WIDOWS, WIVES, veterans, and people with disabilities gather every month to help those falling between the cracks. During these educational workshops at the Bowling Green Library behind Greenwood High School, people discover the means to obtain a home. Others become equipped to navigate the legal system. More learn about weather dangers and scam warnings.
Through this group, food fills hungry stomachs, toys entertain children, and blankets warm shivering bodies roaming the streets.
They call themselves The Empowerment Group Making A Difference. Debbie Harwood works as a leader, though she views herself more as a servant.
The Kentucky native grew up outside Bowling Green in Alvaton as a farm girl and one of eight children. Her parents instilled in her a hard work ethic every day. Growing up with family members, neighbors, and friends who served implanted the importance of recognizing and honoring veterans within her.
Harwood also witnessed the life of service through her parents, seeing neighbors, friends, and strangers reap benefits.
“My mother was a role model and someone in the community that was always giving. She would help neighbors [with] food [and] take them to the grocery,” Harwood said. “She set the example of kindness and giving back to others.”
With the right background, skills, and desire, Harwood aimed to characterize her life through service. She assisted others alongside her husband, a disabled veteran, celebrating 50 years of marriage together in 2025. Carolyn Kates Glass also became a key partner in reaching her goals as the two coordinated efforts with agencies to provide information and resources.
In 2023, Glass suggested starting an organization to empower vulnerable people often forgotten by communities.
That March, they began The Empowerment Group.
Developing the organization with Glass enhanced the ability to reach the community through providing workshops, resources, services, and collaborations with community partners.
Professionals, retirees, widows, veterans, wives of veterans, and others now gather together to obtain information and resources to enhance their well-being and to enrich the lives of those in need. Participants learn about home ownership, paperwork to obtain benefits, weather, services, and more.
They collaborate with others to distribute food to those in need, toys to children, and essentials to the unhoused.
“I always had a great desire to give back to our community. I had wonderful opportunities in my career to learn things and had the resources and information to share with others,” Harwood said.
Mothers without transportation receive food for their children.
One homeless man found a home.
Members delivered food daily to a terminally ill veteran until his death.
Help came to a grandmother facing the challenge of caring for her grandchildren after her daughter died homeless. Still dealing with such a traumatic event, the grandmother struggled to give the children the Christmas she wanted them to experience, so The Empowerment Group donated to make that Christmas more possible.
In other words, they empower people to take control of their lives.
“We look at what topics are needed in our community. We also look at projects that are needed in our community, like collecting warm items for The Warming Tree, giving things to Room In The Inn, and collecting toys for Toys for Tots,” Harwood explained.
Harwood’s group meets at public places — such as the Bob Kirby Branch Library — once and sometimes twice a month. They also offer the community annual veteran lunches, resource fairs, and mental health events.
“We look within the community,” Harwood said. “People will reach out to us and say, ‘I’d like to come to one of your meetings,’ especially if it’s a subject that is of interest to them. That’s one of the magical things about The Empowerment Group: You get to pick and choose what you want to be involved in.”
Sometimes, members only need to offer simple acts of kindness, fellowship, or purpose, an elusive but essential ingredient to a fulfilled life. These acts can be passing out Christmas cards to the lonely at nursing homes. Even donations go a long way.
In any way possible, Harwood welcomes everyone to join the mission of empowerment.
Those wishing to get involved with The Empowerment Group Making A Difference to change lives can visit the group’s Facebook page, where activities are regularly posted. GN
