Veterans at VFW Post 12196 in Leland, North Carolina, wanted ways to heal that sat alongside VA care. In September 2024 they launched the Veterans Creative Arts Program, known as VCAP, and it now counts more than 750 participants.

The classes are free. They cover creative writing, music, dance, acting, culinary arts, and visual art, and they are open to veterans, first responders, and their families. The program says it especially wants to reach people living with PTSD and traumatic brain injury. Classes meet in Brunswick County and Wilmington, often in donated space.

The idea took shape after State Sen. Bill Rabon asked why the post had no arts program. Post commander Gerald Decker, who directs VCAP, and Don Spaulding, who chartered the post with him, built it in about three months with help from retired Marine Col. Eric Terashima and Cammeron Batanides.

Decker told VFW magazine that veterans wanted “access to sources of wellness and well-being in addition to the VA.” His rule for the classroom is simple: “We encourage expression in a form that works for them.”

Participants’ work hangs in local coffee shops, and some artists have sold pieces. A women veterans’ writing group is also in talks with a national publication. Brush & Quill will be watching for that one.

If you run a post, a chapter, or a community center, VCAP is a working example of how little it takes to start.

SOURCES

VFW, “We Encourage Expression” (April 9, 2026): https://www.vfw.org/media-and-events/latest-releases/archives/2026/4/we-encourage-expression