Volunteer veteran mentors wanted

MEMBERS of Warrington Veterans’ Forum have called for volunteer “veteran mentors” to help the town’s service and veteran community.
The call came at a meeting of the Forum at the Town Hall, attended by dozens of veterans and their families.
They heard an address from Cllr David Keane, a member of the borough council’s executive board followed by a call to action from forum chairman Lance Reah.
Mr Reah, is a former sergeant in the Coldstream Guards who served from 1976 to 1987. He currently has two sons serving in Afghanistan – both sergeants in the Coldstream Guards – told the meeting of his own experience of the transition from military to civilian life.
As a former non-commissioned officer leaving the army with an exemplary record but with no qualifications, Lance Reah found work as a security Guard on £1.75 an hour working a 70-hour week. He went on to experience 160-hour working weeks, two redundancies and some “critical debt situations.”
He told the meeting: “I wished I’d had someone or something to help me along.”
Now a successful businessman and campaigner, Mr Reah is calling for volunteers to join him on a panel or board to run the veterans’ forum and to bring to fruition the proposal for a veterans’ centre in central Warrington – a one-stop shop where former and current members of the armed forces and their families can access the council and other services they need.
He said: “I believe Warrington Borough Council has done more than any other local authority in the UK to listen to a ‘volunteer veteran mentor’. I’ve been given access to strategic partners and council departments in order to audit capabilities and bring awareness of veteran and family needs throughout the borough.
“In my view, the last three years working and case-handling with all these departments make Lord Ashcroft’s veteran survey look like a paper-shuffling exercise.
“What Warrington Borough Council has done is a first anywhere in the UK, and it has been done entirely without financial support.”
Cllr Keane said: “During the last three years Lance Reah has assisted 171 veterans in Warrington and he’s also been instrumental in helping senior councillors understand the issues that can face veterans. I’m delighted that he’s agreed to chair the Warrington Veterans’ Forum and I look forward to working closely with him as we strive to give the best possible support to veterans and their families in Warrington.”
Any veteran or veteran’s family member who would like to be considered as a potential board member or volunteer veterans’ mentor is invited to contact Lance Reah via email to [email protected] – with VETERANS’ FORUM in the subject field, or by mail to Lance Reah, c/o Communications Office, Warrington Borough Council, Town Hall, Sankey Street, Warrington, WA1 1UH.
The council is expecting to make an announcement regarding the proposed veterans’ centre in the New Year.