Nonprofit Aims to Repay Student Debt for Veterans
Leave No Veteran Behind is a young nonprofit organization that was created by two veterans while they were struggling with their own debt problems after returning from deployment. They take a two-pronged approach to the problem: they help veterans find and train for jobs in Chicago, where the founders are from and the program was started, and they created a national program to pay for the student debt owed by veterans.
Essentially Leave No Veteran Behind debt repayment works like a retroactive scholarship. To qualify, veterans must have served honorably, have outstanding student loans, and face some type of economic hardship, usually unemployment or a medical condition. Those accepted must complete 100 hours of community service in exchange for debt payment.
According to The Christian Science Monitor, the average student loan debt of veterans is about $56,000, The G.I. Bill doesn’t typically pay for school debt acquired prior to service, so if someone attends school in preparation for the military they will not be reimbursed by the federal government. A military student loan repayment program also exists, but it’s only applicable to certain types of debt, such as Federal Stafford Loans.
As of now, the biggest hurdle to the success of Leave No Veteran Behind is funding. Most of the money raised so far has come from small foundation grants, private donors, corporate sponsors, and other revenue streams.
So far the organization has donated just under $150,000 towards outstanding student loans and is hoping to pay the debts of five more veterans before the end of the year. Their goal is to afford to pay off 60 to 90 veterans’ educational debt each year.
For more information, visit: http://www.leavenoveteranbehind.org/