As the sun sets on another very strange and challenging year, everyone involved with HighGround can look back with enormous pride on our charitable efforts during 2021.

Jane and Andy have continued their wonderful horticultural therapy work at DMRC Stanford Hall and have now become a fully integrated and much respected part of their parent defence medical community. Please click here to see Stanford Hall – 12 months in pictures.

On the employment assistance side of our work, in addition to running our regular series of Rural Weeks at Bicton College, we reacted quickly to the unique challenges of Covid restrictions to develop and launch an online version of the course – Virtual Rural Weeks.  These were such a success that we have continued to run them post lockdown to meet demand. Our land-based sector employment efforts have been bolstered massively this year by the arrival in post of Tim as our Rural Employment Manager. Tim and Anna have helped scores of servicemen and women and veterans as they seek to start a new role in the great outdoors.

I was honoured to sign the Armed Forces Covenant at an event in London last month and to host an associated reception to mark the launch of our new marketing film which tells the story of HighGround. This will be a really important tool for us as we look to secure more sponsorship and support, especially from the corporate sector, in the months ahead. Please click here to see the pictures on Flickr of the signing of the Armed Forces Covenant.

The demand for our charitable services shows no sign of letting up and we can expect 2022 to be another extremely busy year. The strategic backdrop in terms of the pandemic remains uncertain but I am certain that team HighGround will meet each and every new challenge head on and that our small charity will continue to make a BIG difference to the lives of many.

I wish everyone involved with HighGround, our beneficiaries, our sponsors and our amazing staff, a very happy festive season and a peaceful and safe new year.

Ian Elliott
Chairman