Veterans care home Broughton House is toasting a £200,000 funding boost to expand its Armed Forces Support Hub which helps ex-servicemen and women to transition successfully to civilian life…
The Salford home’s support hub is a one-stop shop which assists veterans from across the north west with health, welfare, housing, social and employment issues. It was launched in January last year and will be a key element of the £14m Veterans Care Village which is being developed at Broughton House.
National charity Forces Support has pledged the money over three years to enable the hub to grow. The charity provides support to families of men and women killed while serving in the British Armed Forces, as well as to former service personnel and their families who are in need through financial hardship.
Its activities: practical home and garden maintenance services, remembrance and play areas, remembrance benches and treasured memory books which bring a long-term emotional benefit to the families it supports.
In addition, Forces Support works with housing trusts to play an active role in supplying funding to assist with homes for veterans and encourage other organisations such as housing associations to do the same. This helps to address problems of homelessness, financial disadvantage and poor mental and physical health among veterans.
Carol Reynolds, chief executive of Forces Support, said: “We are delighted to be going into partnership with Broughton House to assist in the early stages of the hub project by providing funds over the next three years. We believe this is a vital initiative which we hope will be a huge success in helping serving and non-serving veterans in need of assistance.”
The Broughton House hub offers bespoke assistance to veterans with issues such as debt, benefits, health and well-being, drug and alcohol matters, as well as help with education, training and job opportunities.
Chris Lindsay, chief executive of Broughton House, said: “Our Armed Forces Support Hub focuses on early intervention and support to help veterans and their families deal with the challenges they face when they transition to civilian life so they can lead fulfilling lives.
“We’re extremely grateful to Forces Support for its financial commitment at this crucial period of change for Broughton House. As we have started building our dream Veterans Care Village, which will be the first of its kind in the country, this funding will enable our hub to grow and will provide the veteran community across the north west with a support mechanism that I believe will be second-to-none.”
The north west is home to over 500,000 veterans, of whom 50 per cent are reported to have at least one long-term health problem.
