Texas veteran education benefits

[EllenLazaretti]

Short description of the idea (140 character tweet):

Explore finding a solution to simplify Texas veterans (and their family members) navigating their education benefits.

What is your project concept or idea? What challenge or opportunity will it solve?

Navigating the various educational benefits available to Texas veterans and their family members can be confusing and tricky. If we can alleviate stress caused by this process, they can focus on their studies and ultimately their academic and career goals.

Who will benefit from your project? Describe the humans at the center of the problem - who are they?

How would they benefit? Can you tell their story?

Do you have photos of them? Or quotes?

This project would benefit military families, and ultimately our community. Education can help veterans make the transition into the civilian world, for instance.

Issue area(s) relevant to your project idea:

• Children & Youth
• Economic Opportunity & Development
• Education
• Open Government/Transparency
• Veteran and military families

What is the current state of your project idea?

I've done recent research related to veteran education benefits, but it's a very complex issue. Benefit information is on different websites, in addition to paperwork that must be filed by the veterans. I don't know if the government maintains some sort of updated database with information on the various benefits that could be accessed? That's one component I'm unsure where to find the answer for. I think it'd be great to form a team, and approach this with a design thinking methodology to see what we come up with.

Tell us more about the current state of your project idea.

Do you have any links to news articles, text, mockups, code, or data?

Here's some relevant resources I found:
http://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/
http://www.collegeforalltexans.com/index.cfm?objectid=6d14a588-f337-de9f-c34472e57102fa06
http://www.tvc.texas.gov/Hazlewood-Act.aspx
http://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/news.asp

Tell us about yourself.

What is your background? Why is this challenge important to you?

Are you representing a group in submitting this project idea?

I'm a UX Designer and a military spouse. I worked on a similar project to this recently and interviewed veteran students. Even students with multiple degree still experienced stress and complications accessing their education benefits. The issue is also amplified with first-generation college students.

[danielhonker]

Awesome project idea @EllenLazaretti. I added some labels.

[danielhonker]

Consider this project accepted, @EllenLazaretti! We invite you to pitch it at the ATX Hack for Change.

Now that your project has been approved, here are some things we suggest you do next:
https://github.com/atxhack4change/2016-project-proposals#once-your-project-is-accepted-here-are-some-things-we-suggest-you-do-next

We still need your email -- would you please shoot a note to [email protected].

You will receive an email in the next few days regarding your speaking slot for the Saturday morning pitches. Please let us know if you will no longer be able to champion your project at the hackathon.

[danielhonker]

@EllenLazaretti - you should have received an invite to join Slack. If you haven't already joined the team and seen the Slack channel for your project, it's #vet-benefits. We'll be sending out an email with details on pitches soon.