Battling On
Multi-award-winning Battling On supports not only veterans, but also some of the West Country’s most vulnerable young people, through innovative programmes and approaches to solving complex social problems.
Battling on was established in Callington in 2012 as a Community Interest Company (CIC), a social enterprise designed to benefit the community. The vision was to provide wrap-around care and support to veterans struggling with the transition into civilian life, or suffering with combat-related mental health disorders. Leaving the highly regulated environment of the armed forces and returning to the freedom of civilian life can be a traumatic experience, for which Battling On offers vital open-door counselling services and mentoring support.
Many ex-service personnel find that their military qualifications are not recognised in the civilian world, so Battling On helps them to convert their qualifications, through tailored training programmes. They can also obtain relevant work experience, which is gained through working on community-based projects, such as maintaining primary school wildlife areas and local conservation reserves. Support is offered to help with job searching, writing CVs, job applications and interview preparation. A large number of Early Service Leavers have very low literacy and numeracy levels, and training is available to help them overcome these barriers to finding employment.
Battling On currently employs three full-time and eight part-time local people and has over 40 volunteers. Nikki Markham is the founder and one of the directors, with a background in rural resource management and over 20 years’ experience of teaching disadvantaged young people and adults. She has written mentoring, coaching and teacher training programmes to enable veterans to work with vulnerable young people. Battling On’s flagship programme is the ‘Together We Can Succeed’ project (TWCS), which won the Soldiering On Award for Innovation in 2016. This is a joint venture between Battling On and two other hugely successful training programmes: Transferable Skills Training (TST), a training centre founded in 2004 for teaching a range of vocational skills and providing counselling to young people; and Work Skills South West (WSSW), established in 2011 to support disadvantaged young people and adults with learning disabilities and mental health disorders. Using ex-service volunteers, each of these three enterprises brings a different set of knowledge, skills and expertise to the project, and together they support disaffected young people, from some of the poorest wards within Devon and Cornwall, in re-engaging with society and training or employment. The project has achieved great success in working with these young people and providing them with the skills to lift themselves out of poverty. They all receive individualised support, are taught general life skills and take part in various activities including animal care and gardening to promote social and personal development. To help prepare them for employment, community work experience is undertaken in places such as Morwellham Quay, Dartmoor National Park, Woodland Trust and Tamar Trails.
Based on a 124-acre working farm with extensive pastures and woodland, as well as a wide variety of rescued or re-homed animals, Battling On provides plenty of opportunities for outdoor learning, including land-based studies, conservation and animal care. There are a number of classroom pods to accommodate small groups or one-to-one sessions; a bicycle repair workshop; woodwork and brick-laying workshops to enable the teaching of construction skills; and a turf-roofed log house for instruction in bushcraft and survival skills. They are particularly proud of their replica WWI field kitchen where the veterans teach cookery skills as well as nutrition and healthy eating. In the farmhouse itself is a well-equipped IT classroom, where computers can be used for training and job searching.
In 2017, Battling On was awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Services, as well as receiving runner-up in the Training Programme of the Year award from Cornwall College Business: Excellence in Business Training Awards. The staff are clearly very dedicated and caring, aspiring to improve quality of life for all the participants. There is also a great sense of calm and community here and a relaxed, laid-back atmosphere is promoted throughout, helping to provide a trusting, accessible comfort zone for all learners.
Kaye Rogers
Battling On receives funding from grants, funding for educational programmes and donations - for more information about the project or to give a donation visit www.battling-on.com
Thursday 1st November
Rural Communities Remember
Battling On will be holding an open day at the farm when local schools will be invited to look at the impact on our rural communities created by the loss of so many young men in WW1. Battling On has been awarded ten glass silhouettes from the Armed Forces Covenant programme -There But Not There, which will be used to depict the loss of the workers who traditionally carried out jobs on farms. There will also be a variety of activities and demonstrations, including firing up the WW1 field kitchen and preparing trench food using WWI recipes.