Help for Heroes
Help for Heroes is a British charity which supports members of the British Armed Forces community with their physical and mental health, as well as their financial, social and welfare needs. The charity was founded in 2007 by Bryn and Emma Parry after they visited soldiers at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham. The charity now supports all veterans, serving personnel, those who have served alongside the UK military, and their families.
Help for Heroes has supported more than 28,500 individuals since 2007 through its physical, psychological, financial, educational, sports, fellowship, and welfare support services. The charity's work is almost entirely funded by public donations.
History
Help for Heroes was co-founded by husband and wife, Bryn and Emma Parry, in October 2007 after a meeting with General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, the then professional head of the British Army. Bryn had served with the Royal Green Jackets for 10 years, before leaving to become a cartoonist. The couple visited Selly Oak Hospital in July 2007, where they met servicemen and women who had been injured in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They decided they needed to do something to help.Initially the couple wanted to raise funds for a dedicated swimming pool for injured veterans at Headley Court Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre in Surrey. However, within two months they had raised over £2 million, and the charity expanded to support more veterans with their recovery. They also attracted support from national newspapers in the United Kingdom, such as The Sun and The Sunday Times who made the charity one of the beneficiaries of their Christmas appeal in 2007, raising more than £600,000. Bryn and Emma Parry were both appointed OBEs in the Queen's Birthday Honours for their services to charity on 25 November 2010, and Bryn was awarded the CBE in February 2023.
In May 2013, Help for Heroes experienced a sharp rise in donations following the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, London. Rigby had been wearing a Help for Heroes sweatshirt when he was attacked. The charity received over £600,000 in donations in the week following his death.
In November 2016, Melanie Waters, former chief executive of The Poppy Factory, became the chief executive of the charity when Bryn Parry stood down after nine years in charge.
In 2020, the charity was forced to make 110 redundancies due to a rise in demand and a sharp fall in donations as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The charity helped train, select and deliver Team UK to the first Invictus Games held in London in 2014. It continued to support Team UK at the following four Invictus Games. In May 2022, the Ministry of Defence accepted a proposal from the Royal British Legion to lead the end-to-end delivery of Team UK for the following five years, ending Help for Heroes’ involvement with the Invictus Games.
In September 2022, chief executive Melanie Waters announced that she was leaving the charity after more than five years in charge. The charity's deputy CEO James Needham was appointed chief executive on an interim basis, before being appointed as the charity's permanent CEO in March 2023.
Recovery centres
In partnership with the Ministry of Defence and The Royal British Legion, Help for Heroes runs four recovery centres: Tedworth House, Chavasse VC House, Naval Service Recovery Centre, and Phoenix House. Each centre is a location for the Defence Recovery Capability programme. Participants in the programme receive coordinated medical, psychological, and welfare support, designed to help them overcome sickness and injury, and ultimately return to active duty, or transition to civilian life.In September 2020, due to the financial strain of the COVID-19 pandemic, Help for Heroes announced that it was closing three of its recovery centres for the foreseeable future, and would instead be focusing on digital and community recovery delivery.
Recovery Support
Help for Heroes delivers its one-to-one recovery support as follows:· Psychological support – the Hidden Wounds service offers assessment and treatment for mental health difficulties. The team of trained clinicians provide a range of treatments including cognitive behavioural therapy and counselling.
· Welfare Support – the case management team works with individuals and families with several or complex needs. They offer advice and guidance on a range of welfare issues, such as money, health, housing, and benefits.
· Veterans Clinical Liaison Team – the team is made up of registered nurses, occupational therapists and medical advisors. They work with men and women with physical health challenges, helping them access specialist therapies, get clinical equipment and to re-engage with the community.
· Very Seriously Injured Programme – the programme supports men and women living with catastrophic injuries who need round-the-clock care; the charity helps them gain access to support such as speech and language therapy, financial assistance with carer costs, and specialist equipment.
· Grants 'Team – grants can be awarded to those in need of urgent financial support for their recovery.
· Sport, Activity and Fellowship Team' – the team offers a wide range of free sporting, recreational and social activities across the UK to help people improve their wellbeing and to reduce isolation. They also provide bespoke physical fitness support.
In September 2020, the charity launched its virtual Recovery College, the first of its kind specially designed for and by veterans and their families. All educational modules are designed to enable veterans to take ownership of their recovery.
Sports recovery programme
Help for Heroes has been involved with sport recovery since 2008, giving those supported by the charity access to a number of different sports, enabling wounded, injured, and sick service personnel, and veterans to take part in adaptive sports. Its sport services offer a broad range of activities out in the community and at all ability levels, from recreational to competitive.Help for Heroes has worked in partnership with the British Paralympic Association, UK Sport, the English Institute of Sport to introduce military personnel and veterans to Paralympic sport through its ‘Front Line to Start Line’ programme.
In collaboration with UK Coaching, the charity launched a pilot Coaching Academy programme in 2022, giving veterans the chance to train for a sport coaching qualification and build on their skills in civilian life.
Invictus Games
Help for Heroes was responsible for the training, selection, and development of Team UK in the first four editions of the Invictus Games: 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Help for Heroes worked in partnership with the Ministry of Defence and the Royal British Legion to support the UK team. The charity was to deliver and train the 65-strong team at the 2020 Invictus Games in the Hague, which was postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2022, it was announced that the Ministry of Defence had accepted a proposal from the Royal British Legion to lead the end-to-end delivery of Team UK for the following five years, ending Help for Heroes' eight-year association with the Invictus Games.Grants
Help for Heroes previously grant funded more than 90 specialist charities and organisations; including Winston's Wish, The Poppy Factory, Blesma and Combat Stress. The charity now focuses its financial support in the form of individual grants to wounded personnel, veterans and families. In 2019, the charity awarded 819 such grants, totalling £703,000, and taking the life-to-date awards total to 12,969. In 2022, the charity introduced immediate needs grants to help individuals with food and energy bills in response to the cost-of-living crisis.The oldest person to receive support from the charity was Second World War veteran Robbie Clarke, who was 96 when he received an emergency grant in 2015, to ensure he could remain living at home.
Finances
Over 90 per cent of the charity's income is from public donations. Its main sources of income are legacies, regular giving, grants, trading, and fundraising events and challenges.In September 2020, the charity announced that its income was falling due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, it launched an urgent appeal in October 2020, raising more than £150,000 in donations.
In the 2020/21 financial year, Help for Heroes reported an income of £18.5 million and expenditure of £36.3 million.