Date post: | 25-Dec-2015 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | simon-cameron |
View: | 217 times |
Download: | 0 times |
The Next Great Generation?Mapping the Most Impoverished Military Veterans and their Resource Availability
Dani MolinaGraduate School of Education and Information StudiesUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Background on Military Veterans
• More than 2.6 million servicemembers have served during Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-2011) and/or Operation Enduring Freedom (2001-Present).
• On October 21, 2011, President Barack Obama ordered the withdrawal of nearly 40,000 servicemembers from theater of combat operations in Iraq by the end of 2011.
• These servicemembers will join the remaining 70,000 combat troops scheduled to leave Afghanistan by the summer of 2013.
• Many of them will be expected to transition into civilian life, becoming veterans.
• Currently, there are no descriptive or empirical studies that investigate the location and needs of veterans.
Research Objective
• Objective = Locate the neediest veterans at the national, state, and local levels and their proximity to resources.
• Neediest Veterans = Veteran Status + Income in the Past 12 Months Below Poverty Level + Living with a Disability (for the civilian population 18 years and over)
• Midterm Research Question = What economic, health, education, and employment features can we learn about veterans?
• Final Research Question = Where are the most deprived military veterans and what educational and health resources are within proximity to them?
Midterm Findings
• Net loss of veterans overall considering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• The number of veterans aspiring to earn a college or university degree has been steadily increasing since 2000.
• Veterans are less likely to be unemployed and more likely to have higher median incomes (per household) and baccalaureate degrees than nonveterans.
• However, veterans are significantly more likely to have a disability compared to nonveterans.
Final Analysis • Map Algebra: Combined layouts of
veterans below poverty level and with a disability into one map (Neediest).
• Geocoding: Located RU/VH (Research Universities with Very High research activity) according to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement in Teaching.
• Service Area Analysis: Mapped proximity of neediest veterans to VAMC and RU/VH institutions.
• Origin-Destination Cost Matrix: Determined the estimated time (minutes) of travel from underserved veteran areas to RU/VH.
Findings and Future Inquiries
• Where were the most underserved veterans and their proximity to education and health opportunities?
• Located mostly in Congressional District 34, which includes include the cities of Bell, Bell Gardens, Commerce, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Maywood, Downey, Bellflower, Vernon, East Los Angeles, and Walnut Park-Florence.
• What services and/or programs, if any, might veterans need to successfully transition into RU/VH institutions?
• Are they providing access to impoverished veterans (social mobility)?
• Can the VA build a partnership with USC-LAC Medical
Center to serve Congressional District 34?• Is it feasible to build a VAMC in the region given the
neediest veterans and the drawdown of servicemembers?
Data Sources
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics (NCVAS)
• U.S. Census Bureau, 2008-2010 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates and 2010 Geography Division
• UCLA Spatial Data Repository, Mapshare
• Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education
Skills Used• Inset Map- Inset map of Los Angeles within California within the U.S. • Geocoding- Geocoded the location of Research Universities with High
Research Activity and VA Medical Centers• Original Data- Original data of RU/VH and VAMC in Los Angeles County
created as shapefiles• Geoprocessing- Clipped Los Angeles boundary from Census
Congressional District data• Weighted Index- Used Field Calculator [(DisabledbyTotal * .5) +
(Povertyby Total * .5)] * 100 to create an equally weighted construct• Modeling- Created a model for use with Hotspot Analysis of proximity
of RU/VH and VAMC to impoverished veterans• Metadata- Metadata of original data for RU/VH institutions of higher
learning• Hotspot Analysis- Used to create neediest veterans construct by
calculating areas with the most disabled and with income below the poverty level
• Images- Images of M1A2 Abrams tank, FA/18 Super Hornet Jet Fighter, CH/47 Chinook Helicopter, Navy Destroyer, and me during Operation Iraqi Freedom 1
• Network Analysis- OD Matrix to find the estimated time to nearest RU/VH
• Network Analysis- Shown for the Service Area of nearest RU/VH and VAMC
• Index- Created a weighted index of areas with the neediest veterans (Veteran Status + Income in the Past 12 Months Below Poverty Level + Living with a Disability (for the civilian population 18 years and over))
• Measurement Analysis- Measured distance by creating centroid of Congressional District by most impoverished veterans
ModelJoined Census Congressional District data with Veterans with Income Below Poverty Line and Living with a Disability.