‘Soldier On’ Mississippi

Alvin Buckley rose from the conference table to shake hands. The soft spoken employment specialist with the Jackson, Miss.-based office of ‘Soldier On,’ a non-profit in five states which helps homeless, unemployed, incarcerated or PTSD-suffering veterans. “… (W)e care deeply about veterans’ well being,” Buckley says. “They sacrificed … (and) (t)heir mental well-being is the biggest thing.” Soldier On, founded in 1994 and funded primarily by the Department of Veterans Affairs, is focused on “changing the end of the story,” says Yazoo City resident Hayes Dent, the group’s senior VP. Dent is a vet and a recipient of the Bronze Star. Veterans’ statistics are sobering: 22 a day commit suicide, 65 percent are age 50-plus; more than half of those 22 are usually not under the VA professional care. Some 220,000 vets reside in Mississippi. Soldier On is in the process of building 60 permanent housing units in Jackson for homeless veterans. Another facility is in the works on the Gulf Coast. (Source: Clarion-Ledger 11/12/17)