VIC Annual Review for 2017.

Our fifth year has once again exceeded our expectations; the purpose of this reviews some of the main highlights of our activities and news from 2017. All our other news can also be viewed in the Newsletters and New Stories on our website www.vic.org.uk.

• We started the year with news that we had secured funding for 2017 – 2019 from East Lancashire CCG and Heywood Middleton, and Rochdale CCG for our outreach and Social Inclusion work for a further 12 months.
• Our Project Worker on the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust project working with the Integrated Neighbourhood Teams across Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale is starting to see positive results with veterans accessing other services.
• The VIC Singing Group increased their performances this year; in addition to the local supermarkets, residential homes and community events, in June VIC organised a Veterans and Voices concert at St Mary's Parish Church in Rawtenstall. This was a great success and we are in the process of organising one for 2018. They also performed at the Rossendale Festival of Remembrance.
• VIC received an £8000 grant from the Army Benevolent Soldier Charity to help fund our Veterans In Production (VIP) project using the workshop to manufacture a range of wooden garden furniture.
• We received some funding from the Greggs Foundation which has been used in funding some of the outdoor activities and Social Inclusion trips.
• We have provided the weekly transport for Positive Start Food Group in Rossendale where unused food is re-distributed from large supermarkets to community groups to help those who are on low incomes. During the first half of the year we also provided the transport for the ACROSS Food Group.
• Our two allotments; Rossendale and Heywood will be ready for growing a range of vegetables for 2018.
• Our Crafty Chatters group has been busy making a good range of crafts which have been sold at Craft Fairs, and seasonal Easter and Christmas crafts have been successful.
• In 2017 our full years walk and Social Inclusion trip itinerary was a great success. In addition to the bi-monthly walks we increased our Social Inclusion trips which have included; Greater Manchester Fire and Police Museums, Leeds Armoury, Imperial War Museum North, Eden Camp, Bury Fusiliers Museum, Brockholes Nature Reserve, and a number of Veteran Breakfast Clubs.
• Our Bob Ross art sessions have been increased and in 2017 we held our 18th session at the VIC Centre in Haslingden.
• Our outreach in East Lancashire has been extended to cover Accrington.
• At the beginning of the 2017 we found out we have been nominated and shortlisted as a finalist in the Soldiering On Awards in the ‘Working Together’ Category. We were invited to the House of Lords to meet the judges and other finalists in February and in March we attended the Awards Ceremony in London. This was a great achievement for VIC and to be recognised for our work was a tribute to the hard work our members and staff have put into VIC since we formed in 2012. Although we didn’t win the group it was a very humbling experience to meet so many worthy individuals and groups.
• VIC was nominated by the Royal British Legion Greater Manchester and Lancashire Team in the Third Sector Award category. We are very proud of this as we weren’t aware we had been nominated and we won this category.
• We were chosen by St Mary’s FC in Haslingden who has VIC logo on their strip for the 2017-2018 season.
• With the funding we have received, the VIC Centre opened throughout the Easter, and a Christmas period again has seen an increase from 2016 of members using this service during the periods when other organisations usually close.
• We have worked with a number of young people in 2017, school leavers on the National Citizenship Scheme and some from the local schools on their Duke of Edinburgh Awards.
• We organised the Armed Forces day for the second year in Haslingden, with a ceremony with the new Mayor of Rossendale. Our members also joined many of the other ceremonies across East Lancashire and Greater Manchester.
• Three of our members worked with Bravo 22 through ‘The Art of Recovery’ to create life-size sculptures that reflected their experiences of Trauma, these sculptures were exhibited in Manchester and London. One of the members went on to act in a film that was shown in November in Newcastle to the general public.
• We held our second public AGM in September. Accounts are available on the Charity Commission website and a copy is available on the VIC website.
• We attended a number of country shows and fun days in 2017, and one of our oldest veterans Lewis Banham was a guest of honour at the last public display of the Royal Signals White Helmet Display Team where he took the final salute.
• Our WW2 veterans were invited to an RBL Tea Dance in Bury as part of their programme of remembering those WW2 veterans who are still with us.
• Lewis Banham was awarded two commemoration medals in 2017; the Legion d’Honour and the Dutch Liberation Medal. Lewis Banham has been invited back to France and Holland as part of the commemoration ceremonies being held in 2018.
• VIC launched a veterans ‘Sandbag Café’ in Heywood, and VIC members launched the Rossendale’s Armed Forces Breakfast Club in Haslingden.
• We carried out a number of community projects in 2017 which included; building a shed at a local primary school, dismantling of a shed for a recently widowed wife of an RAF veteran, tidying up a garden of an elderly Royal Navy veteran and we were asked to build a community notice board as part of the Veterans In Production (VIP) project.
• VIC was a chosen charity for the Ride of Respect Remembrance event on the 11th November. This was big honour for VIC to be chosen and to be a part of this great event where 1400 motorbikes rode around the M60 and M25 in red tops.
• This year saw our busiest Remembrance period to date; this year we were asked to be part of two school Remembrance services and managed to have members at many of the services held around Rossendale, Lancashire and Greater Manchester. Some of our members attended the Manchester Airport Festival of Remembrance for the second year.
• Just after Remembrance the VIC Centre was broken into and around £1000 was taken and although it was a difficult time for the members, we quickly recovered in true military style and made repairs. Unfortunately much of the money taken was to be used to pay for our annual members Christmas meal. We were overwhelmed by the messages of support from so many organisations and individuals in the community and due to the offers of financial support the Christmas meal went ahead as planned and we had around 60 members at the meal. One of the highlights was that we were served by the Reservists from HMS Eaglet who waited on us during the meal.
• We were able to make 33 Christmas hampers and delivered them to our single or vulnerable veterans with families, from food and toys donated from a number of sources.As with the response we had after the break-in the support were overwhelming.
• We celebrated two of our oldest members’ birthdays this year; Lewis Banham aged 94 who served in the Royal Signals during WW2 and Doug Hocken aged 90 who flew in Lancaster’s at the end of WW2.
• We lost two members this year; Megan Edwards aged 76 who was a keen supporter and fundraiser with our Singing Group and veteran Fred Wellman aged 86 who attended the weekly art group. Both will be sadly missed by VIC and its members.