For the sixth consecutive year, Goodwill Industries is donating about 30-thousand dollars worth of vouchers to Kentucky veterans. Patrick Sinclair is the voluntary service officer for the Lexington VA’s Center for Development and Civic Engagement. He said the relationship began in 2019 after bedbugs were found in a clothing donation room at the VA’s Leestown Road campus and they shut it down.
“We sat down with them had a big meeting, said, ‘Hey, this is what we need.’ They came to the table, ‘This is what we have, this is what we can do.’ It started with about $30,000 in $10 increments of Goodwill vouchers.”
Sinclair said VA social workers determine which veterans need the vouchers and about three-quarters of them are distributed at the Lexington VA campuses and outpatient clinics in southern and eastern Kentucky. The rest are handled by Louisville’s VA hospital.
“So if a veteran presents to the hospital and presents with that need, our social workers can work directly with that veteran, to take them down to Goodwill, or provide them with one of the vouchers where they can go down to the store and get what they need.”
Sinclair said the VA partners with Goodwill for other programs that help veterans.
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