Millions in Libor fines to go to charity

 
Staff|Agency15 December 2013

More than £2.4 million in fines cash from city firms caught rigging the Libor rate will benefit thousands of armed forces veterans in Wales.

Three windfall awards are set to fuel a substantial expansion in the activities of charities working to help veterans and their families.

Alabare Christian Care and Support has been awarded £976,269 from the Armed Forces Covenant (Libor) fund.

The new money will be used to provide homes for homeless veterans in Wales, and will also fund a programme offering specialist employability support.

Armed forces veterans with mental health and substance misuse problems, and family members struggling to look after them, are also set to benefit.

More than £1.4 million has been awarded to an all-Wales service led by Llandudno-based drug and alcohol charity CAIS.

A peer-mentoring service called Change Step, delivered by veterans for veterans since early this year, has been awarded £995,918.

A sister service called Listen In, now being launched in North Wales to help family members and carers, has been awarded £434,659.

The three separate funding awards, taken from a £12 million-plus pot shared by 24 military charities and good causes, come to a combined £2,406,846.

Several thousand military personnel are stationed across Wales and it is estimated that there are around 220,000 veterans living in the principality.

The Wales Homes for Veterans project is in direct response to demand from the Armed Forces Community in Wales and the organisations that support them. It will benefit both male and female veterans from all three services.

The charity Alabare will open homes in Pontypridd and Cardiff, Carmarthen and Swansea, and the Wrexham area and will create 72 bed spaces within 15 separate houses.

The first is due to open in April and all 15 homes are scheduled to be completed and open by the end of the same year.

Andrew Lord, chief executive at Alabare, said: "We are thrilled with this award which will allow us to develop 15 homes in Wales, supporting veterans who have given so much.

"There are many ex-service men and women who find it difficult to return to civilian life, particularly after intensive operations.

"This grant donated by the Armed Forces Covenant (LIBOR) fund will help vulnerable veterans in Wales who are homeless or in danger of becoming homeless and enable them to return to a productive life.

"We also look forward to working in partnership with the Poppy Factory to help veterans find paid and meaningful employment."

Melanie Waters, chief executive of The Poppy Factory said: "One of our most important roles is to showcase the talents and skills of veterans who come to the civilian work place.

"Our candidates have often left the Services with injuries that make finding sustainable employment very difficult, and sometimes they simply lack the confidence or expertise to know where to look.

"This project, working side by side in the Wales Homes for Veterans, will directly and tangibly support disabled veterans in Wales and provide a much-needed boost to raising awareness of the important work we do to help veterans find paid and meaningful employment."

Efforts to offer help and support to veterans suffering mental health problems for a variety of reasons will also be stepped up.

Using the Drug and Alcohol Charities Wales (DACW) consortium Wales-wide network, Change Step peer mentors will work alongside CAIS in North Wales, Kaleidoscope in Gwent, TEDS in Rhondda Cynon Taf, WCADA in South Wales, Cyswllt Contact in West Wales, and Drugaid in Mid West Wales.

The Listen In programme will be delivered by CAIS across North Wales in partnership with mental health charity Mind and the Association of Voluntary Organisations in Wrexham (AVOW). Both services are funded from February 2014 for two years.

Clive Wolfendale, head of CAIS, said: "Change Step is already proving its worth in North Wales and we can now engage energetically with partner charities to roll out the service across the whole of Wales to help those armed forces veterans who have given so much for their country but who now find themselves, for a variety of reasons, in distress."

"Veterans can often feel misunderstood and that is why we take on well-motivated veterans as peer mentors because there is an instant connection between them because of their shared experience. Relatives and carers often feel they have no-one to turn to either, which is why we are delighted to be launching the new Listen In service too," said Mr Wolfendale.

He added: "Veterans frequently miss out when it comes to getting the help and services they need, not least because they may have lost confidence in themselves and the society in which they live.

"Partnership working between CAIS and other charitable and statutory sector providers will be crucial to the success of this project."

Brigadier Gerhard Wheeler CBE, military patron to Change Step, said: "I understand all too well the challenges of life in the military and the problems many veterans encounter when re-entering civilian life.

"Veterans have pride in having served in the military and many find it difficult to ask for help, which is why Change Step works, because veterans are helping their peers. I am delighted to be supporting this extremely worthwhile and necessary venture as it expands across Wales."

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