Veterans commissioner pays a return visit to community hub in North Lanarkshire
Veterans of the Armed Forces and their family members gave a warm welcome to a special visitor to their hub in Wishaw.
Scottish Veterans Commissioner, Susie Hamilton, paid a visit to the Veterans Community Lanarkshire Hub in Craigneuk on Thursday, July 24.
The Commissioner's role is to engage with veterans and community organisations across Scotland and hear about any issues they are facing.
An ambassador for all veterans, Susie helps to improve the lives and opportunities of those in the veterans' community living in Scotland by engaging with them and ensuring there is a focus on their experiences.
She helps raise the profile of veterans, and promotes wider recognition of their skills, experience and potential, in Scotland.
For example, a report Susie produced recently recommends that more staff working in welfare and financial and debt advisory services are trained to be 'veteran aware', to ensure they can provide appropriate support.
Susie said: 'I've come along here today to the hub in Wishaw in my role as Veterans Commissioner to hear directly from veterans and people who support veterans.
"I've been to the hub before, a couple of years ago, and it's great to come back and meet new people and others who are continuing to gain benefit from the community hub and get an update on what they are doing now. It's brilliant.'
In addition to the hub, the Veterans Community Lanarkshire charity also operates a drop-in café on Fridays at Kings Church in Motherwell.
Susie has first-hand experience of some of the issues that veterans can face in society, having served as a Marine Engineer in the Royal Navy herself.
She was heartened to meet with people who are feeling the benefits of connecting with others at the hub.
'I heard from someone who's only just started coming along and he's getting really good support,' she continued. 'It's also about meeting friends and connecting with other members of the community.
"He came for the first time a couple of weeks ago and didn't know anyone but they were all chatting away like friends, and that's kind of what these places are like - there's a common bond which can be a really powerful connection.
'Social isolation is literally a killer of people, people live shorter lives and live less well. So it's really important to make sure that people are connected.
'The ages of the veterans were from 40 upwards, but there are some families here too with young people. And it's not just men and women who are veterans, there are also widows of veterans as well, so that's really important, they are part of the veterans community too and can sometimes get left behind. There's also a bereaved parent, whose son was killed in action and he comes along. It's important that the whole community is included.
'Our Armed Forces are the last option for preserving our peace and security, particularly in times of peace that can be forgotten quite quickly, but times of peace can often change quite quickly. Public consciousness about what our veterans have done kind of goes up and down, depending on what is happening in the world. Having this kind of support that's always available is really important'
The hub is situated at 59 Shieldmuir St, Wishaw. You can email info@vclan.org.uk or phone 07840 479024 for more information.
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