Veteran & Family Hub Highlights – January to March 2025

The Hub teams have been busy in 2025, with a range of initiatives and support programs for veterans and their families.

All of the Hubs participated in the 2025 National Anzac Day Colouring in competition, and we were proud to reach 402 schools within our network.

Mental Health is a key aspect that the Hubs support, and Workshops were launched in March which provided participants an opportunity to complete a Mental Health First Aid Course. 46 veterans and their carers have already completed the 2-day course, with another 5 courses planned up until 30 June.

International Women’s Day was celebrated at our Shoalhaven, Riverina and Central Coast Hubs, honouring the female veteran community for their contributions. 110 women attended events across the network of three hubs.

The Hubs are a true place of connection and community for our veterans and their families.  They can visit the Hub and make use of the facilities as they need to and also access the support offerings which are available to them – from claims and advocacy support, wellbeing and financial, housing or education and more.

From January to March 2025, our Veteran & Family Hubs:

• Welcomed over 1,030 visitors
• Received over 140 phone inquiries
• Hosted 99 on-site events at the Hubs, which had more than 1,400 people attending
• Took part in 21 off-site events

Here’s a snapshot of some of the key moments in our Hubs this year so far:

Queanbeyan Veteran & Family Hub

Our newest Hub had their Grand Opening in April 2025, and what a grand opening it was.  With more than 180 people in attendance, and we are pleased to be officially open and ready to support the local veteran community.

Their activity schedule has already kicked off, and you can find all of the events on their webpage and on their Facebook page.

Construction is almost complete on the development of the ACT Veteran & Family Hub in Lyneham, extending the reach of the Queanbeyan VFH team, providing even more coverage for the veteran community in this region.

To stay up to date on Queanbeyan news, please click here.

Shoalhaven Veteran & Family Hub

Fortnightly Free Coffee, sponsored by Talk to me Bros, is a very welcomed event.  30 people attended the first session, and it’s a perfect way to connect and chat with fellow veterans.

Sunday Brunch Club has been very popular with 29 attendees and growing.  Paint your Partner was a new initiative which was in demand and requested as a future activity.

To stay up to date on the Shoalhaven Hub, please click here.

Riverina Veteran & Family Hub

The Hub team have connected with the new Command Groups at both bases and have attended meetings to highlight what the Hub and wider organisation can offer serving members and their families. Commandant Kapooka has personally dropped in twice to view the hub and speak with staff, and he’s chuffed at the opportunity for us to provide our services to his staff and family members so that they can concentrate on being ‘forward facing’. He’s coined the term for us being ‘capability enablers’ for his troops.

Veterans who are keen on Gaming now have a dedicated location they can visit, with the inception of the “Riverina Veteran Gaming Club”, which run weekly. Hub Manager, Stuart, donated $5,000 worth of models for attendees to paint; and paints and supplies provided thanks to a grant. 48 Expressions of Interest returned by serving members and family members expressing an interest in attending every Wednesday Evening events. Painting and modelling workshops will be held with different skills catered for every week. Every attendee has the opportunity to either bring their own models in and use the facilities and our paints, or they can attend and we’ll issue them a donated model to paint and practice on. The RSL sub-Branch have provided some prizes for monthly painting competitions.

Central Coast Veteran & Family Hub

The Hub team are enjoying getting to know the local community and establishing valuable partnerships and relationships which ultimately help us help more veterans.

The team have worked with Legacy to establish cross referral channels in the local community and ongoing support of our programs.

They were thrilled to attend the Love Lanes local community event in February, which was buzzing with warmth and positive vibes.  This event helped to raise awareness for younger veterans in the community.

The team donned their aprons and grabbed the tongs as they hosted a Bunnings BBQ, which raised $2,000 to be put towards running programs at the Hub.

To stay up to date, click here.

Northern Beaches Veteran Wellbeing Centre

The highlight this year so far was definitely the Veterans Expo which was hosted by the Northern Beaches Veteran Wellbeing Centre and the team from RSL ANZAC Village. Held on March 25 at RSL ANZAC Village, more than 350 visitors attended to learn about the local supports and services available for the veteran community.  Read more.

Northern Beaches Veteran Wellbeing Centre hopped into Easter and created a fun atmosphere when they visited the RSL ANZAC Village in Narrabeen.

Residents from the village and children from the nearby Little Diggers childcare had smiles from ear to ear with a special visit from the Easter Bunny, aka our Veteran Wellbeing Centre Manager, Craig Horner!

For Anzac Day, the Centre were grateful for the support of the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles who kindly donated one of their Anzac Round jerseys as an auction item to raise funds for the local centre.

Together with the Families of Veterans Guild, a Ten Pin bowling event was held at Timezone for defence families.  Current and serving personnel travelled from across Sydney to Dee Why during the January school holidays to have some family fun while ten pin bowling. With all 3 services being represented some fun rivalry kicked off between families of the Navy, Army and Air Force.

Monthly coffee and chats held in Dee Why RSL’s Aqua Cafe have restarted for the new year. This new monthly initiative offers free coffee and time to relax while being able to socialise with other veterans and family members. Come along and make new friends or strengthen current friendships.

Legacy Northern Beaches morning tea and art therapy was held at the Northern Beaches Veteran Wellbeing Centre. Legatees from across the Northern Beaches enjoyed some fresh cake while relaxing, drawing and painting. This monthly event held on the 3rd Thursday of the month is going from strength to strength with numbers increasing each session.

To stay up to date on our Northern Beaches Veteran Wellbeing Centre, please click here.

Hunter Veteran & Family Hub

Free Mental Health Course workshops were delivered in March 2025, as part of a series of courses running at our Hubs.

Pleased to announce that the team has grown and we have a new Claims Advisor and Engagement & Community Officer who have joined Hub Manager, Hayley.

The location of the permanent Hub has also been announced as 48 Ken Tubman Drive Maitland. Construction and development is now underway. Read more.

For news and updates about the Hunter Hub, please click here.

Hawkesbury Veteran & Family Hub

We’re pleased to announce that we are now off and running with the development of the Hawkesbury Veteran & Family Hub, which will provide support services from Hawkesbury to South Western Sydney.

Our team, led by Hub Manager, Brett Adams, is ready to support the local veteran community, with our new Claims Advisor and Engagement & Community Officer recently recruited too.  The temporary location has been confirmed as Windsor RSL, and we expect it to be open in the next few months.

To stay up to date on Hawkesbury Hub news, please click here.

North Coast Veteran & Family Hub

We are on the way to finishing the build for the new Hub in Tweed Heads.  Our team, led by Hub Manager, Michael McGovern, are gearing up to ensure all of the supports and services are readily available to veterans in the Tweed Heads and North Coast region.  Michael has been attending local meetings to get to know the local community, and he and the team took part in several commemorative events on Anzac Day.

To stay up to date on North Coast Hub news, please click here.

Like to know more about all of our veteran support team updates? Read our Quarter 1 update here.

Our efforts are proudly supported by funds from RSL NSW and its sub-Branches, and the services we provide would not be possible without the generous support of our donors.  

If you or someone you know is in need of assistance, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at [email protected], or call 02 8088 0388.

If you’d like to stay up to date on what the team is doing, please subscribe to our regular newsletter updates.