The beating death of Chicago Public School student Derrion Albert has shown us that we need to engage our youth more than ever. More specifically we must provide a safe atmosphere for our youth as they return from school. No one is more suited to do this than Veterans. That is why Leave No Veteran Behind is continuing our partnership with the Chicago Public Schools to provide safe passage for our youth. This partnership, which serves over 10,000 youth daily, was developed in order to have Veterans conduct presence patrols in various neighborhoods in Chicago. These patrols are designed to provide safe passage for CPS students leaving school and promote positive after school opportunities.
Veteran clients with Leave No Veteran Behind work in conjunction with: the Chicago Police Department, CPS crossing guards, the CPS community outreach program, other nonprofits, and various Veteran organizations to mitigate and deescalate situations that lead to violence. Our focus as an organization is not necessarily to provide security, but to provide an adult presence in the hope that positive engagement with our youth will have a greater impact than police security interaction alone.
Leave No Veteran Behind has strong roots in the city of Chicago. Much of our executive team is comprised of Veterans who are products of the Chicago Public School System. It is through these roots that we understand the importance of education and the impact of good role models. Also, as combat Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan we are intimately aware of the negative impact of violence on a community. Armed with this perspective, we hope to show CPS students that violence is a catastrophic way of dealing with difficult situations. By providing Veterans transitional jobs in this project we want to continue to commit to ideals larger than ourselves and show our youth the values that we were taught in the military and honed in service to our nation.
If you are interested in transitional job opportunities with youth please click the link: Apply Here
