Leave No Veteran Behind Continues To Support Veterans

Photo provided by Leave No Veteran Behind.
Photo provided by Leave No Veteran Behind.

Leave No Veteran Behind Continues To Support Veterans

By Tia Carol Jones

A locally based organization with a national reach aims to support veterans through transitional jobs and scholarships that help pay student loans. Leave No Veteran Behind was founded in 2008 as a way to invest in veterans with the goal to build better communities.  Leave No Veteran Behind co-founder Eli Williamson returned from deployment and found out he had student loan payments to make, as did his co-founder.

Leave No Veteran Behind established the retroactive scholarship program with the goal to repay the student loans of veterans who have completed higher education, have an economic hardship and their student loans were not covered fully by existing educational programs. Those who are awarded the scholarship must commit to 100-400 hours of community service that leverages their military service.

Another issue for veterans returning from deployment was employment, veterans were underemployed. So, Leave No Veteran Behind sought to place veterans in transitional jobs and provide training. The jobs addressed community needs, for example, the organization was one of the first vendors to participate in the Safe Passage program. The organization has trained veterans to do psychological first aid, construction and deconstruction, community resilience training, civilian emergency response team training.

While the work Leave No Veteran Behind has done to support veterans is important, Williamson said it is also important that the veterans are utilizing the benefits they have earned at 100%. He said when veterans are utilizing their VA benefits at 100%, they are a lot easier to help.  Leave No Veteran Behind is working with other veterans organizations, the city, the state and the county, to increase the usage of those benefits.

Williamson said that the organization has a great relationship with the State of Illinois’ Department of Veterans’ Affairs Director Terry Prince. The state has trained veterans services officers who help veterans navigate their VA benefits. The organization has trained veteran navigators who understand all the benefits and are navigating the veterans to programs.

Recently, Leave No Veteran Behind hosted a National Veterans Rodeo and Resource Fair. Williamson said he remembered how formative it was for him to see Black cowboys when he was visiting family in Oklahoma when he was growing up. He met a veteran who set up a rodeo and wanted to figure out a way to bring people together, while celebrating the military and veterans. They came up with the idea of hosting a rodeo and resource fair. Williamson said oftentimes, it is a wife, child or parent who is signing up for veterans benefits. He said the rodeo was a great way to bring people together, the veterans and their families, as well as veterans affairs officers and people from housing organizations. He said it also has an economic impact. While Leave No Veteran Behind hosts a gala to celebrate its work and raise funds, it doesn’t have the type of impact the community needs.

“Not only are we going to have veterans who are participants, but more importantly, all of the contractors that we are using are either veterans or military family,” Williamson said. He added that every stage of the event was done intentionally.

For more information about Leave No Veteran Behind, visit www.leavenoveteranbehind.org.

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