Hello and Welcome to east Durham Veterans Trust!
East Durham Veterans Trust has been established to offer help and support to Veterans and their families within the local area.
We initially started fundraising and raising awareness having seen first hand the struggles of a service person leaving the forces, especially with a family in tow. The struggle of worrying about housing, schools, employment and many other issues, alongside struggles with mental health was abundantly clear and we knew we had to take action. It was absolutely astonishing how difficult it was for a veteran to gain help with mental health treatment, being shoved from pillar to post.
We are very aware that unfortunately, not every veteran is lucky enough to have a strong support network to to guide them through struggles with mental health. With suicide at such an alarming rate and the UK government cutting funding to the primary health care fund we wanted to put out there that there was help and how people could access it quickly.
In early 2018 we began to take action, starting out with the aim of helping homeless veterans with in the North East area. We were soon advised that this is not a massive problem in the North East, yes it is a problem, but there were bigger issues that needed to be dealt with. After speaking to the local MP's office, who we have maintained constant dialogue with ever since, it was apparent that there was no veterans charity in the East Durham area, this needed to change, so East Durham Veterans Trust was formed.
Since we formed East Durham Veterans we have been very busy, firstly there was the fund raising. We arranged a sponsored walk across Hadrians wall, 18 miles in total. This was followed by a charity night which was held on armed forces day. The charity night was a huge success, we were joined by Sunderland A.F.C owner Stewart Donald, who donated prizes for auction. The funds raised allowed us to help veterans as well as purchase merchandise and equipment.
Our next step is to get the word out regarding East Durham Veterans Trust and to register as a charity. We are currently writing the mandate as a charity and are in the process of selecting our trustee's for the charity. We aim to open a veterans centre which is a little further down the line, but in the short term we are planning more fundraising and awareness events.
We thank you for taking the time to visit our page.