Riverside - New Beacon lights the way for ex-Service personnel

18 January 2010
Construction work on a pioneering training and housing centre for veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan and other conflicts will start when Veterans Minister, Kevan Jones MP, cuts the first turf on the site of the brand new facility in Catterick, North Yorkshire (Monday 18 January).

The thirty-one unit purpose-built centre will be run by ECHG Housing & Support which is part of social landlord Riverside. ECHG has worked with over 6,000 men and women from the Armed Forces since it first established its partnership with the Ministry of Defence ten years ago. The new centre, The Beacon, will target single Ex-servicemen and women who are most at risk of homelessness, providing them with temporary accommodation for up to 18 months. The centre will provide access to top of the range IT equipment, on-site training facilities, as well as guiding residents into employment and permanent housing. The new centre's facilities will include: IT suite employment area health resource facility on-site training bakery allotment site In a further innovative step, as part of its construction, The Beacon will offer ECHG clients the opportunity to work on the building site to gain valuable construction training skills for future employment.

Veterans Minister, Kevan Jones, said: “Only a small minority of our people experience difficulties when they leave the Armed Forces, but it is vital they are given the support they need and deserve. The Beacon will provide real and tailored help to those who are at risk of homelessness and will help them transition from Service life to the civilian world. The project’s success shows a genuine partnership across Government and with ECHG, part of social landlord Riverside.”

ECHG's Managing Director, Derek Caren, said: “The Beacon’s services will be worthy of the veterans it will work with and will focus on making sure they make a successful leap back into civilian life once they leave the Armed Forces.”

Importantly, The Beacon will reinforce a growing network of existing Riverside-ECHG centres, including Mike Jackson House in Hampshire and an established, smaller centre, The Galleries, in Richmond, North Yorkshire.

Michael Duerden, who saw active duty as part of his service with the RAF, and who subsequently found himself homeless through difficulties in his personal life, said: “After leaving the Services I reached rock bottom in my life. It was only through the expertise of ECHG’s Galleries project with its superb staff and accommodation that helped turn my life around, through guidance and a place to live”. With ECHG’s help, Michael is now re-establishing links with his family and is focused on seeking employment and securing a flat of his own.

The Beacon represents an important partnership between Riverside-ECHG and the Ministry of Defence.

It is also the result of a successful partnership with a range of other national and regional agencies: the Homes & Communities Agency will be providing capital funding; Church Housing Trust will be raising charitable funds to furnish the centre; Communities and Local Government; Richmondshire District Council; and North Yorkshire County Council.

As a complement to the development, Riverside-ECHG will also be capitalising on the land released by the Ministry of Defence at the site in Catterick to build a separate development of twelve affordable family homes for rent adjacent to the new centre.

Catterick Development Elevations