Thank you to BFBS Big Salute Campaign Awards Grant funding of £5,000 to Beyond the Battlefield.
This grant funding has been awarded to rent a room to offer A Veterans Meet Up Eat Up Club.
We held a focus group in our Newtownards offices offering an open forum for debate around what Veterans wanted and what a gathering would mean to them if funding were granted. The highest percentage of veterans wanted a breakfast/lunch club to enable meeting up, having a coffee, chatting, telling stories, and communicating and staying together and connected. A great topic of interest involved Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and how to seek real and true help for veterans needs. They want to meet up and enjoy a breakfast, banter, and conversation on the last Friday of every month. Thanks to BFBS this is a great opportunity for Veterans to socialise and enjoy the company of like minded veterans helping to remove social isolation and exclusion. The veterans can see for themselves how PTSD and mental health issues have impacted upon others in their daily living and commit to helping each other. The first session will commence at Beyond the Battlefield on Friday 30th of April 2021 at 11.30am. Other than those already signed up if you wish to attend please contact Annemarie telephone 02891228389. Obviously, we are still following covid guidelines and regulation so please do ring first so that we are adhering to numbers attending. If for any reason you miss the first session you will added to the list for next time.
A note from the Chairman: Robert McCartney. Our mission through this funding from BFBS is to create communities of listening around veterans and that this living history is never forgotten. The Meet Up eat Up Club focus will be to have regular one to ones, group chats and encourage better well being and mental health in a less formal and open environment. This project will be led by veterans and what they want to happen and how they would want to see it evolve. We are grateful to BFBS Big Salute Campaign Awards funding to carry this project forward.
Robert McCartney Chairman & Counsellor.
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