A ceremony took place in Birmingham this week to honour the work of Birmingham SSAFA.
SSAFA, also known as Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association, is a British charitable organisation that provides lifelong support to the Armed Forces community. They help with a wide range of issues, including housing, mental health, financial difficulties, and more. SSAFA plays a vital role in ensuring that those who have served in the military receive the care and assistance they need to lead fulfilling lives after their service to our country.
The blessing of the standard took place at St Luke's church on Gas Street, and was attended by many senior figures from Birmingham, together with former soldiers and members of Birminghams military preparation college, whose members were proud to be playing their part on an important day for the city.
The standard will now proudly stand as the representative of SSAFA Birmingham at events nationwide, serving as a powerful symbol of the unwavering dedication exhibited by this vital charity.
SSAFA, also known as Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association, is a British charitable organisation that provides lifelong support to the Armed Forces community. They help with a wide range of issues, including housing, mental health, financial difficulties, and more. SSAFA plays a vital role in ensuring that those who have served in the military receive the care and assistance they need to lead fulfilling lives after their service to our country.
The blessing of the standard took place at St Luke's church on Gas Street, and was attended by many senior figures from Birmingham, together with former soldiers and members of Birminghams military preparation college, whose members were proud to be playing their part on an important day for the city.
The standard will now proudly stand as the representative of SSAFA Birmingham at events nationwide, serving as a powerful symbol of the unwavering dedication exhibited by this vital charity.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Today we have created a standard for SAFA. We paid for a flag to be made for them, but
00:07 a flag for a group like that doesn't become a standard until it's blessed. And today
00:16 was us blessing the standard.
00:17 I think it's important that we as a business community show our respect for the armed forces.
00:24 Now SAFA themselves are an organisation that help out financially to those ex-servicemen
00:31 that have fallen on hard times. We think it's important to support that organisation who
00:38 in turn support our ex-servicemen. So us getting them their standard today, giving them a bit
00:44 of respect so they can show off their colours whenever there's an event on Westside or anywhere
00:50 else indeed that they can go and show their standard and show their flags. So I think
00:54 it was very important that we support that as a business community.
00:57 SAFA, also known as the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association, is a British
01:02 charitable organisation that provides lifelong support to the armed forces community. They
01:08 help with a wide range of issues including housing, mental health, financial difficulties
01:13 and more, ensuring that those who have served in the military receive the care and assistance
01:18 they need to lead fulfilling lives after their service to our country.
01:23 We can go to events, as you saw today, there were many other standards from associations
01:28 and it means that there's a focal point for the members, it brings attention to the public,
01:35 people will ask questions, what is that, who is that, because what we want to do more than
01:40 anything else is to get more publicity, not just for funds but to let veterans, or remind
01:46 them rather, that we're there.
01:49 The blessing of this standard took place at St Luke's Church on Gash Street and was attended
01:53 by many senior figures from Birmingham, together with former soldiers and members of Birmingham's
01:58 Military Preparation College. They were proud to be playing their part on an important day
02:03 for the city.
02:04 We marched to the church and then a few of us performed a guard of honour for the new
02:11 standard that was being blessed and then the others marched there and then they stood there
02:17 as like, just to pay their respects along with all the others.
02:20 Being out there representing our college, representing the good men in the military
02:24 is just great and it just makes everything better and it like, we do things like that,
02:31 we do parades, we go out, we show our faces and we get in with the community.
02:35 The standard will now proudly stand as the representative of SAFA Birmingham at events
02:40 nationwide, serving as a powerful symbol of the unwavering dedication exhibited by this
02:46 vital charity.
02:47 This is a fantastic day for Birmingham. This is exactly the kind of thing that we should
02:52 be looking to do, to be respecting our armed forces servicemen, helping out organisations
02:58 that want to help them. I mean it gives us great civic pride that we've been able to
03:01 do this and it will make Birmingham a better place.
03:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]