Call to find veterans who may need help

A `VETERANS virtual community’ is being set up to ensure that those struggling during the lockdown can access the help and support they need.

It is being championed by the Nuneaton-based Veterans Contact Point (VCP) to ensure that staff can reach out to those who need it most.

The VCP, which was officially opened by Prince Charles in February, was forced to close due to the coronavirus restrictions but its staff have have been determined to maintain their presence and support to veterans in the community.

They started weekly `Veteran Buddy Telephone Calls’ to those veterans known to them previous interventions/ contact.

But they wanted to reach out to more, to help those who have not been on their radar before.

Len Hardy, who founded and runs the VCP, explained: “The big issue we and other organisations/community groups have is we do not have accurate figures on demographics of our veterans community.

“We do not know if people in the shielded group/vulnerable risk groups are also veterans. What we do know is that a percentage of them would be, but may not have been asked or identified.

“Leaflets produced by the VCP were distributed two weeks ago by Warwickshire County Council through their agents delivering support packages/food etc to these groups in order to help identify veterans and inform them that none emergency support is available to them.”

But they were keen to take it a step further and submitted several applications to secure funding to enable the VCP to develop new services and compliment existing services or support and explore new ways of working to support veterans during and after COVID19.

They secured £10,000 from The Veterans Foundation and this will be used to help create a `veterans virtual community’ so they can reach out to those who need help and develop new ways to offer safe outreach support services now and in the future. The VCO also made successfully obtained cash from the Warwickshire County Councillors Grants Scheme - to the tune of £2,300.

“Our successful award will also be used in the overall theme and will give us additional resources to develop an idea around A `veterans Virtual community’ using social media platforms to bring veterans together to remove some of the barriers the may be facing as a result of social isolation etc,” Len added.

They are also still waiting to see if an application for a small grant from `The Armed Forces Covenant Trust Fund Veterans Should Not Be Forgotten Grants Scheme’ to be used for ongoing support during the coronavirus lockdown.