Texas Veterans Commission Awards GoBus a $100K Grant for Veteran Transport

September 9, 2022

GOBUS

In September, the Texas Veterans Commission's (TVC) Fund for Veterans' Assistance (FVA) presented over $600,000 in grants to six organizations in East Texas for providing services to approximately 5,400 veterans. ETCOG is proud to be a grant recipient of $100,000 of those funds to provide GoBus transportation services and programs for veterans in our 14-county service area!


"It was an honor to accept this funding award from the Texas Veterans Commission and Commissioner Shaneyfelt," said Vince Huerta, GoBus Director. "We are dedicated to growing the program and look forward to assisting more veterans this year."


ETCOG has been a recipient of the TVC grant for two consecutive years. With the grant, our public transit system, GoBus, will fund trips to and from medical, dental, and mental health appointments; and trips for basic needs such as grocery stores, community meetings, voting, court appearances, and tax offices. These trips can be for veterans, veteran spouses and dependents, survivor spouses, and active military.


"I want to thank TVC for renewing this funding which allows us to continue our mission to support all East Texas veterans," said Huerta. "This funding has allowed GoBus to provide over 3,000 trips to veterans needing transportation services this year."


The grant is in partnership with over $31 Million in grants for veterans, Governor Abbott announced on September 2. "The State of Texas continues working to improve the lives of our veterans and provide them and their families with the best available resources to thrive," said Governor Abbott. "I thank the Texas Veterans Commission for their hard work to ensure thousands of our veterans are served through these grants. These courageous heroes and their families deserve our utmost support and respect, and Texas will always honor their sacrifice and service to our nation in the pursuit of freedom."


Find out about all veteran transport services GoBus offers by visiting www.gobustransit.com/govet.

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