At a meeting of the GACAP Partners Meeting on Monday 2ND July it was agreed to consider becoming a Charity under the model constitution for small charities from the Charity Commission, with an Annual Income below £5000, which means we will be a charity with Trustees with the same duties and obligations as a registered charity and if agreed will be ratified at a special meeting in August when the Constitution will be presented to the Partners.
Following the resignation of Joan Mitchie as Secretary after serving GACAP since its inception in December 2013 and for the steering meetings, from the brainchild of Syd Howarth MBE or in many quarters known as Mr. Aycliffe.
We have obtained a new Secretary, we welcomed aboard June Brown from Shildon who we met at an event run by another Partner CDTVRM run by Simon Day & Jane Johnson. Jane Johnson has been doing the minutes since Joan left and we thanked Jane for her sterling work with her very busy schedule.
Chair Introduced speaker Garreth Morrell of Veterans at Ease, VAE
Garreth asked if anyone had not heard of VAE 2 had not, VAE is a clinical mental health charity dealing with physical disorder from depression to suicide. They serve the community and help Veterans. All members come from the community except one who is a Physiotherapist. VAE have helped over 3,000 people. Garreth told his story of how he was traumatised himself, which did not show for years, he went through normal Mental Health channels and had CBT which didn’t help him. He found Neuro-Linguistic Programming NLP. He worked in various places and took volunteer redundancy and started this charity. He got a lottery grant in 2012. He described the symptoms of PTSD Post traumatic Stress Disorder. They have helped 300 men and women. 90,000 people in the North East need help. Many of those traumatised seek help through alcohol and drugs. VAE were awarded the Queens Award in 2016 for Voluntary Service the first so far and the only military charity to attain the award. Their vision is to have 4 charity shops, which include Whitley Bay, Sunderland and Darlington and have a vision for a drop-in centre. Hoping to have 2-3 offices in the UK and are in consultations with Kings College, London and hope to develop a research project. We help by referring people, volunteering, in the shops, admin etc. Furniture need was mentioned and noted by Human Kind and RM mentioned County Durham Furniture Scheme. Chair asked Helen Maynard manager of Tesco if they could help. Peter Driver asked if this service was just for the forces and GM said it was at no cost, but others could pay for it. RM asked DB if he was happy for the charity details to be shared and DB said he was happy with that. PD asked if there was a Stigma and GM said he thought it was in our heads. Garreth’s details are mobile 07584056181. Email info@veteransatease.org
https://www.veteransatease.org/
Janice Coombes representing Xcel Local was welcomed as our next speaker by the Chair. JC said that Xcel an established local church, which in the beginning was receiving requests for food by local families as they had no food. From that an idea was born to help people in need of help, with free haircuts, clothing, and much more. Xcel local have put on community events, children’s programmes, hot meals, debt management, food bank. Church members supplemented the church with these things. This spread to food parcels, help with new school uniforms, shoes are supplied but not always new. Xcel local run a Christmas appeal every year. In 2017 they helped 92 families and 223 children. Children asked to write out what they would like for Christmas. Xcel Local provide food hampers at Christmas filled with good things and cost between £30-35 each. Janice went on to say it was all a humbling experience. Stories of youngsters being isolated at school for not having the right uniform or shoes. She shared a scripture Matthew 25: 31-45’.
Xcel Local have had request from Durham Prison for toiletries for the women and towels for a refuge. They try to provide whatever is needed. Janice quoted from Maya Angelo “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” Janice shared her own personal story of her childhood experiences which was powerful. Janice finished by thanking GACAP and TESCO for their support. Chair thanked Janice and gave best wishes to Xcel Church on behalf of the Partnership.
We explored having our own office as both an administration office and a point of contact, with some of our partners using it also, we have a few ideas where and when this will happen, but confidentiality prevents us saying more at this time.
If you have the skills in IT or other skills that you think would help us, then contact me on 07749236853 for an informal chat and your age is not a barrier.
Our next Members meeting is on Monday 6TH August at the offices of Humankind, was DISC, by the Blue Bridge next to Newton Press, 3-15 for the Special Meeting then the normal Partners Meeting at 3-45 until around 5-00 and then to network until around 5-30. We have Drinks and biscuits before, during and after in our Networking session. Prior to the meeting I had a coffee and Cake at the café at Humankind, run by More Time who also run the furniture setup on the ground floor where Honest John is located. For the quality, quantity & price then I give this my personal thumbs up. Again, you can contact me on the number above should you require any information, and all are welcome to attend our Monthly meetings. We have had our first Associate member in the Aycliffe Radio, thanks to Paul Howarth, so we look forward to a lot more business park companies joining us in our cause, in fact any business or individual are welcome to join us in our fight to alleviate all sorts of needs including poverty and make Great Aycliffe an even better place to live
Ron Mitchie
Chairman
GACAP
