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Active Plus has won national plaudits for its work to recruit former servicemen and women who have suffered injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of their military service, retraining them to work as community-based coaches in positions where they can use their skills and experiences to help others.

Now the company, which is based at the award-winning Health and Wellbeing Innovation Centre in Truro operated by Plymouth University’s Cornwall Innovation team, has been awarded a £470,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities programme to expand its support programme to empower elderly people who may be lonely or isolated. The grant will pay for four part-time permanent positions for veterans of 15 hours a week, so Active Plus is now actively recruiting.

Tim Cocks, director of Active Plus, said:

“A lot of injured war veterans we retrain go on to work for us in a voluntary capacity but thanks to this funding, we can create four permanent jobs to help us expand our Active Ageing programme in Cornwall to reach more lonely or isolated elderly people and bring them back into their communities more fully.
 
“We’re absolutely delighted to get this investment because it not only supports us to help older people become more involved and active in their communities but offers a fantastic opportunity to create jobs for injured war veterans who may have overcome their injuries or PTSD but would struggle to find employment elsewhere. This is a great first step to help them back into the job market.”

Active Plus intends to roll out an Active Plus Communities programme to 20 new communities in Cornwall from April 1st, and the funding will enable a four-year investment programme.

The company has already enjoyed enormous success running courses to help the long-term unemployed get back into work across Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset, as well as running workshops for schoolchildren to help vulnerable students dealing with bullying issues.

Active Plus was formed in 2011 by Tim, a retired firefighter, with the aim of recruiting injured military veterans to both give them a new career opportunity but also enable them to pass on their numerous skills to others who could benefit from their experience.

The growth of Active Plus has led the company to expand to larger offices at the Health and Wellbeing Innovation Centre (HWIC) in Truro, and the business now has a staff of 25 working in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset, some of whom are volunteers.

The company has been largely supported by the Cornwall Innovation programme, which is run by Plymouth University staff who operate three business acceleration facilities across Cornwall.

Tim Cocks added: 

“The help we’ve had from the team at HWIC has been invaluable. We’ve picked up new contacts and expanded our work as a result of the people we’ve met, and the networking opportunities that being based in the Innovation Centre has offered us.”

Karen Murray, HWIC manager, said: 

“Active Plus is a company going from strength to strength, and we are delighted its highly successful Active Ageing programme can now be extended to 20 new locations in Cornwall as a result of this Big Lottery Fund investment – and that four injured war veterans will be able to take up permanent, paid job positions to run the programme.”

Since it opened in 2013, the Health and Wellbeing Innovation Centre in Truro has supported the creation of more than 33 jobs and helped the 29 fast-growing companies and affiliate clients based there to enjoy record annual growth of 46 per cent in one year.

The three Cornwall Innovation Centres are actively supported by GAIN, the Growth, Acceleration and Investment Network, which works to boost economic growth and job creation in the South West. The Cornwall Innovation programme is operated by Plymouth University on behalf of Cornwall Council, and has been enabled by the Cornwall Development Company (CDC) with £29million of investment provided by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Active Plus has been heavily supported with European Social Fund (ESF) Convergence funding as well as Flexible Support Fund (FSF) from Jobcentre Plus and Big Lottery funding.

Anyone interested in applying for the four part-time positions should contact [email protected] or call 01326 567174.

To find out more about Active Plus, visit the website at http://activeplus.org.uk/

Find out more about HWIC by visiting www.cornwallinnovation.co.uk/health-wellbeing-centre