Extending our services to the wider community
Veterans in Scotland, as elsewhere, can suffer from isolation and loneliness, when years of service and productivity, alongside military comrades, finally end. Young, unemployed veterans living alone, perhaps with PTSD, and older veterans, bereaved or living with a sensory or cognitive impairment, can all be affected – with potentially tragic outcomes. Our residents benefit enormously from our daily offering of stimulating, meaningful activities and therapeutic sessions.
We therefore decided to extend similar services to veterans in the wider community. The Erskine Veterans Activity Centre, housed in a converted Victorian stable block, welcomes 170 members weekly, of all ages, to enjoy hot lunches, woodworking, music, archery, rambling, computing, arts, crafts, casework support and relaxation therapy, alongside like-minded souls with a shared heritage. We are therefore seeking similar, characterful venues across Scotland, from which to extend these impactful services to veterans who are isolated and lonely.
Delivering outstanding care and support services is a very expensive endeavour. Annually, we must raise £10 million to bridge the funding gap between what veterans and local authorities can contribute and the cost of providing levels of care and support which we believe veterans deserve. However, fundraising is a growing challenge. Economic uncertainties mean fewer people can donate and those who can understandably seek assurance that their investment will achieve outcomes. Historically, around 50 per cent of our voluntary income was met by gifts left in the wills of people, whose families traditionally supported “The Erskine Hospital” during conflicts. The sad demise of the World Wars generation has seen our gift income decline. We are now investing more into seeking, engaging and stewarding a new family of supporters and corporates – inspiring them with the range of innovative services we offer to the Scottish veteran community. This will involve opening new marketing, communications and donation platforms, as well as more productive collaboration.
We also remain attuned to how veterans’ needs change and what support they need to live life to the fullest. We are actively considering more Erskine Veterans Activity Centres in new locations, to deliver both meaningful social support and potential development of other services. Thus, veterans can live better lives with their loved ones and friends in their own communities. Whatever we do, veterans can be sure of a century’s worth of understanding and compassionate care services, optimised by the very latest learning and technology. We are therefore quietly confident that our current and future supporters will, like Erskine, be “Proud to Care”.