COVINGTON, Ky. — Each of us have milestones in our life that will forever be engrained in our memories. For Navy veteran Joe Robinson one of those moments took place as he was transported to his new ship the USS Enterprise on a Grumman C-2 Greyhound.
“Going from 160 miles per hour to zero is something else,” Robinson said.
After his service he went back to school and became an expert in finance and taxes. For 15 years he said he loved working for a tax preparation company in Norwood.
But another memory he’ll never shake came when the COVID-19 pandemic struck the U.S.
“COVID goes down and it puts everything in a standstill,” Robinson said. “When COVID goes down not only am I out of work, I mean, it essentially put me on the street.”
With no income and an economy turned upside down and shuttered in many ways, he soon found himself at the Welcome House shelter in Covington, Kentucky.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” he said he thought to himself.
“He came to us and he was really educated with finances and taxes,” said Julie Smith, supervisor of shelter services for Welcome House.
She said Joe was not only on a mission to help himself, he would also try and educate other veterans about benefits and resources to help them get back on their feet.
Julie said she and her team not only worked to connect Joe to job services but connected him to housing benefits through the Supportive Services for Veteran Families.
"We were a safety net,” Smith said. “We didn’t just say 'oh you have an apartment you gotta go,' we said, 'let’s get it all situated.'"
That meant ensuring he had furniture, utilities and other necessities to get him back on his feet. All the while Joe admits that his willingness to help himself played the biggest role; to create a resume after nearly 20 years and to go after a position that could be a career and not just a job.
“Got my resume established and somehow it landed in the Kentucky personnel’s website and it brought me here with the State of Kentucky,” he said.
He landed an interview with and ultimately got the job as a revenue program officer for the Commonwealth. Julie Smith said when the notification came in it was a boost for everyone.
“I was so proud because he had been with us for so long working on himself, working temporarily with tax services and worried about what he was going to do next that was the big game changer for him,” Smith said.
Julie Smith, citing Joe’s genuine kindness and willingness to help other veterans be successful, nominated Joe to be one of Welcome House’s board members. It’s an honor Joe graciously accepted and he looks forward to growing within his new mission.
“If there’s anyway I can give back to these people with what they have given to me I am all there for it,” he said.
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