An Atlanta IT entrepreneur and Gulf War veteran is launching Back in the World, Inc., a non-profit with a mission to connect veterans to the benefits they have earned and deserve. 

“Soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen support us in the most extreme circumstances,” says Craig Hall, who will serve as CEO – and, for now, the sole employee of BITW. “Still, once they leave the service they experience disproportionate levels of homelessness, poverty, PTSD and substance abuse. We want to help change that by connecting every veteran with the services they need and have earned.” 

Native Atlantan Hall – who served in the U.S. Army from 1989-1995 – says he is still mustering resources and seeking key partnerships, but that he expects Back in the World to be actively serving veterans by Sept. 1, educating, empowering and encouraging veterans to take advantage of the benefits they need to succeed. 

He's clear that Back in the World intends to collaborate with other organizations and programs, rather than compete. So, in addition to spending the next few months identifying and securing funding partners, Hall says he’ll be establishing working partnerships with military bases, other veteran organizations, non-veteran community groups who encounter veterans in need, and others.

He notes that estimates place the U.S. veteran population at 16.2 million. The Department of Veterans affairs has approximately nine million veterans registered. “With this data we arrive at a startling figure of 44% of our veterans being unregistered,” Hall says. “That means 7.2 million veterans are not taking advantage of valuable, life changing support that they earned while serving our nation. There are potentially over a million unregistered disabled veterans from the Gulf War and Post 9/11 eras alone. I could not let that stand.” 

For now, he says BITW is seeking funders (individual, corporate, foundations, grants), volunteers and other supporters. Individuals can donate, join the mail list and help spread the word via the organization’s website. 

“Someone told me, if you wake up every day thinking about it, and you go to bed every night thinking about it, you should do it,” Hall says, “so I am doing it. And thus far friends, neighbors, colleagues and even a few strangers have stepped up and said, ‘How can I help?’”