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09 Jan 25. Chelsea pensioners Outreach Programme Annual Report.
‘Helping Veterans to Live a Better Life for Longer’
INTRODUCTION
- Having launched Chelsea Pensioners Veterans’ Outreach (CPVO) programme in November 2022 the programme has expanded and progressed significantly in terms of realising our vision to share the fundamental benefits of the RHC community, in particular comradeship and social engagement with the wider tri-service veteran community beyond the RHC. The actual number of veteran participants has increased to a total 281 registered with the Chelsea Outreach element of the programme. We have also extended our reach beyond the Greater London region and attracted some 300+ veterans to our Nationwide Outreach Roadshows in the Northeast, Northwest and Southeast regions.
Registrations by Age
- An uplift in staffing and resources have now enabled the programme to develop as a core function of the RHC with appropriate representation by the Director CPVO, appointed in May 2024, on the Executive Board. Having initially been dependent on RHC core funds, thanks to the efforts of the Fundraising Team the programme is now largely financed through programme specific donations.
CHELSEA OUTREACH
- Chelsea Outreach has been the primary focus of CPVO activities, and we arranged a total of 14 themed events during 2024, ranging from Singalongs to Games Afternoons to talks by speakers such as Sqn Ldr John Peters who was shot down over Iraq in Jan 1991. Attendance at most of these events has averaged 28
- Turnout at the major event of the year, the Annual Veterans’ Picnic on 8th August was very well attended. A total of 143 attended the event at which we achieved 76 new registrations including 54 veterans, the other 22 being carers/spouses. A short video of the picnic is at: https://youtu.be/SJn-iBL7zaE
- The Governor’s Review on 4th June was by invitation to those who were already registered and 71 veterans/carers and DPs attended. The Annual CPVO Carol Service in December featuring the Chelsea Pensioner Singers will likely attract a similar number as it did last year.
- In April we launched our first formal partnership project with boxing charity, The Fighting Chance (TFC). The project, ‘Off the Canvas, it’s Never Too Late’ offers non -contact boxing training, tailored appropriately for the age and physical abilities of older veterans, in a series of monthly sessions. It has proved a very popular activity with 15 – 25 regular participants, a mixture of veterans, including a group from BLESMA as well as a number In Pensioners (IPs) at each session.
- In September we occupied a new Veterans Outreach Centre in the refurbished Soane Stable Yard (SSY) and are now able to offer a weekly Drop -In service for veterans to attend, meet and engage informally with IP Volunteers and DPs. We offer two sessions once per week, currently on a Thursday morning and afternoon. Attendance peaked at 14 veterans at one of the early Drop Ins and the average is now 3 or 4 at each session. We aim to improve these figures in 2025 through a vigorous marketing effort and changing the timings of weekly sessions to Wednesday afternoons and Thursday mornings during a three-month pilot.
- IP Volunteers continue to attend Veteran Breakfast Clubs in the Greater London region and to support events arranged by veteran focussed groups such as NHS Op COURAGE at St Pancras Hospital and the monthly veterans Drop-In at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital Trust.
NATIONWIDE OUTREACH
- The aim of Nationwide Outreach is to expand the scope of the programme beyond London and into the UK regions where there are large concentrations of service veterans. The regional model is based upon collaboration with established local service charities and organisations who are focused on supporting veterans. We offer the same comradeship, peer support and social interaction with IP Volunteers as we do at our events in Chelsea.
- So far we have conducted three Regional Roadshows; the Northeast in April; the Northwest in July; the Southeast in October. Our main objective of each was to establish partnerships with local veterans’ organizations where the influence and reputation of the Chelsea Pensioner brand might augment and enhance the activities of these established groups to the benefit of local veterans. We achieved this objective and confirmed the positive impact of social engagement between IPs and local veterans beyond the London region.
- All the Roadshows were based upon the Singalong model we use at some of our events in Chelsea and which have proved to be a very popular vehicle for creating a convivial atmosphere with easy interaction between all veterans, IPs, DPs and staff. We provided a buffet lunch for all participants, and a raffle which helped offset some of our costs.
- The last of our Regional Roadshows was in the Southeast and we partnered with 3 other Veterans Charities, Veterans Outreach Support (VOS) based in Portsmouth, Hants; Blind Veterans UK based in Rustington, W Sussex; and RBLI based in Aylesford Kent.
- Moving forward to 2025, the Southeast is also where we will pilot the implementation of our plans to develop sustainable and enduring connections with each of the regions. The Southeast was selected because it has a sizeable veteran population with a range of hotspots across the 8 counties in the region. We plan to appoint a Regional Outreach Officer and to recruit volunteers to represent veterans in each of the counties. The geographical spread will present challenges but relative proximity to our base in Chelsea is an advantage in terms of monitoring our model as it develops.
DIGITAL OUTREACH
- Digital Outreach will increase the reach of the programme by connecting digitally with veterans and providing a virtual lifeline to those who may be socially isolated wherever they are located. Under the Director CPVO, Giles Woodhouse, this element of the programme has progressed and at time of writing we are selecting the appropriate platform to meet our requirements to reach out to the wider veteran community digitally. There are two contenders and presentations and interviews are ongoing. We expect to have selected our digital partner by the end of the year and will appoint a Digital Outreach Community Manager (DOCM) early in 2025. This initiative will need to overcome digital exclusion for some of the target audience and we will seek support from partner organisations and corporates.
CONCLUSION
- Veterans Outreach is now established as mainstream RHC business. We have a network of Out Pensioners who enjoy the key benefits of camaraderie and social interaction with fellow veterans and there are a number who have testified to the positive impact our activities and regular engagement have had on their lives.
- In Pensioner engagement with the wider veteran community at home in Chelsea and further afield has been and will remain vital to the success of the programme and it is pleasing to see so many new IPs stepping forward as volunteers. Our plans for 2025 are ambitious and will see further expansion of the number of beneficiaries of the programme, particularly through the Digital offer, and our reach extended well beyond the Greater London region.
09 Jan 25. Charity issued with Official Warning over support for foreign military. A London charity has been issued with an Official Warning over a fundraising campaign in support of a soldier of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).
The Charity Commission, the regulator of charities in England and Wales, issued the Official Warning after finding the trustees had acted outside the charity’s purposes and failed to safeguard its best interests and its reputation. The charity’s purposes are to advance the orthodox Jewish religion, advance orthodox Jewish education, and to relieve poverty and sickness.
Chabad Lubavitch Centres North East London and Essex Limited set up a fundraising page in October 2023 to raise funds for a soldier of the IDF stationed in northern Israel. The page, which was eventually removed in January 2024, raised around £2,280. Of those monies, £937 was sent directly to an individual soldier. The trustees are unable to account for how those funds were spent. The remaining funds were spent on non-lethal military equipment purchased by the trustees and sent to the same soldier in Israel.
The Charity Commission, which received over 180 complaints about the activities, opened a regulatory compliance case into the charity in December 2023 and engaged with its trustees.
That case determined that the fundraising activity was outside the charity’s purposes – and not capable of being charitable – and that the trustees had failed to act in the best interests of the charity and its reputation. This was misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of charity, as well as a breach of trust.
Charities with appropriate purposes can, in law, raise funds to promote the efficiency of the UK armed forces. However, providing aid or military supplies to any foreign armed force is not a charitable purpose, and no charity can legally undertake such activity.
The Official Warning imposes a number of requirements on the charity’s trustees to remedy the misconduct and/or mismanagement.
Helen Earner, Director for Regulatory Services at the Charity Commission said:
It is not lawful, or acceptable, for a charity to raise funds to support a soldier of a foreign military.
Our Official Warning requires the charity to set things right and is a clear message to other charities to stay true to their established purposes.
Any failure by the charity to implement the requirements in the Official Warning may lead to further regulatory action. (Source: https://www.gov.uk/)
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SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, has been providing lifelong support to our Forces and their families since 1885. In 2020, our teams of volunteers and employees helped more than 79,000 people in need, the
currently serving (both regulars and reserves), veterans from the Second World War and those who have served in more recent conflicts, as well as their families. SSAFA understands that behind every uniform is a person. And we are here for that person – any time they need us, in any way they need us, for as long as they need us.
https://www.ssafa.org.uk/about-us
https://www.ssafa.org.uk/support-us
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