24 August, 2025

RSAs join forces to help North Shore veterans in need

Helping hands… RSA branch presidents Commander Muzz Kennett (left) from Devonport and George Coffin from Birkenhead at Takapuna Library, where an advice session for former service personnel is held weekly

North Shore military veterans are being offered a helping hand in a welfare outreach involving three Returned Services Association branches.
“They don’t have to be an RSA member to get help,” says Devonport RSA president Muzz Kennett. “We want families to say, ‘Dad, have you thought about asking for help?’”
He says people may be unaware of Veterans Affairs service entitlements they are eligible for, reluctant to come forward or missing out on the help and connection RSAs can offer.
To help cut through these barriers, his branch and those from Birkenhead and East Coast Bays have combined to run informal weekly drop-in sessions based at the Takapuna Library. The three clubs all gained members when the Takapuna RSA folded in 2014.
At the library, advisers from the three branches are on hand to guide veterans. The sessions, on Wednesdays from 10am to noon, began in June. The plan is to continue them this year and then review the impact, says Kennett.
“It’s slow, but a number of veterans have popped in that we’ve given support to.” This has ranged from pointing them in the right direction for support services, including benefits, to a case where food bank help was organised.
Kennett, a commander in the Royal New Zealand Navy, says the combined outreach is in line with the RSA’s national direction of focusing on welfare and commemoration. “We’re very much part of that,” he says. Associations manage themselves, with several having come into public conflict with the national body over focus and property sales. Kennett says locally this is not a problem. While each of the three RSAs have differing memberships, they are committed to key commemorations, welfare work and varying degrees of socialising.
Devonport, with its 180 members, cannot sustain daily hospitality openings, but holds regular member get-togethers. Kennett is keen to involve younger service personnel and encourage volunteering.

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