In honor of Veterans Day, the Homer Foundation announced last week on Nov. 4 the creation of a new Veterans Fund to support programs that enhance the lives of veterans and their families on the southern Kenai Peninsula.

Jennifer Gibbons, director of developing and marketing, with the Homer Foundation, told the Homer News the Kenai Peninsula has one of the largest populations of veterans in Alaska, with an estimated 1,500 in total on the peninsula

“Our goal in establishing the fund is to help build connections among area veterans, to foster awareness and increase support for veterans’ needs for things such as education, mental health and employment support,” Gibbons said. “We’re trying to raise awareness for what’s there and how to tap into it,” she said.

When the Homer Foundation established the fund, they noticed that one primary feature missing from veteran support is a gap in communicating where veteran services are specifically available. It’s not that services don’t exist, but that people don’t necessarily know where to find the connections, she said.

For example, Gibbons said, a veteran in need of a service dog might not be aware of what might be available at the Homer Animal Shelter. “We want to help people convene across the various providers,” she said.

This new grant is a follow-up to some of the outreach the Homer Foundation has done with the Alaska Warrior Partnership, including a preliminary meeting of collaborators that took place at the Kachemak Bay Campus in April of this year. This organization is a division of the national Veteran Empowerment Program. In an April 2024 article of the Homer News, Alaska Warrior Partnership program lead, Jessy Larkin, described the intention of the meeting in Homer.

“Our organization and the Homer Foundation came together to create a lower Kenai Peninsula partnership meeting. The concept is to bring resources in the region. It could be either nonprofits or for-profits or government agencies, to form partnerships to figure out how to solve problems for local veterans.”

The fund was established by the board of trustees in honor of Mike Miller, a U.S. veteran, who recently retired after serving as the foundation’s executive director for five years, according to the Homer Foundation’s press release. Homer Foundation board member Denise Pitzman is also a veteran.

Gibbons provided an email comment stating, “anyone who wants to support veterans on the Southern Kenai Peninsula may contribute to the fund. We establishing a starting point for support that we invite community members to help us build and grow.”

Information for contacting the Homer Foundation is available through their website.