Veterans Overwatch Foundation expands transitional housing services with seven-day center
Not one to look to duplicate services that other agencies and nonprofits already provide, Joe Maguire saw the closing of Robin’s Home’s resource center last August as the loss of an essential service that many people relied on.
Robin’s Home, a transitional housing service for female veterans and their children, opened its Veterans H.E.A.R.T. Resource Center at 357 N. Main St. in March 2024, and Maguire said its closing left a gap in services for Butler veterans.
It took more than a year, but Maguire cut the ribbon to a new veteran outreach facility Saturday, Sept. 19, on Elm Street in Butler. Since August 2023, Maguire and his family, including his wife, Kristen Maguire, have operated the Veterans Overwatch Foundation out of a warehouse in Sarver. But the move to Butler was necessary for his main goal of providing relocation services to veterans.
But the foundation’s new digs is also a drop-in center that will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day of the week, which Maguire said took years to build up to. Saturday introduced many people in the city to people who could help them get the services they need — and most of the people working for the foundation are fellow veterans.
Maguire, the executive director of the Veterans Overwatch Foundation, said that although the new facility offers a hub for military veterans to find help or just hang out in the company of others, he still plans to be on as many moves as possible. For the past three years, he has helped veterans move furniture and clothing into new residences, which he said remains a challenge for many people as they transition from military service to civilian life.
The foundation office, which is in the same building as the Grapevine Center, is equipped with a food pantry which Maguire and his staff will use to pack weekly food boxes and hygiene packs. He said this is new to his foundation, and is a result of the loss of the services previously provided by Robin’s Home.
“My goal is to fill the gap anywhere I can,” Maguire said Saturday. “If they're homeless, if they need services, our people are here.”
Maguire also said the foundation doesn’t have employees, but staff members are paid through AARP and AmeriCorps.
Additionally, the agency is in touch with Veterans in Need and Butler County Veterans Services. It even has a go-between with VA Butler Health Care and its domiciliary in Darin Brantley, who has been working with the foundation for around eight months. Brantley used to live in the domiciliary, and now drives people with one of the foundation’s vehicles to appointments and recovery meetings.
A veteran himself, Brantley said he used to drive to get hours for community service after facing legal troubles, but now just does it as a way to keep himself on a schedule.’
“I had to get connected with the right people like Joe and Kristen and have supports in my life,” he said. “So it's something I do every Saturday, it's part of my routine. Every Saturday we do a move — we're doing one tomorrow.”
Maguire said transportation remains one of the biggest challenges for veterans struggling with housing. The agency has a moving truck on hand for big loads, but Maguire said a recent donation has him and the foundation dreaming bigger.
“Someone just donated a Honda Accord to us,” Maguire said. “Eventually we hope to get a 15-passenger van.”
For more information on Veterans Overwatch Foundation, visit its website at vetof.org.
