COLUMBIA, S.C., Jan. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- LFS Carolinas was recently awarded an $87,750 Veterans Administration grant to provide services to homeless veterans in South Carolina. LFS Carolinas will utilize the award to develop the Kinard Manor Veterans Transitional Housing Facility in Greenwood, SC. The facility will open early in 2007.
"This grant will launch a crucial partnership among faith groups and the public and private sectors on behalf of veterans," said Suzanne Gibson Wise, President of LFS Carolinas. "All of us recognize the unselfish sacrifices our troops have made. Their needs are great when they return home and we must help them heal and return whole to their families and communities."
Kinard Manor, a former LFS Carolinas group home, will house up to eight veterans. Veterans will assist other veterans by sharing experiences, providing mental, emotional, social and spiritual support services enabling them to become self-sufficient and maintain independent living.
Through collaboration with the WJB Dorn VA Hospital, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Greenwood Police Department, and others, LFS Carolinas will reach out to the homeless veterans in the Greenwood area.
"Only through a dedicated partnership with community and faith-based organizations can we hope to end homelessness among veterans," said secretary of Veterans Affairs, Jim Nicolson. "South Carolina veterans answered their country's call to serve during its greatest times of need, and now some live without shelter. This grant will help them get back on the road to self- reliance."
"Congratulations to LFS for receiving this award. This grant will provide valuable resources for those veterans who have served and sacrificed for our freedom," said Congressman Gresham Barrett, former Captain in the U.S. Army and US Representative for South Carolina's 3rd District, which includes Greenwood. "I appreciate their dedication and all their continued assistance to South Carolina veterans, and I offer them my support."
WJB Dorn VA Hospital will provide case management services to veterans at Kinard Manor. They will also provide monthly outreach/educational sessions for homeless veterans without shelter.
Immanuel Lutheran Church will assist homeless veterans in three ways: through a mentoring program where residents will be assisted with applying for needed services within the community and getting acclimated to their new living environment; development of a Business Partnership Advocate designed to educate local businesses and secure employment for veterans; and the Giving Back community project designed to identify community volunteer projects for Kinard Manor residents.
Approximately 1/3 of the adult homeless population in the U.S. served in the Armed Forces and 560 homeless veterans live in Upstate South Carolina. The VA grant is one of 52 grants recently awarded worth approximately $11.6 million to public, non-profit and faith-based groups for programs assisting homeless veterans.
Each year, LFS Carolinas works to bring healing and wholeness to thousands of children, adults, families and communities through accredited human service programs at many program sites in North and South Carolina, coordinated from central offices in Raleigh, Greensboro and Charlotte, NC and Columbia, SC.
LFS Carolinas partners with human service providers, governmental agencies, congregations and others to provide the most effective programs and outcomes possible. Founded in 1976, LFS Carolinas is a joint social ministry of the North Carolina and South Carolina Synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
LFS Carolinas
