Council of Australian Veterans (Darwin Branch) Inc.

Three years ago, a small initiative started, down a dark arcade, in a tiny 80's themed coffee shop, from the voice of one very concerned and passionate veteran, Mr Sam Weston.

Three years on and one coffee shop later, we now give you the very driven and passionate Council of Australian Veterans (Darwin Branch) Inc.

We are an organisation founded by Veterans for Veterans and their families.

We came together by one very simple connection and that is the lack of support services here in the Northern Territory for Veterans and their families. Aside from the Mad Snake Café, owned and ran by a veteran, “we have no holistic and collaborative safe space or venues to come together in as a community of veterans.”

A safe space for veterans and their families is an area which to us is defined as being inclusive, holistic, and collaborative in a welcoming environment to support and guide veterans to all local services potentially needed to support the veteran or their family member(s) or an area where they simply feel safe to attend and engage with likeminded people within the veteran community.

We as the Council of Australia Veterans (Darwin Branch) Inc. are an organisation striving for change to the support services here in the Northern Territory. We are pushing to close the gap on service delivery time and response time for veterans and their family members in need.

Having only obtained our Incorporation status on the 21st of May 2021, we have set the bar high for working effectively but competently on:

- Applying for ACNC.
- Applying for mental health and community related grants through the NTG to provide invaluable mental health courses to our committee members, veterans, and veteran family members.
- Starting our application to enrol our treasurer on the ATDP course (Advocacy Training and Development Program) to better assist veterans with advocacy support.
- Actively meeting with Department of Infrastructure Planning and Logistics to apply for Community Land Grants and sourcing information relating to available land to support our objectives within our constitution that would see us needing to expand from our initial office based at the Mad Snake Café in Darwin City to accommodate the ever-growing volume of veterans and families we are engaging with weekly if not daily.

Prior to obtaining our Incorporation status, we set out every Friday to have familiar faces and new ones join us at our veteran coffee catch up. We engage with numerous members of the Darwin and Greater Darwin community, established companies, and organisations to provide briefings to our members and their family members on a vast array of topics about services provided in Darwin and how we can collaborate with them to provide these in a holistic way.

These topics range from:
- Suicide awareness and prevention
- The Privet Hospital Mental Health Facility
- The new Adult Mental Health Facility in Darwin
- Grow NT - Support and guidance for a Trauma Anonymous group
- Banking and financial support
- Veteran inclusive sporting clubs
- Local therapy dog volunteer groups

We as the Council of Australian Veterans (Darwin Branch) Inc. are a team of dedicated veterans and community group members who are passionate about driving the change to support services offered, starting in the Northern Territory, and hoping to see these services improved Nationwide.

We work collaboratively with organisations who see the actual issues veterans and their families are meet with, either prior to discharge or after. Our committee members alone bring numerous organisations and/or businesses that they are a part of to our organisation to achieve the collaborative and holistic approach that we are aiming for to better support the needs of all our local veterans and family members.

Some of these organisations are:
- The Palmerston Raiders Football Club
- The Veterans Motorcycle Club – NT Chapter
- The Darwin Men’s Shed
- Unions NT
- Mates In Construction

We as the committee seek no compensations for what we are trying to achieve other than to reduce the suicide rate within the veteran community here in the NT and be in the best position to utilise every resource within the Darwin and Greater Darwin community to provide the best services to our current serving members, veterans, and their families.

We have made this page to seek support from businesses, organisations, local community groups, the local Darwin community and even interstate groups, organisations and people who would like to contribute to our organisation. Every single donation no matter how big or small will go directly to the needs of veterans and their families. At present we have numerous ideas we wish to bring to fruition now and in the future with the support of funding, from:

- Veteran and their families weekend camping trips.
- Monthly weekend BBQs to capture whole family inclusion, hosted at various locations.
- Weekly personal training with a Veteran PT
- Provide coffee and morning tea to veterans and their families at all Friday catch ups to reduce the out-of-pocket strain for them to attend.
- A vehicle to transport veterans to and from events and assist with small at home clean up support.
- Future construction of the ‘Scott Palmer Veteran Centre’.
- Funding further therapy/assistance dog courses.

The Council of Australian Veterans (Darwin Branch) Inc. and the Darwin veteran community would be eternally grateful for any support that can be offered to us to forge ahead with getting this vital and long needed initiative off the ground and into fruition.

We have completed our application for ACNC (Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission) and are awaiting an update. We have forged ahead with this application to allow organisations and businesses who wish to make large contributions to the Council of Australian Veterans (Darwin Branch) Inc. to enable them to receive a tax relief.

If there is anything you, your business or community group would like to do to support our organisation outside of a donation, please feel free to contact our Public Officer Samantha Snell on either 0412 603 140 or at councilaustralianvets.secretary@gmail.com