A nonprofit that provides behavioral health, housing, employment, and re-entry services for veterans officially opened in downtown Plymouth Tuesday.
The Boston-based Volunteers of America of Massachusetts, known as VOAMASS, held a traditional ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the launch of its Plymouth Area Veterans Center at 20 North Park Ave., in collaboration with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Veterans Services.
The center “will be a place where veterans from different service branches, phases of life, and backgrounds can come together to get peer support, connect to services, and create community,” according to a press release.
“We are thrilled to open a one-stop shop for veteran services in the town of Plymouth, and to expand our whole-person, trauma-informed care offerings for veterans living across the South Shore,” said VOAMASS CEO Charles Gagnon, who was on hand for the opening.
The ceremony was also attended by other veterans group leaders, along with local and state officials. They included the state’s secretary of Veterans Services, Jon Santiago – who did the ribbon-cutting honors – state Representative Kathleen R. LaNatra, and Plymouth Town Manager Derek Brindisi.
In his remarks, Santiago said, “The center will bring services to veterans that they need and deserve, and we look forward to hearing how lives are changed in this new space.”
VOMASS said it serves more than 3,500 veterans across Massachusetts, including those who were incarcerated and transitioning back into life outside of prison.
The group is an offshoot of the Volunteers of America, which was founded in 1896.
The Massachusetts organization, which was incorporated in1934, supplies “medication for both mental health and substance disorders, individual and group therapy, peer support, and care coordination,” according to its website. “Behavioral health services are delivered alongside employment and housing services to ensure whole-person needs are met,” it said.
Mark Pothier can be reached at mark@plymouthindependent.org.