Veterans support charity handed £30k to boost wellbeing programme
Alabare's Boots on the Ground scheme helps former service personnel rebuild confidence and connections
A Salisbury-based homelessness charity has been given £30,000 by the Veterans Foundation to continue a scheme boosting the wellbeing of ex-service personnel.
The money will support Alabaré's Boots on the Ground programme which helps improve physical and mental health, promote inclusion and build strong community networks through nature-based activities.
The outings allow participants to experience the outdoors and work on projects including horsemanship, garden maintenance, canoeing, bushcraft, and ironmongery.
The charity delivers over 200 activities throughout the year via the Boots on the Ground programme in Wiltshire, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, and across Wales, with almost 90% of those taking part reporting improved emotional wellbeing and over a third saying their physical health was boosted.
Gary Chapman is Head of Veterans’ Services at Alabaré and said: “Boots on the Ground makes a massive difference to the lives of our veterans and helps to break the cycle of homelessness by giving them new skills, confidence, and positivity.
“Our thanks go out to the Veterans’ Foundation for their support of wellbeing sessions to help former military personnel overcome some of the mental and physical challenges they’ve faced following their service and help them navigate towards independence.”
"Alabaré saved my life"
The cash will help people like Steve, who encountered troubles with addiction after leaving the Forces.
He joined the Army's Royal Engineers as a teenager and later worked in the railway industry. But he admitted to struggling with the transition to civilian life.
"The Army was the only family I’d had," he said. "I joined a bike club and saw some horrible things, but I felt like part of another family. I got dragged deeper and deeper into it, and along with that, the drugs started. It began with speed and became more hardcore with crack cocaine and heroin. I was taking drugs for the best part of 40 years.”
Steve eventually reached out to Alabaré in 2022, saying it was a "voice from the light into the dark – a hand reached out and pulled me out of there".
Through engaging with the Boots on the Ground scheme, he's rebuilt a structure and routine for his life, returned a sense of purpose to his life and strengthened his community links.
It's also helped him reduce his alcohol consumption and he is clean from drugs, which meant he was able to move into independent living in December 2025.
"I’ve come off the methadone tablets I was on and have been off for over six months now. It was ALABARÉ that did it, and I love them for it. My anger’s gone, and I can honestly say I’m a happy man now.
“I’m almost 65, and Alabaré has given me another chance at life. They saved my life. Without them, I’d be dead now, either by my own hand or somebody else’s, because that’s the sort of life I lived.”
Despite now living independently, Steve remains part of Alabaré activities and is part of the group heading to Malta for the Heritage that Heals trip.