Veterans In Action (VIA) is a veteran-led charity specialising in long-term support for those struggling after their service. Since 2008, we have worked with more than 2,000 veterans facing PTSD and other mental health difficulties and have taken over 600 veterans on expeditions across the UK, Europe, and the United States. These experiences form a core part of our Post-Traumatic Growth methodology, giving veterans challenge, purpose, and a strong sense of community.
Alongside this, VIA delivers a complete in-house welfare service. From the first phone call to tribunal representation, our team supports veterans through the practical pressures that often sit beneath trauma, including benefits, debt, housing, and Armed Forces Compensation. Nothing is outsourced; veterans receive consistent support throughout.
We describe our approach as building a house, where you must first lay strong foundations.
A veteran’s recovery will not hold if the foundations are unstable. PTSD rarely exists on its own; it can include some, if not all, of the following: housing issues, debt, benefit confusion, family strain, and a loss of purpose. These problems act like subsidence beneath the build. Our long-term projects form the structure, providing veterans with routine, purpose, and a sense of belonging. At the same time, the welfare work strengthens the foundations and removes the barriers that undermine stability. The two parts work together to create lasting Post-Traumatic Growth.
This integrated, veteran-led method is unique within the veteran’s community. It offers a genuine wrap-around service where veterans are supported continuously, not only while welfare issues are resolved but through long-term project work that always gives them something real to work towards.
Every project at VIA is visual, practical, and built around tangible results, whether that is rebuilding a vehicle for a future expedition, developing an eighteen-acre woodland, learning to film and edit project footage, flying drones, producing podcasts, or using printing and embroidery equipment to create the clothing they wear. These projects provide purpose, routine, and visible progress. Veterans grow through the work they do, then carry that growth forward as they take part in expeditions across the UK, Europe, and the United States.
Veterans In Action supports the Armed Forces Community through a long-term, structured pathway that meets veterans wherever they are in their recovery. Our ALIVE Programme is designed to work with small numbers over extended periods, allowing each veteran to move at a pace that suits their mental health, confidence, and stability. This approach produces lasting results, with many veterans reaching a point where they feel they no longer need further support services, which in turn benefits the wider veterans’ charitable community.
We use a tiered project structure that reaches veterans at different stages of recovery.
Our Stepping Stone Projects provide gentle, accessible entry points for those experiencing severe anxiety, isolation, or low confidence. Activities such as Walk & Talk, Bricks & Banter, and Step by Step require no prior skills and enable veterans to re-engage gradually, build trust, and regain a routine.
As confidence grows, veterans transition into our intensive long-term projects, including vehicle building, woodland development, creative production, and film and media work. These projects are hands-on, visual, and produce tangible results. Veterans can see and measure their progress through the vehicles they build, the woodland they develop, the clothing they create, or the films they produce. Each project reinforces purpose, teamwork, and achievement.
Underlying all of this is our practical application of Post-Traumatic Growth. VIA transforms the academic study of PTG into a measurable, lived experience. Veterans rebuild confidence by achieving new skills, strengthen relationships through teamwork, and discover new possibilities through purposeful activity. Progress is monitored through attendance, engagement, personal goal-setting, and regular feedback, enabling us to track development over time, both in months and years.
While veterans participate in these projects, our in-house welfare team works alongside them to remove the barriers that often hinder their recovery. This means no veteran is left waiting in isolation. Welfare support and project work are integrated, providing veterans with stability, routine, and forward momentum throughout the entire process.
This combined approach provides veterans with a clear, long-term path to recovery, delivered by individuals who understand their unique experiences. It creates genuine, sustainable change and reduces the likelihood of veterans returning for repeated support, which strengthens the impact of the sector as a whole.
We are proud to be part of a sector that is built on service, collaboration, and a shared commitment to ensuring no veteran faces trauma, crisis, or complex systems alone. The veterans’ charitable community is filled with organisations doing exceptional work, each bringing specialist strengths that contribute to a wider network of support.
At Veterans In Action, our pride stems from the unique niche we have carved out within that network. We do not replicate the work of any other organisation. Instead, we offer something entirely different, a long-term, practical approach to Post-Traumatic Growth that combines hands-on projects, welfare support, and expedition work under one roof. This niche has been built deliberately and patiently, shaped over eighteen years of continuous development.
We are proud of the ALIVE Programme, a completely original model that turns the study of Post-Traumatic Growth into a measurable, practical pathway for veterans. It has been developed through experience, research, and the lived reality of the veterans we support.
We are proud of the centre we have established on a private estate on the Hampshire/Wiltshire border, the only one of its kind in the veterans charitable community. It provides a stable base where small numbers of veterans work with us over long periods, building skills, confidence, and community through meaningful activity.
We are proud of our welfare team, whose work has secured more than £7 million in legitimate outcomes for veterans over the last year. This has restored stability to families, prevented crises, and given veterans the solid foundations they need to rebuild their lives.
We are proud of the expeditions that have taken veterans to over thirty countries. These journeys challenge comfort zones, strengthen relationships, and often mark turning points in recovery. Veterans who began on our projects have gone on to achieve things they once believed were impossible.
Most of all, we are proud of the transformation we see in the veterans themselves. Watching someone arrive isolated, anxious, or overwhelmed, then steadily rebuild identity, purpose, and confidence, is the core of our work. Seeing veterans reach a place where they no longer need ongoing support, because they feel stable, capable, and connected, is the greatest reward we could have.
This is the contribution we bring to the wider veteran’s community, and it is what makes us proud to be part of the sector.
Being a member of Cobseo strengthens our work by placing Veterans In Action within a national framework of shared standards, collaboration, and accountability. As an organisation that provides a unique, long-term approach to Post-Traumatic Growth, we need to remain closely connected to the wider sector so that our specialist work supports, complements, and enhances the services offered by other charities.
Cobseo membership helps us do this in several ways. It keeps us aligned with national priorities, emerging needs, and best practice, ensuring that the ALIVE Programme continues to evolve in line with what veterans require today, not what they needed a decade ago. This is critical for a programme that has been under continuous development for eighteen years.
Membership also enables us to share our practical, measurable approach to Post-Traumatic Growth with the sector. VIA’s model does not replicate any existing service, and Cobseo provides an important platform for demonstrating how our long-term projects, welfare integration, and expedition work add value to the wider veteran community. The ability to present how welfare foundations, hands-on projects, and small-group long-term engagement can help veterans reach a point where they no longer need ongoing support is an important contribution to national understanding.
Cobseo also strengthens our ability to engage with funders and partners. Being part of an established national body gives external stakeholders confidence that our work is grounded in high standards, clear governance, and sector-wide collaboration. This credibility enables us to maintain and expand our centre on the Hampshire/Wiltshire border, which is the only facility of its kind in the sector, and to continue developing long-term projects that facilitate steady, sustainable recovery.
Most importantly, Cobseo membership ensures that VIA remains part of the collective effort to support the Armed Forces Community. While our work is highly specialised, it sits within a wider network that shares knowledge, avoids duplication, and works together to meet veterans’ needs. Being connected to that community helps us continually improve our work, stay focused on our niche, and ensure our long-term, hands-on model delivers lasting benefits to veterans and their families.
Afghanistan support
In light of recent events in Afghanistan, please find information and support resources here