A Veteran Who Couldn't Help Himself — or Others
After a decade of poverty, inconsistent employment, and personal struggles, Jonathan Quinn — a U.S. military veteran — went to work for Missouri's Department of Social Services. He had used his GI Bill for a degree and gotten a VA home loan. He thought he'd claimed every benefit available to him.
He was wrong. It would take more than ten years of working inside the system before he accidentally discovered the full scope of VA benefits he'd been eligible for all along — benefits that could have changed his life during his hardest years.
“If as a veteran I didn't know enough to help myself for 10 years regarding VA benefits, that also means I was not able to refer other veterans to VA services. The veterans sitting across my desk never had a chance.”
Jonathan Quinn, Veteran & State EmployeeAs a new caseworker, Jonathan's very first Medicaid client committed suicide before he could figure out how to process the application. Later, he met a young homeless veteran who had attempted suicide and planned to try again. Jonathan turned that man's despair into hope simply by telling him about Pell Grants — a benefit he happened to know about.
That moment crystallized the problem: the difference between life and death for a veteran can come down to whether one person in one office happens to know about one benefit. The system should never depend on chance.