More than a million women veterans are not currently enrolled in VA health care, and the Department of Veterans Affairs just launched a national campaign to close that gap one community at a time. The first stop was San Antonio, where the VA's Center for Women Veterans and Office of Women's Health kicked off a five-city outreach tour called "Boots on the Ground for Boots on the Ground" on July 24 and 25.
Why So Many Women Veterans Stay Disconnected
The core problem the initiative is built to solve is not access, it is identity. Many women who served do not think of themselves as veterans in the first place, which makes traditional outreach campaigns fall flat, according to VA News. Center for Women Veterans executive director Jacquelyn Hayes-Byrd has said the peer-to-peer model at the heart of this initiative, where women veterans identify and encourage others who already trust them, is designed specifically around that barrier.
A Regional Summit With National Reach
The Southwest regional summit was held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio and served veterans from Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, a region with the potential to reach more than 342,000 women veterans, per reporting from Texas Public Radio and The American Legion. Four more regional summits are planned across the country as the campaign continues, backed by an outreach push that includes veteran podcasts, service organizations, and state coordinators helping spread the word.
What Enrollment Actually Unlocks
Getting enrolled is not just paperwork. It is the gateway to VA health care, disability benefits, pre-need eligibility, and the broader network of support the department offers, exactly the kind of access that can determine whether a struggling veteran gets help before a crisis point. For an agency that has spent years trying to reach a population historically underserved and undercounted, a campaign built on trust between veterans rather than another mailer or hotline number is a meaningful shift in approach.
Connecting the Dots to Community and Movement
Enrollment is the first step, but staying connected often comes down to community, and that is where fitness and events can help keep momentum going long after the paperwork is filed. Operation WarriorFit exists for exactly that reason, to remove the cost barrier that keeps veterans and service members from lacing up and showing up. Women veterans who are eligible can check out how Operation WarriorFit works and see if they qualify for a free race entry at operationwarriorfit.org/eligibility.