Summer Message from our CEO, Janna Voloshin

 

Serving History With Love

Throughout our 20th Anniversary Year, we have been celebrating ‘Serving History With Love’. Serving those who served is our Purpose and over the past two decades, we have faithfully strived to fulfil that purpose, honouring all those who have sought support and care from our organisation.

I am delighted that our Recipe BookCook book of the same name, is now available for you to purchase online (click here), or in person at our aged care homes and the V Centre. As well as celebrating these wonderful family recipes, you can read the stories that go with them. The book is $50 per copy with all profits going directly to support veterans at the V Centre, so I encourage you to buy a copy, or a few!

Click here to buy now!

Saluting Excellence Conference & Awards

Our annual staff Saluting Excellence Conference and Awards took place at the end of November and I’d like to congratulate all our Award nominees and winners, and I’d like to thank all those who nominated a staff member. Thanks also to our Conference Sponsors whose financial support is vital, and so too is their ongoing support throughout the year in helping us provide services to our community. My sincere thanks to all our Sponsors.

Read more

AGM and Annual Reports

Our Annual General Meeting took place in mid-November with the presentation of our Impact & Outcomes Report and our Annual Report.

Read more.

Building for the Future

We are now into the final year of our 2021-25 Strategic Plan and it is pleasing to note that most of the key milestones are complete or approaching completion. However, one project that has taken longer than scheduled is the Bundoora ex-service accommodation (Affordable Housing) development due to the approvals process. We now have the green light and building will begin early in the new year.

We are also working on plans for an upgrade to our Frankston South residential aged care and ex-service accommodation site. This site is over 60 years old and many of the buildings are getting to the point where maintenance costs exceed the value of the buildings. Our organisation is not selling: I want to make that absolutely clear. In fact, we want to invest in this site to ensure that we can respond to the changing needs of the veteran community as we go into the next decade. Our plans are not complete but they are taking shape. We will upgrade and extend the ex-service accommodation, and, we will be building retirement living, as well as creating a community space close to Overport Road. This is a 5-7 year project and will take place in a number of stages. We will be communicating more about it in the coming months.

Department’s Monthly Care Statement Pilot

We are pleased to have been asked to participate in the Federal Department of Health & Aged Care’s pilot program for monthly care statements. This is helpful to us in preparing for this future mandatory requirement.

New Aged Care Act

We were pleased to see the passage of the new Aged Care Act through Parliament on 25 November. This will come into force on 1 July 2025 and we will be providing more information in the new year to our Home Care and Residential Aged Care communities.

Advocacy & Funding Submissions

We are delighted to have been successful in three recent grant applications: firstly a DVA Veteran Wellbeing Grant for the purchase of vehicles for the V Centre Veteran Empowerment Program enabling expansion of the program; secondly, from the Victorian Government’s Victoria Remembers Grants to create a Memorial to Mrs Vasey and to those who have served at our Brighton East Aged Care Home; and thirdly from the Victorian Government’s ANZAC Day Proceeds Fund to expand the Program for the V Centre.

We are very grateful for each of these grants to support our work.

There is much work still to be done and I hope for a fruitful new year for us all.

Janna Voloshin
Chief Executive Officer