§ 143B-1218.  Veterans Life Center; challenge grant to provide rehabilitation and reintegration services to veterans.

(a) There is hereby established in the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs a challenge grant program for the Veterans Life Center (hereinafter "Center"), a nonprofit corporation, which shall be administered by the Department as provided in this section. Funds appropriated by the General Assembly for the challenge grant program shall be used to allocate funds to the Center for the purpose of providing rehabilitation and reintegration services and support to veterans across the State, and those funds shall not be used for any other purpose without the express authorization of the General Assembly.

(b) The maximum amount of State funds that may be disbursed to the Center under this section is seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000) in each fiscal year. The Department shall disburse State funds on a dollar-for-dollar basis each quarter so that the Center will receive a State dollar for each non-State dollar raised by the Center each quarter, but in no case shall the Department disburse State funds to the Center if the Center has not raised non-State funds in that quarter of the fiscal year. The Center shall demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the Department, that it has raised the non-State funds required by this subsection prior to the disbursement of State funds. The Center shall not supplant, shift, or reallocate Center funds for the purpose of achieving the non-State dollars required by this subsection.

(c) Not later than July 1 of each year, the Department shall submit a written report to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on General Government and the Fiscal Research Division on all of the following information, and the Center shall provide the information to the Department in the manner and time period requested by the Department for purposes of preparing the report:

(1) The total number of veterans served.

(2) The types of services provided to veterans, and the number of veterans who received each type of service.

(3) Demographics of the veterans served, including each veteran's county of residence.

(4) Average length of stay for veterans, and the average number of veterans in the Center facility on a daily basis.

(5) The total number of veterans who completed the care program, and the number who received postgraduate mentoring from the Center. (2023-134, s. 33.3(a).)