U Of I Breaks Ground On Wounded Veterans Center

The University of Illinois broke ground on Friday on a new facility on its Urbana campus to help military veterans adapt to life with their injuries, while attending the U of I.

The Center for Wounded Veterans in Higher Education will include tutoring, rehabilitative, and employment counseling services.

Urbana resident Garrett Anderson is an army veteran, who lost his arm and suffered from brain damage following an explosion in Iraq. He said the center will help veterans with the transition into civilian life.

“We’re coming back with injuries that no generation is coming back with – double, triple amputees, traumatic brain injuries that we’re not ready for and nobody else is ready for,” Anderson said. “But the University has the forethought of being ready to transition and take on this next generation and say, ‘Let take on this battle and let’s help these guys out.’”

The U of I’s new center will provide transitional residential accommodations for at least a dozen veterans at a time, and non-residential services for up to 150 veterans and their families. However, the university said it is prepared to expand if there is greater need. According to the group, Student Veterans of America, nearly 90 percent of student veterans are over 25-years-old.