Volunteers of America is set to get a boost this week when it receives a $100,000 grant from TD Bank that will help support the Cabin in the Woods veterans housing program.
The grant, from the TD Charitable Foundation’s Housing for Everyone initiative, will be presented to Volunteers of America officials during a ceremony Thursday at the organization’s office in Brunswick.
“We’re going to try to create a veterans housing community that combines the best of rural life with providing very accessible medical care,” said Bill Browning, manager of grants and community engagement for Volunteers of America Northern New England.
The Cabin in the Woods program will provide 21 cabins at an 11-acre wooded site on the grounds of the VA Maine Healthcare System Togus in Chelsea. The organization secured a 75-year lease for the property in 2009 and has worked to raise about $4 million for construction over the last seven years.
“It’s very exciting,” said Togus director Ryan Lilly.
Because of the wooded location, there will be added costs to bring high-speed Internet and cable to the cabins, and Browning said the grant money will be used to help pay for those improvements.
“We want to have people receive all the services they would receive in an urban setting in a rural and secluded setting,” Browning said.
There are 16 one-bedroom cabins and five two-bedroom units that will be open to single veterans or veterans with families and children.
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