How does Church Homeless Trust help Veterans?
Getting off the streets is hard. Staying off them can be even harder. This is a key concept behind the work carried out by Church Homeless Trust. The main thrust of what this charity sets out to achieve is to get homeless people to take positive steps forward, to get off the street and to live in a place they can call home.
A common path that homeless people who are supported by Church Homeless Trust share is Streets > Hostel > Private Tenancy. This is a path that is actively pursued by the charity as their experience has shown that it works.
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for a Veteran to find themselves on the streets. Often a combination of some of the Eight D’s (drink, debt, drugs, divorce, depression, domestic violence, dependency culture, and digs) result in there being too much for a Veteran to cope with and retain stability. CEO of SSAFA, Sir Andrew Gregory explains: “So often, the challenges facing the people we help start from something simple. Perhaps something like having come out of the armed forces, they don’t budget very well and they get into debt, they default on the rent, they lose their accommodation, they then find they’ve lost the job, then the relationship breaks down, then that leads to mental issues that perhaps they’ve had come to the fore.”
Church Homeless Trust know that getting Veterans off the street does not require a one size fits all mentality. They approach every person as an individual who has specific needs. They work with each Veteran to determine how they can best help. Often when the Veteran is off the street, they fund courses, counselling and workshops that aim to tackle the specific issues the person faces.
How Veterans’ Foundation helps homeless Veterans
Using funds awarded by Veterans’ Foundation, Church Homeless Trust has helped to set up the Veterans’ Artisan Bakery. This project is a community bakery which gives Veterans practical skills in a working environment and provides a community and support network for Veterans and their families. Many Veterans struggle with cooking once they leave the Armed Forces, as a result of realising this, the staff at Veterans’ Artisan Bakery ensured that they made cooking classes available to every Veteran who came through the charity. Many of the Veterans have used the experience they had at this project, and the food training they had to get jobs in the food industry.
One Veteran, after his first day at Veterans’ Artisan Bakery, said: “Until today I didn’t know how to make pancakes; I felt a sense of achievement and didn’t feel judged.”
Veterans’ Foundation is proud to support projects like Veterans’ Artisan Bakery. To date, we have given over £4 million to over 270 British military charities and projects. We couldn’t support the British Veterans community without our generous supporters. Please help us support even more Veterans across the UK today by Donating or by Playing the National Veterans’ Lottery - each month there is a chance to win the £35,000 rollover.
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