Introduction
Branches already providing vital community engagement and awareness-raising activities in their local community. All activity helps to deliver SSAFA’s mission to be a trusted source of support for serving personnel, veterans and their families in their time of need.
Through Community Engagement branches promote our brand and are our front line ambassadors and advocates in the communities we serve, ensuring people know who we are, what we do and how to reach us when they need our help.
Branches are the cornerstone of SSAFA providing a vital local presence in our communities. To deliver Community Engagement, branches are being asked to operate with three key aims:
- To draw people towards our services when they need our support
- To connect supporters who are eager to help the armed forces community
- To provide a sense of belonging to all who volunteer for SSAFA, work for SSAFA, and interact with us
For more detail about these three aims follow the link below:
Community Engagement Strategy | Branches | SSAFA Volunteer Knowledgebase
What is Community Engagement?
Definition: - Community Engagement: Refers to the process of building relationships and collaborating with community members to address issues, share information, and foster partnerships. It is often more strategic and aims at fostering a deeper connection.
Community Engagement is not a new concept there is already lots of activity happening across the branch network. See below examples of Branch activity that is already taking place.
Existing branch engagement activities include:
Ideas for additional activities branches could do:
The lists above are not exhaustive and branches are encouraged to be creative and innovative when it comes to ideas about raising awareness of SSAFA. Each area and region will have different opportunities and it is important to note that different activities will work in different areas. Community Engagement is not a one size fits all. Each community is different and branches have the freedom to find ways to connect with their communities.
When talking about community engagement there are some key wording that will be used and many of them are interchangeable. Here is a guide:
Raising Awareness:
- Whilst out in the community doing any activity we should be trying to raise awareness of SSAFA by talking about what we do, who we help and how we help. Including:
- Casework
- Mentoring
- FANDF
- It is also about raising awareness of the volunteer opportunities we have and how people can get involved.
- Promoting National and Regional events and activities.
Events/Activities:
- Can be attending a high footfall event set up by a third party such as an agricultural show or food festival in the area
- Going to a veterans breakfast
- Branch function for volunteers
- Branch organised Big Brew
- Supermarket collections
The words Events and Activities are interchangeable.
Speaker Program: Using the current speaker presentation talking to different groups such as:
- Schools
- Universities
- Women Institutes
- Veterans Hubs
- Rotary Clubs
Networking:
Whilst out doing events and activities there will be opportunities to meet other agencies, charities and companies that could support us in our mission or we could support them in their mission. For example an organisation might have veterans as part of their customer base and they could refer them to the Regional Office if they require casework support. Equally an organisation may offer something our beneficiaries would benefit from such as free courses. Follow the link below for how to refer a beneficiary to the Regional Office and how to refer a company to the Regional Office:
How to refer a Beneficiary to the Regional Office | Branches | SSAFA Volunteer Knowledgebase
How to refer a company to the Regional office will soon be available
Community Engagement Support:
Branches and their members will require and receive support from Welfare Operations and other directorates to function effectively. Branches first point of contact and main support is the regions Community Engagement Manager. See below for role and names of your Community Engagement Managers.
The role of your Community Engagement Manager | Branches | SSAFA Volunteer Knowledgebase
Additional Support will be from:
- Marketing - Regional Market Manager
- Treasury activities and annual returns – CO Finance Team
- Chairs Induction Program
- Fundraising training – Community Engagement Manager and L&D
- Community Engagement Training - Community Engagement Manager and L&D
- Digital and Social Media training – Regional Marketing Manager
- Volunteer recognition and development - Volunteer Development Manager