For the 8th year in a row, ABF The Soldiers’ Charity continues to support the wonderful work that Alabaré’s Homes for Veterans offers with a grant of £140,000. Their support for service men and women across the UK who have left active service and who are experiencing difficulty adapting to civilian life is remarkable.
Read moreEarlier this year, ABF The Soldiers’ Charity provided a £50,000 grant to Care For Veterans (formerly Queen Alexandra Hospital Homes) who continually support disabled veterans.
First established in 1919, Care For Veterans provides excellent care and rehabilitation to ex-Servicemen and women who require full-time nursing, whilst enabling patients to live as independently as possible.
Care for Veterans’ range of rehabilitation programmes include; Speech Therapy, End of Life Care, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy. They also provide specialist care for those with Acquired Brain Injury (ABI).
Read moreRecently the country rallied behind the brave ex-service men and women as they once again represented our country and battled for Gold at the Invictus Games in Toronto. It has been great to see our veterans getting the attention they deserve and shining a light on some of the issues they have faced since leaving the military.
If there is one issue that stood out to me at this year’s Games, it was mental health. I was so impressed by the number of athletes suffering from PTSD who stepped up and were willing to share their stories, which has not always been the case.
Read moreA free online course designed to help RAF couples deal with the challenges of family life has hit a milestone after its 300th family reached out for help.
Building Stronger Families, launched by the RAF Benevolent Fund with the help of national relationship charity Relate, is tailored to the needs of RAF families to give couples the skills and knowledge they need to deal with common relationship issues, including communication, conflict and family life.
The RAF Benevolent Fund has funded Relate for nine years to provide free counselling sessions for those who feel professional help would be a benefit.
Read moreThe Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, the RAF’s leading welfare charity, is pleased to announce that John Trampleasure has joined its senior leadership team as Director of Fundraising and Communications effective Monday 2 October.
John has led an exciting 25-year career in fundraising and communications within the third sector, working for organisations such as Shelter, World Animal Protection and most recently, Ambitious About Autism.
In his role, John will lead a team of more than 30 staff across RAF Benevolent Fund headquarters and regional offices as the organisation gets ready to roll out a new three-year strategic plan led by new Controller Air Vice-Marshal David Murray, who joined the Fund last year.
Read moreTuesday 10 October marks World Mental Health Day
Newly released statistics from the RAF Benevolent Fund have revealed that a significant number of RAF personnel attending relationship counselling report that their mental well-being improved following the completion of counselling.
The data comes from the most recent evaluation report of the Fund’s counselling programme, which is offered in partnership with Relate to all serving RAF personnel, free of charge. The service, which the charity funds to the tune of more than £100k per annum, has helped thousands of couples since it began nine years ago and more than 65 couples have accessed the counselling in the first half of 2017 alone.
Read moreThe RAF Association is opening its Flying Scholarship awards for the eighteenth year to grant six exceptional young people the chance to fly.
So far, 99 air cadets have benefited from the programme, with the 100th cadet due to be among the 2018 finalists. The best of the 2018 applicants will be rewarded with a course of 35 hours flight training in a light aircraft. Five ‘runners-up’ will receive 12 hours training each. The Flying Scholarship programme runs annually as a thank you from the RAF Association to members of the RAF Air Cadets for their continuous support of the charity’s fundraising.
All of the 2017 winners achieved solo flights by the end of their week of training.
Read moreThe Rt Hon Tobias Ellwood MP will outline why business should recruit former officers, at an OA event in London.
As Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Defence People and Veterans, Mr Ellwood will highlight that ‘Military is Good for Business’. As a former Army captain, he understands the career challenges officers face on leaving the Armed Forces. Former Trade Minister and Crossbench Peer, Lord Digby Jones, and Chief of Defence People, Lieutenant General Richard Nugee, will also attend.
Read moreA programme devised to access the skills of former military personnel to meet skills shortages within the NHS, is set to receive an award of recognition from the Officers’ Association (OA).
The Step into Health recruitment programme connects employers within the NHS to the pool of talent available from within the veteran Armed Forces community.
With over 350 plus career opportunities available, half of which are non clinical, Step into Health aims to capitalise on the training, leadership and personal qualities of former Service personnel to fill this roles.
Read moreThe Porffor Group, a new network in Cardiff for people who are serving and former military Personnel, is launching later this month.
The group’s first event is on Thursday 26th October 2017, at The Hopbunker in Cardiff (The Kingsway, CF10 3FD).
It was founded by John Solosy, a Chartered Financial Planner who previously served as an Army Major.
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Afghanistan support
In light of recent events in Afghanistan, please find information and support resources here
