Counseling
Alexandria Vet Center
Free, confidential counseling for combat veterans and their families — readjustment, PTSD, bereavement. Open weekdays, with evening and weekend appointments on request.
For veterans and families
Get Help
If you served, and things are tight, the chapter may be able to help — and if we cannot, we probably know who can.
If you are in crisis right now
Call the Veterans Crisis Line — dial 988, then press 1. You can also text 838255 or chat online. It is staffed 24 hours a day, every day, by people who understand. You do not need to be enrolled in VA care.
What the chapter can help with
Chapter 227 gives money directly to veterans and their families in Northern Virginia. This is not a loan and it is not a grant program with forms and a review board — it is one veteran organization deciding to cover something that has to be covered. In 2024 the chapter paid out $39,700 this way.
- Rent and mortgage payments
- Utility bills
- Car payments and car repairs
- Medical expenses
- Back-to-school costs for children
- Holiday gifts for families
The chapter has also paid for things that fit no category at all — a security deposit that let a veteran move into his own apartment, and cancer treatment costs for the wife of an Army Ranger.
Ask the chapter
Until a dedicated intake route exists, the chapter’s general line is the way in.
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General enquiries
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Veterans Treatment Court mentoring
Don Sutherland
Other places that can help
Legal
Veterans Treatment Court
If you are facing charges in Fairfax County connected to addiction or PTSD, the Veterans Treatment Docket offers treatment and a veteran mentor rather than a jail sentence.
Food, clothing, shelter
The Lamb Center
A day shelter in Fairfax for homeless men and women, many of them veterans, providing clothing, food and daily necessities. The chapter’s AVVA members collect for it at every monthly meeting.
Housing
VA Supportive Housing (VASH)
About half of everything the chapter spends goes to families in the VASH program, through preloaded debit cards distributed by VASH caseworkers at Christmas and back-to-school.