We are delighted to award a £5,000 grant to The Vine Centre towards its work helping soldiers with mental health and addiction problems.

Promoting the health and wellbeing of serving and former soldiers is a priority area for our charity. The Vine Centre specialises in mental health and addiction services to disadvantaged people in the Aldershot and wider Hampshire area and are a lifeline to military personnel seeking help for a wide range of needs.

The charity has seen a recent rise in the number of beneficiaries with mental health related conditions from local military communities, many of whom are self-referrals. Our grant will partly fund the costs of a support worker delivering The Vine Centre’s services to around 60 Army beneficiaries.

Lesley Herniman, CEO, The Vine Centre, said:

“With continued support from the ABF, The Vine Centre ensures that military families can access personalised support in a safe environment, facilitated by trained professionals. The number of veterans, serving military and families accessing our support services continues to rise, especially those facing food and fuel poverty. We are extremely grateful that ABF sees the benefit of funding our charity to help our beneficiaries improve their mental health and well-being.”

Brigadier (Ret’d) Peter Monteith, Chief Operating Officer, Army Benevolent Fund, added:

“Our charity is committed to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of serving and former soldiers. We are a longstanding supporter of The Vine Centre’s work helping the sizeable British Army community around Aldershot. We were pleased to award another grant to its work this year.”

Read more about The Vine Centre here.