Following repeated requests from our veterans and other beneficiaries for courses offering ‘coping strategies for everyday life’ we’re pleased to be able to announce the first in our series of emotional resilience courses. The half-day course (1000-1430) will take place in Modbury on Friday 19^th May and we’re delighted to welcome, as our course leader, Liz Abram - Military Performance Coach and a regular member of Channel 4’s ‘Who Dares Wins’ team.  
 

Key areas covered will include:
 
UNDERSTANDING YOURSELF
Spotting the signs of our own emotional distress.
Boundaries and how to express them.
 
UNDERSTANDING OTHERS
Building relationships / How we change how others view us.
Handling difficult conversations.
 
READY FOR ANYTHING?
Life hacks - practical do's and don'ts for mental wellbeing.
 
The course is open to all members of the Armed Forces Community including spouses.  There are 10 places available. To register interest in attending, contact [email protected]
 
Special thanks to St James’s Place Wealth Management Partnership
for funding this series of courses.

Veterans Outdoors’ Head of Operations, Si Richardson, is going the extra mile (actually a bit more than that) for us by running the Plymouth Half Marathon to raise money for the charity.  The event is on Sunday May 14^th – look out for Si and his better half, Jane, if you’re watching the race. (Si reckons Jane will be a long way ahead of him!)
 
And please donate generously to support Si and the charity. Every little helps and it’s easy to do – just follow the link here….
 
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/si-richardson

ARMED FORCES DAY 2023

Veterans Outdoors will be back on Plymouth Hoe for this years Armed Forces’ Day, Saturday June 24^th.  Please come and find us, meet the team, say hello to some of our beneficiaries and grab a free pen. For those that have never been, this is one of the best events in the South West Calendar. There are always lots of things to see and do, plenty of food and drink, live music, old friends to bump into and new ones to be made.

AIMING HIGH

Great for improving confidence, team work and building core strength, our Chalk Effect Climbing course is proving a real hit with Veterans Outdoors' Artemis (women only) contingent. The 7 week course at The Plymouth Life Centre has proved to be one of our most popular activities with some of our team discovering muscles in places they didn’t even know they had muscles! There’ll be a second course later in the year – keep your eye on our social media pages and newsletters for details.

A PRE-HISTORIC DISCOVERY....

Our beneficiaries discover all sorts of things when we’re working on our various community projects around the South West but we think a recent find at the William Pengelly Cave Studies Trust at Buckfastleigh is probably the oldest. We recently cleared the ivy to reveal this coral limestone wall which is an estimated 460 millions years old. It’s one of 22 sites across Devon and Cornwall that proves that we were once part of Brittany. It’s the first time in about 25 years that it’s been exposed and we look forward to tidying up the rest of the site when we go back in May.      
 

Operation FORTITUDE is a new, UK wide referral pathway that will support homeless veterans, or veterans at risk of homelessness, into housing. The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust and the Office for Veterans Affairs are working together in partnership with charities such as Veterans Outdoors, veteran supported housing providers, local authorities and other organisations to support veterans and manage referrals. The pathway will be accessible to veterans at risk of or experiencing homelessness; and the organisations that support them. If you need help – or you know anyone that does - please get in touch.