Vision Care for Homeless People receives GSK IMPACT Award
The charity has been recognised for the impact it has made on communities across the country with an award for £30,000
01 May 2020
Vision Care for Homeless People (VCHP) has received a GSK IMPACT Award for £30,000, celebrating the “significant impact” the charity has made on the communities it serves.
The award, funded by GSK and managed in partnership with The King’s Fund, aims to recognise the “outstanding” work of small and medium-sized charities working to improve health and wellbeing within communities around the UK.
Speaking of the award win, David Brown, VCHP general manager, commented: “This really highlights the brilliant work of all our dedicated volunteers who faithfully run the clinics and helps call attention to the need for eye care services that reach out to homeless and vulnerable people.”
Vision Care for Homeless People was chosen from more than 400 charities in the UK to be one of the ten winners for the 2020 accolade.
When we come out of the pandemic we expect our clinics to be busier than ever, and this grant is a tremendous boost to the charity
Alongside the funding, the charity will receive expert support and leadership development from The King’s Fund.
Lisa Weaks, assistant director at The King’s Fund, commented: “Vision Care’s work is a testament to the power of volunteering to change people’s lives for the better.”
She suggested that the judges were impressed by the “significant impact” the charity has on communities, despite having no full-time staff, adding: “In the last year alone, it has provided free eye care to over 1,800 homeless people by mobilising volunteer opticians across six cities.”
“The current lockdown has forced us to, quite sensibly, close all of our clinics but it doesn’t mean that vulnerable people have stopped needing our services,” commented VCHP trustee, Janice English. She added: “When we come out of the pandemic we expect our clinics to be busier than ever and this grant is a tremendous boost to the charity,”
“We have been carefully scrutinised by a highly respected business and they were impressed with how lean our operation is: no offices and no full time staff, but a great deal of volunteers and tremendous supporters in the UK optical community. The grant is a major help in meeting some of the fixed costs of our clinics throughout the UK,” Ms English added.
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