The New York City-based Robin Hood Foundation has announced that it will use a portion of the $47.4 million it raised during its annual gala earlier this week to launch an initiative that connects veterans living in poverty with services such as housing, job training, health care, and counseling.

According to the Wall Street Journal, more than $11.8 million of the total raised during the event will be awarded to veterans service organizations. Through the initiative, the foundation will work with a coalition of federal, state, and local government agencies to aid veterans, reservists, national guardsman, and their families in New York City living below the poverty line and ease their transition from active military to the workforce.

During the benefit, the organization teamed up with Lady Gaga to announce the winners of a Facebook contest that asked the public to vote for one of five charities working to help disconnected youth in the region. SCO Family of Services took the top spot and will receive $1 million in $500,000 increments over the next two years. The other participants in the contest — the Door, the Hetrick-Martin Institute, Lawyers for Children, and Safe Horizon — will receive grants ranging from $50,000 to $200,000 over two years.

"Over the past twenty-three years, Robin Hood has raised and invested over $1 billion to provide our neighbors with the opportunity to learn and earn their way out of poverty," said Robin Hood executive director David Saltzman. "Almost three thousand homeless people on the streets of New York are veterans. We are concerned with the growing number of those leaving the ranks of the military and joining the ranks of the poor. We are confident that the generosity from the benefit will make an impact in the lives of our heroes."