2018 NLADA Annual Conference--Resilient Justice

As the legal community reflects on increasingly visible racialized violence and injustice, we are called to find tangible ways to show up and respond. In this session, seasoned veterans justice advocates will share one meaningful approach: targeted veterans advocacy. Veterans of color have long faced racial inequality; historically, they were excluded from the veterans’ benefits they rightfully earned, drafted to the frontlines of the Vietnam War at significantly higher rates, and continue to be disproportionately criminalized by the very community they enlisted to protect. Today, 45 percent of homeless veterans are African American or Latino, despite accounting for 10.4 percent and 3.4 percent of the U.S. veteran population, respectively. Presenters will empower advocates to become better attuned to the intersections of race, gender, poverty, and military service, while also providing a toolkit to holistically identify veterans of colors’ needs, develop a service-delivery model to better address their unique challenges, and engage with strategic partners.