Ingham County Veterans Affairs receives state grant

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The Ingham County Department of Veteran Affairs has received a grant from the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency to help fund services for the next year.   

The 2022 County Veteran Service Fund grant is worth $163,395 and will be used to help Ingham County’s 13,778 veterans.   

“The counties can use it for just about anything that they feel that their veterans in the area need as long as they can tie it to connecting veterans with their benefits,” said Karen Rowlader, a grant specialist at the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency. “Each county uses the grant money a little bit differently. We want this money ready to go to all the counties that can have it.”      

Amy Pocan, acting director of the Ingham County Department of Veteran Affairs, said she could not yet disclose how the department will use the grant because the grant money is still being finalized.    

The county’s services for veterans include property tax exemption, compensation, disability pension, home loan guarantee, small business and employment resources, education and others. 

Each county in the state is eligible to receive $50,000, with additional funding based on how many veterans live in the county.   

Carolyn Kidd, a Lansing veteran who served in the Air Force, Army and military police for 17 years, said programs like this can help veterans learn more about assistance programs available to them.  

“I think this fund could help a lot of people,” Kidd said. “There’s a lot of benefits that are available to service members, but they don’t always know what they are.”

Doug Masseau, a Marine Corps veteran from Lansing, was encouraged with how grant funds might be used to keep veterans engaged in the community.

“Just because a veteran is wounded or disabled, that doesn’t mean he’s history,” he said. “He’s still active. He still has a mind. He still has a heart. He has all the things going for him. So, he’s productive in his own way and there’s so many different areas that veterans are doing things in.”

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