TRAFFORD Veterans is a group of armed forces veterans, emergency service personnel and local volunteers, who live in Trafford, Greater Manchester. Its most recent initiative was to develop a mobile hub which could be used to travel into areas it hasn’t worked in before and support hard-to-reach communities.

A chance meeting with Gerflor and Gradus ignited a desire for both to help by donating products that would help the mobile hub project to be completed.
Says Gerflor, ‘This included Gerflor’s world-class Tarasafe Impression safety vinyl flooring and robust Gradus SureProtect Pure Wall Cladding. This iconic project demonstrates Gerflor’s and Gradus’s commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).’

The group was formed in 2015 after the two founding members, Royal Navy Veteran Claire Wright, and British Army Veteran Chris Squires, left the armed forces and faced a struggle with physical and mental injuries. This affected their transition from the military back into their respective communities. Their experiences prompted them to provide peer support to other veterans and members of the community, so people wouldn’t feel alone.

‘Their vision for the mobile hub was to have an exhibition-type vehicle, with a seating area and kitchenette so people could easily drop in for advice, activities or just for some company, have a chat and a cup of tea and be with likeminded people.

‘The aim of the mobile hub is it can be used for a wide range of activities including a learning centre for short learning courses, networking and presentations, and a place to go for information, support, and advice.

‘They also want to build on their community outreach and provide volunteering opportunities, as well as hold activities for veterans and the local community such as job clubs, workshops and peer support activities. The mobile hub will also provide a safe, comfortable place for people to attend appointments with the Trafford Veterans or their partner organisations.’

Commenting on the mobile hub project Claire Squires (Wright), co-founder of the Trafford Veterans said, ‘Trafford Veterans has been running peer support activities for the past nine years. Our events are well attended, but we just felt there were more people that we could reach on a smaller scale that don’t like crowds or busy places. Having a mobile hub that we can take out to town centres and supermarket car parks will now help us to reach and support more people.’

On specification and the donation of products by Gerflor and Gradus Claire Squires said, ‘A chance meeting with a member of staff from Gerflor and Gradus, while on a course sparked their interest in our mobile hub project. The flooring and splashback materials were kindly donated by Gerflor and Gradus, and as a thank you and in recognition of their charitable assistance we placed their logos on the back of the van.’ Hannah Parkinson, marketing product manager, Gerflor and Gradus said, ‘This was a rewarding project to be involved with.

‘The Trafford Veterans do an incredible job supporting the local veterans and it was an extremely easy decision to make in donating much-needed products for their mobile hub project. We supplied our innovative Tarasafe Impression safety flooring and robust Gradus SureProtect Pure Wall Cladding for the van.’

Commenting on the completion of the project Claire Squires said, ‘The mobile hub van now looks completely spectacular and will be a fantastic asset to the Trafford Veterans for many years to come. The vehicle build was completed in May, and we would definitely specify Gerflor and Gradus products again. The project can be seen in our YouTube clip called Veterans Hub Build on YouTube.com.’

Research data shows there are about 5,000 veterans living throughout Trafford with a third of these being aged over 80. However, that’s only a rough estimate and counting younger veterans and others who haven’t disclosed that they’ve served, there could be many more. Creating a mobile hub will now help to reach so many more of these veterans.

Claire Squires finally added, ‘A huge heartfelt thank you to Gerflor and Gradus for supporting our armed forces and emergency services mobile hub project.’
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