Where the money goes

After our tutorial, I wanted to research further into where all of the money goes that H4H raises, as when Sarah asked us, we werent 100% sure, so here it is.....

How do we spend your money?

We spend every penny possible on making grants that aim to provide practical, direct support for our wounded. The grants that we have made so far are outlined in the table below with further information about each grant available beneath the table. Our current focus is for grants to create a series of regional Recovery Houses to be built across the UK and serve as the last stage of rehabilitation before a serviceman, or woman, returns to their unit or transits back into civilian life. Our current target for this is to raise £20 million by October 2010 and while the support has been amazing, there is still a way to go. We do, of course, have running costs but for our first year we kept these so low that 98p from every £1 donated was available for grants and we aim to continue operating at a similar level. Grants made since H4H began with the most recent at the top £ Army Recovery Centres 10,000,000 Not Forgotten Association 60,000 Deptherapy 4,400 British Limbless Ex Service Men’s Association (BLESMA) 100,000 Erskine Hospital 750,000 Skill Force 224,300 Troop Aid 50,000 Battle Back 308,000 Combat Stress 3,500,000 Selly Oak Patients Welfare Fund 10,000 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA) 520,000 DMRC Headley Court 8,000,000 Grants made since H4H began 23,526,700

Working With Service Charities The Charity Commission said this about our relationship with the other charities, "You have certainly changed the Armed Forces charities landscape. The achievements of Help for Heroes in its first year are extremely impressive.. There is no doubt in my mind that H4H has drawn in new money which would otherwise not have been available to benefit the Armed Forces Community" Harvey Grenville of the Charity Commission Read more about how H4H works with other Service Charities . . .

Not Forgotten Association
	A grant of £60k all ring-fenced for post 9/11 injured and or with disabilities and 50% of the grant specifically to support the participation of servicemen and women (including staff carers where necessary) from DRMC Headley Court, including a proportion of the event overhead. Half of the total places on adventure training type activities (such as canoeing, Calvert Trust, Camp Hill) to be offered to Headley Court in the first instance to ensure the activity is consistent with patient rehabilitation programmes. Not Forgotten Association website

Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA)
	This was the second such grant made to SSAFA and went towards the purchase of a people carrier for each of the two Norton Homes to which H4H has already contributed. SSAFA website

Deptherapy
	To top up the funding for four injured former forces personnel to undergo diving rehabilitation in Florida at a specialist facility alongside the US Forces.

British Limbless Ex Service Men’s Association (BLESMA)
	To go towards funding four adventurous events organised by BLESMA, including a transatlantic yacht race, a ski trip to Colorado, ski bobbing in Austria and the 2009 Fastnet challenge. BLESMA website

Erskine Hospital
	To accelerate the launch of the regional Recovery Houses by funding a twelve month pathfinder for the Army. This will provide accomodation for twelve wounded servicemen, or women, and is to be hosted at Erskine Hospital in Edinburgh. Erskine hospital website

Battle Back
	This was the second such grant (see below) made to Battle Back and provided top up funding for Battle Back's Core Activity Programme as well as a specially adapted parachute harness to allow amputees to jump with the Red Devils and a Royal Marine expedition to the Himalayas. Click here to read more about Battle Back

Skill Force
	To design and deliver an Internship Programme for up to twenty servicemen, or women, (over two years) in the three services recovering from physical and psychological injuries sustained during active service. Skill Force website

Troop Aid
	We are working with an inspirational group of volunteers called Troop Aid who supply goodies to the hospital at Selly Oak to make the wounded patient’s life a little better. With our funding, we are able to ensure their service is now even better. Every patient who is injured while on active service and goes through Selly Oak will now receive a Troop Aid Hero Grab Bag. This is a very simple idea but it makes a real difference to the moral and comfort of the patient. The bag contains all the ‘nice to haves’ like a t shirt, underwear, socks, washing and shaving kit, or female equivalent, as well as other items like writing paper, a telephone card and memory stick. It also has a letter from a school child wishing the patient a swift recovery... Simple but rather wonderful. Click here to read more about Troop Aid and make a donation

Battle Back
	The team at Headley Court know how important it is for their patients to get back to doing sporting activities that challenge and get the adrenalin flowing. A new Adaptive Adventure Training Team called Battle Back has been set up to ensure that the wounded get a chance to ‘feel the wind in the face and the sun on the back’. The skiing trip was a great success earlier this year and now plans are afoot to provide a great many more trips to help with rehabilitation and confidence, and moral, building. We are working closely with Battle Back and will be providing funds as and when they are needed. Click here to read more about Battle Back

Combat Stress
	We are delighted to be able to announce that Help for Heroes has agreed to give Combat Stress, the charity that helps veterans with mental wounds, a grant of £3.5 million. The money, the biggest grant in the history of Combat Stress, will be used to pay for the much needed expansion, modernisation and reorganisation of their specialist treatment centre, Tyrwhitt House in Surrey, in order to accommodate more Veterans including carers and to provide uprated clinical and welfare working space. Bryn Parry said "This is a difficult subject for many to discuss and particularly hard to fundraise for. H4H were able to do it now and ensure that the centre can get on with their plans immediately and start caring for more of our mentally wounded now rather than wait. With the increase of tours and the level of mental stress experienced it is vital that we have the facilities to give our boys and girls the best treatment, for their mental wounds as well as their physical." Toby Elliott for Combat Stress adds: "I wholeheartedly thank Help for Heroes for this absolutely magnificent donation. It will enable us to rapidly upgrade Tyrwhitt House to deliver 21st century clinical services to those suffering from the wounds inflicted by 21st century warfare, who deserve the very best." Combat Stress website

DMRC Headley Court
	This was the second such grant (see below) made to Headley court and provided additional funding towards a state-of-the-art rehabilitation swimming pool. DMRC Headley Court website

Selly Oak Patients Welfare Fund
	We are delighted to have been able to contribute to this very simple idea. We put £10,000 aside for the Military Liaison Officer’s funds at Selly Oak. That money enables the MLOs to take the patients and their relatives out for a pizza or a curry while they are at Selly Oak and for them to start getting used to being seen in public. More often than not, the locals, when they realise who the group are, pick up the tab; (thanks Brummies!) The fund is very simple; the MLOs know what their blokes would benefit from, they have the cash, they do it and that is that, simple but very, very effective.

Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA)
	We have been delighted to donate £500K to complete the SSAFA Forces Help ‘Homes from Home’ appeal to provide relative’s houses at Headley Court and Selly Oak. The houses are fully equipped to be a haven for the relatives of the wounded when they visit their loved ones in hospital and as the Controller of SSAFA outlines below, are a place where the patient’s relatives can recharge their batteries and allow them to go back refreshed. It is a great idea by a great charity and we are delighted to be able to help SSAFA Forces Help to complete their appeal. "SSAFA Forces Help is delighted to receive the generous donation of £500,000 from Help for Heroes. The money is a significant contribution to our ‘Homes from Home’ appeal and will enable us to provide much needed support to our badly injured servicemen and women and their families. We are extremely grateful to everyone who has worked so hard to raise money for Help for Heroes. We can assure them that, through SSAFA Forces Help’s new home near Selly Oak Hospital, it will be used to make a real difference to many lives. Families will soon be able to stay at the home and be close to their loved ones at a time when they are needed most." Major General Andrew Cumming, Controller SSAFA Forces Help SSAFA website

DMRC Headley Court

We have allocated the first £8M to our task of helping to provide the new swimming pool and gym complex at DMRC Headley Court. The designs have been submitted to planners and all being well, work should begin in November this year and the complex will be complete in the late autumn of 2009; we can’t wait! The artist’s impression, together with the ‘fly though’ give a good idea of what the complex will look like but please bear in mind that they are just that, an impression at this stage. As we get more details we will be creating a pool complex page so donors can see the progress. DMRC Headley Court website Posted by: Grace Vernon