The 2011 Poppy Appeal

From left: Lance Corporal Ryan Idzi, Staff Sergeant Ritchie Maddocks, Gethin Jones and Sergeant Major Gary Chilton
[Picture: Peter Luckhurst, Crown Copyright 2011]

The 2011 Poppy Appeal was launched yesterday.

Members of  the Armed Forces  attended the launch of The Royal British Legion's 2011 Poppy Appeal, which aims to break previous years' fundraising totals.

 

The Poppy Appeal raises funds needed to support those currently serving in Afghanistan, veterans of past conflicts, and their families.

As the UK's leading Armed Forces charity, the RBL revealed today that it hopes to raise £40 million as it celebrates its 90th anniversary this year.

New map to help services to veterans

If you provide or are planning to provide services to veterans in Scotland, then a new online resource is available for use.  A Map focusing on veterans aged between 26 and 65, where the greatest need for additional support lies, can now be found online, along with maps showing veterans in receipt of an AFPS occupational pension and those in receipt of a War Disability pension.

The Maps, which reveal where concentrations of veterans are to be found, are derived from a  Scottish Government study on the health of veterans and on data recently released by the MOD and were launched on 4 October 2011.

The maps will be made available to health boards, local authorities and charities to help them plan and deliver their services to veterans in the future.

A chance to say Thank You

Crackit Productions are looking for inspirational people who have dedicated a lot of time to helping others, who they will reward with a special treat on their new Channel 4 show. They are asking people to nominate a person who has touched their lives in some way and would like to say Thank You. The deserving people could be foster parents, carers, volunteers, charity workers, or even community heroes and they would like to talk to those whose lives have been touched by these people. It’s a fantastic opportunity to reward someone whose hard work may not previously have been recognised.

There may be many worthy nominees within the Armed Forces Community, so please help raise awareness of this appeal. If you can think of someone you would like to nominate, please get in touch and remember the treat for the person being nominated is a surprise, so they must not know they are being nominated!

 To put their name forward for this show either email  or call 0207 292 3581 / 07531 834 187.

New NHS Treatment Centres for military heroes

Dr Murrison MP lead a review into the prosthetic services currently offered to veterans by the NHS

Dr Murrison's NHS prosthetics services review recommendations have been supported by the Government.

Prime Minister David Cameron today announced that the Government is investing up to £15 million to support the recommendations to improve prosthetics services for military veterans who have lost a limb due to activities while serving their country.

StartHere . . . again!

StartHere provides online signposting for help and support

Our second podcast about the online information service is now available,

If you don't know where to go . . . then you should start here

In this second podcast, presenter Clare Ellis interviews Harvey Tilley, Assistant Director - Welfare Services from The Royal British Legion.

The Royal British Legion is one of the partner organisations working with StartHere

Harvey said:


“Helping our beneficiaries find and locate information to help them help themselves is key to our long term strategy. StartHere provides quality, trusted information that is not easily available anywhere else and it is very easy to use. The Royal British Legion has received extremely positive feedback on StartHere and we aim to build on this as part of our new strategy.”  

The podcast and other SPVA products are available to access on the SPVA Social Media Hub via our website and on various social media sites such as iTunes and YouTube.

Share your stories for remembrance

See Hear, the BBC’s programme for the Deaf and Hard of hearing and planning to broadcast a special Remembrance Day episode on 9 November and are keen to find personnel or incident-related stories relating to deafness in conflict or military service.

At the moment their remit is quite wide, so they can identify potential stories. So, you don’t need to have served in the Armed Forces, if you were a civilian in a back-up role such as Fire Watching, Munitions Production, Land Army, Nursing, driving or any of the other myriad roles that need filling during times of conflict, then consider sharing your story.

In fact anything to do with war or conflict, in either the Second World War or more recently in Northern Ireland, the Falklands Conflict, Iraq, Kuwait, the Balkans . . . would be of interest to See Hear, if it involves deafness or hearing loss. Ideally they are looking either for people who have suffered serious hearing loss due to military action or Service or people who were born deaf but have been able to serve in some way during one of the nation’s conflicts. Further details about the potential stories See Hear are looking for, can be found here.

To be considered for the programme, send a brief synopsis of your story via email to John Lakey BBC researcher or call 0121 567660. Then he may contact you to look into it in more detail. Please remember to include: your contact details, email, phone and address.

Do you support veterans?



Communications Team members working on the Charity Hub

If you work for a charity or organisation providing support and advice to veterans then you may be interested in a new page that's being developed on our website.

Some of my colleagues on the Communications Team are working on a new charity hub that will be housed on our website and is part of our commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant.

The charity hub pages will hold a greater amount of detail, than before, and is designed to assist you, if either YOU need help or you're helping someone else.
This is where we need your help... If you work for an organisation, charity or service that can or does provide support to veterans, in either the community or voluntary sector, then please send us your details so we can add you to our hub.

Our website has on average 40,000 to 50,000 visitors per month. Just think of how many people could find out about your services and how you support the Armed Forces Community.

And it doesn't end here... if you, indeed, just know of a service that veterans could benefit from, then we also would like to hear from you, please just drop us an email and we will endeavour to contact the service provider for more details. We need the following details:

• Logo
• Title
• Background
• What kind of help and advice can I get?
• Who can get the help and advice?
• Contact us
• Image (Optional)

We hope this new hub will allow services to reach more of the Armed Forces Community, so they know of the valuable and vast amount of help that is available to them.

If you don't know where to start...StartHere!

Our latest podcasts focus on this online information service.
 
StartHere is an online information service where you can search for information on help and support services that are available locally or on a national basis.

A number of organisations, including SPVA, have been working with the StartHere charity to provide specific guidance for the Armed Forces Community.

Spanning two podcasts; the first podcast is now available. It features presenter Joanne Lowe interviewing Jane Gammage, Community Partnerships Manager from StartHere, as she explains more about this innovative service.

Jane said:

"Providing access to reliable information about the services available to them is a crucial step to help people get the support to really make a difference to their lives. This is what StartHere is all about and we are really pleased to be able to make that difference to members of the Armed Forces Community. After listening to the podcast, take a look at StartHere".

The second podcast will be released next week and features presenter Clare Ellis speaking to Harvey Tilley, Assistant Director - Welfare Services for the Royal British Legion to find out about their involvement.

The podcast and other SPVA social media products are available to access on the SPVA Social Media Hub via the Veterans-UK website, and on various social media sites such as iTunes and YouTube.