The Home Depot Foundation to Remodel Shepherd Center SHARE Military Initiative Housing

On November 1 at 10:00 a.m. at Biscayne Place, 65 Biscayne Drive Northwest, Atlanta, GA, The Home Depot® Foundation and Shepherd Center will announce a new partnership for Shepherd Center’s SHARE (Shaping Hope And Recovery Excellence) Military Initiative. As part of the partnership, The Home Depot Foundation is providing nearly 50 Team Depot volunteers to remodel and renovate the apartments used by military patients during intensive brain injury rehabilitation at Shepherd Center. The renovations will be done Oct. 31 through Nov. 2, 2012 at Biscayne Place, one of three apartment buildings Shepherd Center maintains to provide apartments to the families of patients from outside Atlanta.

Shepherd Center’s SHARE Military Initiative began in 2008 to provide rehabilitation care for servicemen and women who have sustained traumatic brain injury while serving the United States during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over time, the program has focused primarily on mild traumatic brain injury, which causes significant physical, behavioral and cognitive deficiencies. 

SHARE provides a comprehensive curriculum, specifically tailored to meet the needs of each client. Services include housing, physical, occupational, vocational and speech therapy, life coaching, therapeutic recreation, and legal, financial and psychological counseling. In addition, SHARE staff members assist clients with a return to work and/or school, provide peer support through military volunteers and assist clients in navigating the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system and the Medical Evaluation Board (MEB) process. 

Patients in the SHARE Military Initiative have come from all service branches and receive their care at no cost to them or their families. On average, insurance providers pay only 38 cents of every dollar’s cost of care, leaving Shepherd Center Foundation to raise about $70,000 per month to keep the program running. 

“The Home Depot Foundation is committed to ensuring that every veteran has a safe place to call home. We pledge to recognize and celebrate the service of all veterans by using our financial and volunteer resources to ensure these brave men and women have a safe and comfortable place to call home,” said Kelly Caffarelli, President, The Home Depot Foundation.  “The Shepherd Center is one of the key organizations working to address the needs of veterans and their families, and we are honored to help them increase their ability to serve those who have served us all.”

“Shepherd Center relies on the generosity of donors to deliver world-renowned care to the service members in our SHARE Military Initiative,” added Shepherd Center Foundation Executive Director Scott H. Sikes. “The support from The Home Depot Foundation will allow Shepherd Center to continue to help these heroes make a successful transition back to the community.”

About The Home Depot® Foundation

In 2011, The Home Depot Foundation committed $30 million over three years to nonprofit organizations dedicated to improving the homes of economically disadvantaged veterans. The Home Depot Foundation surpassed the pledge more than a year ahead of schedule. As part of its second annual Celebration of Service campaign, the Foundation is now committing an additional $50 million to housing nonprofits over the next three years in an effort to ensure every veteran has a safe place to call home. 

Through Team Depot, the company's associate-led volunteer program, thousands of Home Depot associates volunteer their time and talents to positively transform neighborhoods and perform basic repairs and modifications to homes and to the facilities serving veterans with critical housing needs.

Since its formation in 2002, The Home Depot Foundation has granted more than $300 million to nonprofit organizations improving homes and lives in local communities. To learn more and see our associates in action, visit www.homedepotfoundation.org, follow us on Twitter @homedepotfdn and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/homedepotfoundation.