Local Veterans in Action Charity have been selected by The Peoples Project to raise money for the centre, which sits in the
beautiful countryside on the outskirts of Andover and Salisbury Plains..
The centre here is used by many Veterans and is evergrowing, this is a safe haven in supporting our Veterans suffering with PTSD or have struggled with adapting to civilian life, hence the slogan – The Post Traumatic Growth Charity, this is exactly what the team at VIA do in support of their Veterans, they support them through the toughest times and help to to grow, even saving lives.
Veterans in Action carry out numerous activities and events to be able to support the growing members they have visiting the
centre, recently they have been working on a great team building exercise call ‘Bricks and Banter’ and have also been holding
fortnightly ‘Walk & Talk’ sessions, which seem to be extremely popular.
The Centre holds a workshop where our veterans are able to use their past skill sets to work as a team in building expedition
vehicles. These vehicles, once built, are the vehicle used to drive the Veterans and the team from VIA on overland expeditions,
the team have worked on vehicle’s that accommodate a cooking area / kitchen, and also somewhere to sleep with pop up roof
tents, these expeditions are extremely important to the members and veterans that are able to attend these, green therapy and
group therapy sessions at its finest, supporting them with their personal growth, helping them rebuild their confidence, self-esteem and self-belief.
Throughout lockdown in 2020, Veterans in Action Charity worked together using their skill sets, engraved in to them by many
years of service, to pull together and assist the community in food delivery, prescription deliveries and working closely with the
Andover Isolation Group to provide man power and transport to make sure that our local community were able to have these vital
things delivered to them – helping themselves by helping others, another of their heart felt slogans.
The team have carried out numerous trips to Poland, delivering millions of essentials to those in need during the Ukraine crisis,
again putting themselves forward and using their skills and abilities engraved in them from the years of servicing. Although this
had it’s benefits, it also brought with it it’s own up’s and down’s, the environment gave those suffering with PTSD from past similar
experiences the strength to be able to put themselves forward to do this, (which in itself is amazing) and the support of the Team
and the other members meant that this became a personal challenge for many. But they did it, taking helping themselves by
helping others to a whole new extreme, something I know the VIA team are extremely proud of.
In order to include everyone from all walks of life, Veterans in Action also carry out frequent ‘Virtual Challenges’ that anyone can
be a part of, you will find more about these on www.veteransinaction.org.uk.
This brings us to now, and how you can help the team at Veterans in Action, the Veterans using the
centre and their families:
The Peoples Project is put together by The National Lottery Community Fund, The National Lottery, ITV, UTV and the Sunday
Mail in Scotland in the chance to give the public a chance to decide how National Lottery funding should be put to good use in the
local area.
VIA – Veterans in Action, have been shortlisted for this years campaign, where YOU can vote for the projects you would like to
see receive up to £70,000 of funding to improve the lives of people in the community.
Billy MacLeod MBE from the VIA charity shared: ‘Veterans In Action are the only veterans charity up for this award in the
whole of the UK, we need your support in the form of voting, to help us win this which, in turn, will help us remain open and
enable us to continue to support our veterans. You can vote via the www.thepeoplesprojects.org.uk and searching ‘Alive
Project’ under find a project, the voting will be running for the next 10 days, so please vote, ask your friends and family and
work colleagues to vote also, it is greatly appreciated’
Winning this vote and funding means we can continue with our project, this means VIA are able to continue to work with
veterans who suffer complex mental health issues due to their service. The aim is to help veterans grow in a holistic setting,
focusing on areas such as confidence, self-respect and purpose to improve overall health and wellbeing.
