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00:00You
00:30Perfect.
00:59So why did you choose Fairham and Fairham Shopping Centre to set up shop?
01:18I'm local to town. I'm only a couple of miles north in Knoll Village.
01:23And we've got quite a high percentage of our audience that live in the local area,
01:29especially when you push down towards Gosport and east and west from Fairham.
01:34There is also a big police station and a main fire station in the town as well.
01:40So it's our target audience, really, who we want to help and save the war.
01:44So do you think the walking centre is almost a focal point for multiple demographics,
01:50where since Fairham Shopping Centre is a local landmark, they'll be able to know where it is and be able to find you guys properly?
01:55Absolutely. And we have been lucky enough to be invited into Fairham Borough Council's regeneration strategy meetings over the past six months.
02:09And I think there's quite a strong crossover in what we want to do here at the community co-working space
02:18and what Fairham are trying to do with their strategy as well.
02:21So would you be able to describe what the co-working space offers to people wondering around if they want to pop in?
02:27Yeah, certainly. So if you're a local business and you don't necessarily have to be from the military, the police or the fire service,
02:34you want to do some high-value networking, but also come in, have a meeting, invite clients in to have one-to-ones, etc.
02:45You can do that here. There is going to be a podcast recording suite in the building as well, which we are opening soon.
02:59And all of the memberships that the individuals pay to use the space directly fund and sponsor someone to go through Sabre Warrior, so they don't have to pay for their suit.
03:10And the main part of the funding goes to that 72-hour programme where people come in and they go through that.
03:19Could you describe the programme as best they can and how integral it is for someone reaching out who might need help either dealing with trauma or other experiences they've had in the armed forces or the emergency service?
03:31Sure. So Sabre Warrior UK, we deliver a 72-hour experience. It's residential at our site in Bedfordshire.
03:39The individuals, as I said, it's free for them to attend. And once they've come to our 72-hour experience, they'll return home and we then stay with them with a 500-day follow-up plan.
03:53So that's daily work and weekly check-in group calls. And we've got a really good response from the men that have been through the programme so far.
04:02It sounds like the programme is a proper transformative to those people who went through it at the start to where they are now. Can you describe how some of the people who've gone through it, how their lives have been transformed from it?
04:14Oh, 100%. It is definitely a transformation. And I can speak from personal experience because I have been through the programme myself.
04:21I'm not the person I was before I walked in to the gates of Sabre Warrior Village. We help people get unstuck from the things that happened and give them new language in order to make good with the past and move forward without it affecting their day-to-day lives.
04:44And do you really see that from when people are at the end of the programme where their past experiences aren't the overarching thing that's controlling their day-to-day life, do you think?
04:53Generally, we'll see that within the first hour of the 72 hours. We get right to the problem with ruthless compassion and help them really get complete with that trauma.
05:08And you said that you've been through the programme yourself after serving for a long time in the Royal Air Force. Was that one of the reasons why you wanted to represent and be a co-director of Sabre Warrior yourself? Your own personal experience and thinking other people in the services or the emergency services will be able to improve their lives just like you do?
05:27I don't get mine until you get yours. In giving back in service, that's the best way that I can pay it forward for Sabre Warrior. I was honoured to attend Sabre Warrior. I didn't have to pay for my seat. Someone else picked up that bill, so thank you whoever you are.
05:44And me doing this work now is a way to solve a big problem which is currently in the mental health space in the UK. We believe that we've got a strong cure for this thing called suicide and we're looking forward to growing this and opening it up to more and more people in the decades to come.
06:07So if anybody wants to learn more about the services that Sabre Warrior put forward, how can they reach out and how can they find you?
06:37And finally, since you guys have been operating for roughly a couple of weeks now, what has that experience been like? As already you've mentioned that a couple of people have walked in, used the service, learnt about what Sabre Warrior offers. Can you describe what that experience has been like?
06:51Yeah, it's been great. We've had a number of people come in and sit down and want to learn more about the membership which starts at £150 a month. So for a small business it's actually quite accessible. We've had a number of people just walking past through the shopping centre that have stuck their head in and wished us well and said great job in doing what you're doing. So that's a lovely little bit of feedback for us to get as an organisation.
07:15The people that come in see the suicide prevention site but when they learn about what we do as a co-working space and essentially a business support hub, they're even more intrigued and I think by us opening it up into that space as well, it's our hope that we'll be positively lifting the mental health space of local businesses and stopping people declining that way as well.
07:45And how do you see things going forward? Because you've mentioned that the footfall has been good so far and a lot of people have come in already. Do you see that only increasing in the weeks and months to come?
07:54I hope so. That would be a great thing wouldn't it. We've got a number of memberships that have signed up already. We do have the capacity for this space so it's my hope and dream to open up another one of these either locally or in an adjacent town and start to build this community co-working space for Sabre Warrior across the south and then moving through into the rest of the country.