TAMPA, Fla. — The Homeless Empowerment Program (HEP) recently received a grant from the Florida Veterans Foundation to provide free dental care to U.S. veterans at HEP’s Doc Johnston Memorial and Wellness Clinic.
The initial amount of $30,000 has already been providing benefits to Veterans. In the first two months of the funding cycle, the Clinic has provided more than $9,000 in dental services for Veterans in need.
“It started out as a thirty-thousand-dollar grant from September through December. But it’s an ongoing grant, so as we move along, they’re actually going to continue to give us funding each month as we treat more and more Veterans,” explained Polly Ward, the Dental Clinic Manager.
One of the veterans being treated at the Clinic is Cedric Yon, who served in the U.S. Army for several years and said he had nowhere else to turn, “I hadn’t had any work for like the last seven years since I’ve been out of the military. The moment the filling fell out of my mouth, I had nowhere to go to get work and stuff done. Once I came across this place, I mean it was a legitimate blessing. I can’t see it as anything else other than that.”
For HEP to provide the needed care that many veterans often go without is something that is beyond exciting for Yon. “Once some veterans get out, sometimes they just don’t know how to get their resources; they don’t know what to do."
"The fact that this place helps veterans out, helps them get their dental work done, amongst other things, is phenomenal," he said.
Neighbors share why they're 'adopting-a-drain' as City looks to grow program
The city says about 40 drains have been adopted so far; the goal is 5,500.
