BUTLER TWP — Officials at VA Butler Healthcare say the system's impending move to a new facility in Center Township will not affect a work therapy program that hires veterans as VA employees.

The Compensated Work Therapy program, as it is known, helps veterans reintegrate into the workforce after military service by employing them in various jobs at the VA campus in Butler Township.

But some veterans are concerned that the opening of the VA's new health center in Center Township, which is owned by Cambridge Health Solutions, could result in the program being pared back.

VA officials on Friday moved to assure veterans and veterans organizations that such a downsizing isn't occurring.

“There are no plans to reduce the number of veterans in the Compensated Work Therapy Program,” said Kenneth Kalberer, the system's communications director, in an email response to questions. “VA Butler will continue to hire veterans through his program to work in environmental services as well as other programs.”

On Friday Kalberer provided statistics showing that the number of veterans employed by the VA Butler Healthcare has grown every year since at least 2015, when 179 employees, or 30.59 percent of the system's workforce, were veterans. As of fiscal year 2017, Kalberer said, the system employed 213 veterans, making up more than 32 percent of its workforce.

Kalberer said that veterans have made up 62 percent of new hires by the system so far this year, and that officials expect veterans to make up 33 percent of the system's work force by the end of the fiscal year.

The impending move to a new facility in Center Township shouldn't change the pace of veteran hires or the size or scope of the CWT program, Kalberer said. Maintenance and housekeeping — two areas veterans in the program work in at the current VA campus — will be the responsibility of Cambridge, the company from which the VA will lease the new facility.

“That program (CWT) doesn't just do housekeeping, it does other things too,” Kalberer said. “It isn't just one task that those veterans do.”