USC CIR – News

Collaborative trains lawyers on veteran issues

More than 40 lawyers recently attended a training workshop, held by the Los Angeles Veterans Collaborative’s Legal & Re-Entry working group, to be better prepared to help veterans.

As the city strives to end veteran homelessness, many veterans with bad discharges or those who face legal and financial hardship are unable to receive services. With the passage of Proposition 47, certain low-level, non-violent felonies can now be changed to misdemeanors.

According to the Los Angeles County Veterans Study, 43 percent of pre-9/11 and 36 percent of post-9/11 veterans needed legal assistance. These types of efforts show how the collaborative is using local data […]

Veteran trades military service for social service

by Claudia Bustamante

Gerardo Reynoso joined the Army because he wanted adventure and prestige. He signed up while still in high school during peacetime and was captivated by the idea of escaping his Southern California neighborhood and living in Europe, where the most danger he could possibly see would be in Bosnia.

But two days before graduating from boot camp, the plan changed. It was Sept. 11, 2001.

“I didn’t even realize it happened,” Reynoso said. He and the other privates went into a room that was streaming live news coverage of the attacks. “We thought it was fake, and they were testing us […]