VIC Review for 2014

We thought 2013 was a busy period but 2014 has been another outstanding year for VIC, our second year growth has exceeded our expectations.

• After a 6 week intensive refurbishment programme by VIC members over the Xmas period, the main offices and rooms in the VIC Centre were ready for the move from the Bacup Office to our new Haslingden home in January

• Two VIC members produced videos of their ‘Patient journeys’ to the East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group

• We received funding from the National Heritage Lottery for replacing 130 WW1 graves in Bacup cemetery, to locate and research fallen soldiers as part of the commemoration of the start of the Great War.

• The Creative Community Hub (formally the VIC art group) received an Armed Forces Community Covenant Grant to take the arts and crafts group out into the community

• We received our second year funding from East Lancashire and Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Groups.
• We established the VIC Singing Group that has already had a number of public performances including; the Festival of Remembrance in Whitworth, an Anchor Trust Care Home in Rossendale and in two supermarkets in Rossendale
• The Creative Community Hub has had two successful Art Exhibitions; Millgate Shopping Centre in Bury and an Art for Recovery Exhibition in Barnstable.
• We officially opened the VIC Centre during the Armed Forces Week, it was opened by Brigadier Chris Coles of 42 Infantry Brigade with over 100 invited guests from the local Authorities, Health, and many third sector organisations and community groups
• We have organised a number of Social Inclusion activities which included; fishing, bowling, badminton sessions, feeding the homeless in Rochdale, Southport Airshow, and Canal Trips

• One of our trustees Barry Payton received an MBE for the work he has done in the community
• We have worked with two Princes Trust teams to work on some community projects.
• The Creative Community Hub established their first community activity in a residential home in Rossendale and has involved some schools in Rossendale with WW1 commemoration projects
• We received additional funding from the Social Prescribing funding from East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group for a new project; Dig for VIC to develop the back garden with a shed/ workshop and areas for planting of food produce and flowers

• Many of our members have successfully passed qualifications in 2014; Level 3 Information, Advice and Guidance, Level 2 Understanding health Improvement to Health Chat course, Suicide Intervention Skills, Dry Stone Walling, Mental Health first Aid, Deaf Awareness, Navigation, and many more are planned in 2015.
• We have completed a number of community projects working in schools, community gardens, we completed a dry stone wall project in the Whitworth Memorial Gardens, marshaling of events, garden maintenance, street fairs, tidying up an angling club grounds. A VIC member sculptured a WW1 tank in willow on the Whitworth and Rochdale border
• We have been involved in a number of Remembrance services across Rossendale, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and one of our members even returned to the Falkland Islands.
• VIC members delivered some Health Improvement courses to veterans serving custodial sentences in HMP Buckley Hall
• The VIC website has been re-designed and is now updated regularly; the other social media has also seen a large increase in followers. At the start of the year we had 9,000 hits and we have increased this to 28,000.
• VIC is one of the founding members of the Pendle Armed Forces Group; this is a partnership of public and third sector organisations who are signatories of the Armed forces Covenant in Pendle
• VIC recruited two full-time members of staff; an Outreach Development Officer to build up our outreach provision across our operational areas and a Business Development Manager to help VIC with our growth for 2014/ 2015 and 2015/ 2016
• The Family Support Group has been increased to include areas outside of Rossendale.
• We have extended 2013 outreach venues to include Darwin and Pendle
• We received our third Armed Forces Community Covenant Grant to fund a community vehicle to allow us to continue the community projects outside of Rossendale and to continue our Social Inclusion projects
• We were finalists for the Rossendale Business Awards in the Community Business category, VIC were highly commended for the work and growth over the last 12 months.

• We increased our board of Trustees with three new members; Major Bob Smethurst, Keith Pilkington and David Peat OBE
• Our members have had the opportunity to take part in a number of outdoor activities; Sailing, Walking, Mountain Biking, Navigation, Archery, Bush craft, team building activities, badminton
• VIC was formed in September 2012 and we had our second birthday in September 2014
• We supported 100 members of the armed Forces Community in our first year of operations and this year we have given further advice and support to another 130 members, enabling them to make positive changes to their behaviours and life styles.  The full impact of this work is unmeasurable, as concerned families, partners, wives, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and children feel the effect of the work VIC undertake.

This growth wouldn’t have been possible without the support we have received from our members, our partners and a range of organisations in areas where we operate.

We are looking forward to the challenges that 2015 will bring.