Coffee and companionship for veterans
The Joining Forces programme has now ended
Joining Forces was an Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust supported programme in partnership with SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity. It was delivered by 12 local projects across England by local Age UKs and SSAFA branches. After 3 successful years, the programme has now ended. Many of the pages in this section will still be useful for information and advice. Alternatively, you can look at the relevant sections of the Age UK website.
We recently paid a visit to a Joining Forces Coffee Morning at Age UK Wirral in West Kirby to see what went on there.
We thought we’d show you too, so we took along our camera (as well as some biscuits) to introduce you to some of the friendly people we met, both organisers and visitors, and find out more about them and why they're here.
‘Older veterans suffer from loneliness because they leave their military service,’ says Tamzin from Joining Forces, Age UK Wirral of the importance of these Coffee Mornings. ‘Military service is a family, it’s a brotherhood, and when they leave that they don’t always take that with them.’
‘When I meet other veterans at Coffee Mornings like this, it’s great to be able to talk to people,’ explains Ray, a regular there. ‘You know they will understand what you’re saying. I know people that were in the Second World War and they would only talk to other veterans, because only other veterans know how people feel, the experiences you’ve seen, and what’s happened to you in life.’
Watch the video below to hear what Tamzin, Ray and others have to say about the Joining Forces Coffee Mornings.