VetNav

Inspiration

Sophia is a Coast Guard veteran who experienced the frustration of navigating the complex veteran benefits system after her discharge. Between confusing government websites and a largely non-tech-savvy veteran community, accessing earned benefits remains a significant and widespread challenge.

What it does

Connects Veterans to their local VA hospital.

How we built it

We used Figma for UI planning. For front-end, we used React, TypeScript, Vite, and shadcn/ui. For the back-end, we used Node.js, Express, the VA Facilities API, and Nominatim. We used Git for version control.

Challenges we ran into

Merging the front-end with the back-end required significant refactoring of several files. Determining the scope of VetNav was complex as that meant fully understanding the complex VA.gov website, which took considerable amounts of time. We realized that not everything could be simplified within our website. For some processes and sensitive information, redirecting veterans to the official VA website was necessary.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Utilizing new technologies to develop a reactive front-end. Making a difference in the veteran's lives.

What we learned

The government has a complex and non user-friendly website that makes it difficult for veterans to access their benefits. Sophia herself learned about even more benefits she could have been receiving, such as testing that allowed her to earn credits toward her degree, potentially saving her time and money.

What's next for VetNav

Expanding upon the different kinds of benefits veterans can receive, as there's many different sub-categories that are not as common to be implemented in 24 hours.

Built With

• and-shadcn/ui.-for-the-back-end
• express.js
• git
• node.js
• nominatim.
• react
• shadcn
• the-va-facilities-api
• typescript
• vite
• we-used-node.js
• we-used-react