A large number of organizations across the country are specifically focused on helping veterans get the support they need. This is particularly true of homeless veterans, of which a shockingly large number are women. Now, one such non-profit group in Kentucky is aimed specifically at helping women.
The group, called Sheppard's Hands, is currently working to renovate a home in Lexington, to provide housing to as many as three homeless women veterans at a time, according to a report from Lexington television station LEX 18. The house was donated by a local church with the goal of providing as much assistance as possible to these former servicemembers at what is obviously a difficult time in their lives.
"They go home and their families don't understand what they're going through so they can't talk about it, so they withdraw into drugs and alcohol a lot of times and end up out on the street," Phyllis Abbott, founder of Sheppard's Hands, told the station. "We want to make this a place where women come in and, they've been on the street, and all the sudden they're home and they're going to be loved on."
Women who move into the house will be able to live there for as long as a year, the report said. During that time, they will get access to support groups, counseling, job training, and so on, as part of an effort to get them on their feet again and move toward independent, healthy living once again.
The more that veterans in need to reach out to organizations such as these, which aim to provide a hand up to former servicemembers regardless of their situations, the better off they're likely to be going forward.