Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs and Serve Illinois Revive the Spirit of Service through Serving Those Who Served

Springfield, IL - The Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs in partnership with Serve Illinois today launched the 2021 Serving Those Who Served program, a week of service projects created to thank service men and women, veterans, and their families across the state from beginning November 4th and ending on Veteran's Day, November 11th. 

"Serving Those Who Served is an opportunity for us to join together to honor and thank those who served this nation," said Acting Director Terry Prince. "Working with Serve Illinois elevates volunteerism and our ability to reach a greater number of veterans through myriad of projects across the state."

"The Serving Those Who Served initiative is an important one.  So many of our neighbors, friends, co-workers and family members are veterans.  This gives us an opportunity to contribute to improving the quality of life for them with our volunteer service as they have done for us through their military service.  All of our service makes our state and by extension our country better and stronger," said Executive Director, N. Ayoka Samuels.

The program includes projects such as painting, landscaping, event planning and execution, and writing thank you notes to service men and women and veterans in the Anna, Chicago, LaSalle, Manteno, and Quincy veterans' homes. Serving Those Who Served recruits volunteers for its own projects as well as organizations looking to bolster its volunteer pool.

Serve Illinois' mission is to improve communities by enhancing volunteerism across Illinois.  It is comprised of a 40-member, bi-partisan board appointed by Governor JB Pritzker and administered by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs provides support to Illinois' over 650,000 veterans by helping them obtain earned benefits and by providing care in its five veterans' homes across the state.
To register for a project, participants may visit: https://serveillinois.galaxydigital.com

To register a project in need of volunteers, visit: https://serveillinois.galaxydigital.com

For more information, contact Crystal Womack: crystal.womack@illinois.gov  or Jacob Jenkins:  jacob.jenkins2@illinois.gov.