The WISVET Outreach program, the first of its kind in the nation, began in February of 1972 as a pilot project in the Milwaukee Metropolitan area. Its initial goals were to “reach and counsel Vietnam era veterans, particularly the educationally disadvantaged, to motivate and assist them in entering into programs of training and education under the G.I. Bill, to make them aware of public and private resources, to identify individual problems and counsel veterans on those problems, and to develop such records as would permit follow-up services and a continuing evaluation of the project goals, methods and results.” In December 1972 the Governor extended the program to the rest of the state.
Although originally conceived as a two-year project, the program lasted until the Legislature terminated funding in 1979. While the initial goals of the program remained its primary goals, two other major objectives--upgrading of less than honorable discharges, and counselling of incarcerated veterans and veterans on probation and parole--evolved by the mid-1970s.
