Hey, I want to congratulate Leave No Veteran Behind and their team for all their hard work, and for winning the first Bonus Challenge in the CrowdRise Veterans Charity Challenge. They’ve really got their boots on the ground helping out Vets and their families.
The Challenge was: “Raise the Most between May 28th and June 3 at 12:00pm EST and you’ll win $5000 for your charity.”
Leave No Veteran Behind (LNVB) has accomplished a lot in the four years they’ve been around. Here’s a brief summary of what they’ve done:
- Paid off the student loans of 7 Veterans totaling just under $100k
- Directly employed over 150 Vets in transitional work with Chicago Public Schools
- Paid out over $1.2 million dollars in transitional wages to Vets and their families
- Trained over 250 Veterans in employment skills to include:
- security
- private investigation
- bookkeeping
- administrative support
- information technology
- executive management skills
- Decreased youth violence on the Southside of the City of Chicago, according to public school behavior records, police department crime rates, and qualitative data aggregated by the University of Chicago’s Consortium on School Research
- Currently, LNVB serves over 7,000 Chicago school children on a daily basis with safety and mentorship services
- LNVB places Veterans in long-term employment scenarios
- LNVB has partnered with West Point Military Academy to deliver STEM training to over 100 youth in Chicago
- LNVB has advocated for the State of Illinois’ Veteran Earned Income Tax Credit to help decrease statewide Veteran unemployment rates
- 82% of every dollar goes to direct program support
I’m honored to be able to give money to this nonprofit. I just figure that if someone’s willing to risk their life for me, I should give back, and this is the least that I can do. A nerd’s gotta do what a nerd’s gotta do.
Make sure to check out the Veterans Charity Challenge to find out which Bonus Challenges are coming up next, and if you’re on Twitter, you can follow the conversation using #VetsChallenge.
Craig Connects 
Craig,
Thanks for the opportunity for allowing Leave No Veteran Behind to participate in this amazing crowd-sourcing effort. The heightened awareness of our programming surrounding the use of former service members to decrease youth violence on the Southside of Chicago is truly a blessing. If you would like to learn more about these efforts, please watch the video developed with the help of National Public Radio: http://vimeo.com/67175161.
So on behalf of our staff and our Board of Directors, everyone appreciates what you do for the military community across the country!
All the Best,
– Pete Kalenik
Chief of Staff
Leave No Veteran Behind
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This is great!! PJAZZ, the agency I volunteer with, is starting a program to help disabled vets. They will begin selling red t-shirts for supporters to wear on Fridays…Home of the Free…because of the Brave. A portion of proceeds will go to benefit disabled vets…agreements are currently in progress. Milt Cannon, President and founder of PJAZZ, is a Vet himself. He is a Chicago-bred saxophonist and the VA sent a team to interview him to tell about his time in the service (Army) in the 1960’s. He played for John Kennedy when they sent them all down to Florida during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He tells about them taking his sax and issuing a gun…Then the day after he was discharged (honorably)he was still in Texas (where he was stationed) and was in a motel watching TV when the President was shot…he had planned to stay in Texas, but when that happened, he went straight home to Chicago. Anyway, lots of history in this man, including some incredible jazz. The 15th annual PJAZZ Juneteenth Jazz Splash at Arcosanti (www.arcosanti.org) will be held June 15-16 and will include players like Richie Cole and Billy Mitchell. It will also be the first OPEN EAR program to give access to jazz masters to young people, musicians, and anyone interested in the music business. This isn’t the first time Milt has started a program for young people…he did it in Denver (1980-83) with an alternative school that helped many troubled youth get back into public school through their success in learning music. In these times with public schools cutting their arts programs, OPEN EAR fills a significant gap by exposing young people to jazz masters. Sorry to be rambling…I’m just excited by the music and the man, Milton DeLove Cannon. And Arcosanti’s urban village living in harmony with nature. And with supporting Vets.
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