Trust Fundraising

We couldn’t do our work without support from charitable trusts and grant-making organisations. Just some of our many supporters include ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, The Gannochy Trust, The MacRobert Trust, The Robertson Trust, The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund and Scottish War Blinded.

This charitable income makes a real difference to our residents’ lives. Here are just a few examples of the work these valuable donations help us to do.

The Erskine Housing Project 

We’re building 56 new homes for veterans and their families on the Erskine Estate in Bishopton. Everything’s designed to make our residents feel truly at home – with details like wheelchair accessible kitchens and extra-wide hallways.

Although we’ve received £4.5m in pledges, grants and legacies, there’s still a shortfall of £2.5m. Every grant we receive moves us closer to providing a stock of houses purpose-built for disabled and elderly veterans, as well as younger Service personnel making the transition from military to civilian life.

The Supported Transition Project

More and more Service men and women are turning to us as they make the transition to civilian life. That’s why we’re developing new programmes and partnerships – like our Supported Transition Project. This will let us help even more young, vulnerable men and women in areas such as education, employment, welfare support and housing.

The cost is £120,000 a year, which until now we’ve managed to fund by Lottery and trust funding.

Expanding our dementia care

Dementia affects over 70,000 people in Scotland – Alzheimer Scotland predict this number will rise to 127,000 by 2031. Thanks to grants and pledges from trust funders, we have converted a 30-bed wing of the 180-bed Erskine Home in Bishopton from residential care to specialised dementia care. This means we can now care for an additional 30 dementia residents and further reduce our waiting lists.

A recent grant from The Gleniffer Home Trust has also allowed us to develop sensory gardens at the Erskine Park Home.

Equipment

Over the past year, grants and donations from charitable trusts have helped us fund specialist recreation and physiotherapy equipment for our residents.

For example, we’ve received donations towards our three year project to replace 340 hydraulic beds across all five homes with electric profiling beds; each costs £500. These beds increase the independence of our residents, and reduce the risk of pressure sores. Soon, we'd like to replace 16 hydrotherapy baths in our homes, at a cost of £9,980 for each bath. Your organisation’s support really makes a difference.