one-pagers and FAQs available for download in the MVP women’s campaign toolkit. Materials can be shared virtually in newsletters and email communications or in-person at any of your outreach events.
For questions or more information, contact Jennifer Deen at Jennifer.Deen@va.gov or Claudia Gutierrez at Claudia.Gutierrez@va.gov.
Jennifer Deen
Associate Director, Cohort and Public Relations
Million Veteran Program (MVP)
Office of Research and Development (14RD)
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs