Community Employee of the Year

We’re proud to announce that our Community Support Worker Saran has been shortlisted for Community Employee of the Year in the Investors in People Awards 2023.

During her six years with our charity, Saran has consistently gone above and beyond to provide the best possible care and support for our blind veterans and her team.

The feedback we’ve had from the veterans that Saran supports has been incredible. They frequently tell us how caring she is, and how much of a positive influence she has had on their lives through encouragement and support to partake in activities offered by our charity.

Saran is also very effective at working collaboratively with local organisations in the North East in the pursuit of providing the best support possible for our beneficiaries. One example of this is the Ferry Hill Social Group. Saran recognised that many of our veterans in Country Durham were socially isolated so she worked with local sight loss charity, Blindlife, to initiate a joint monthly group. The meet up has been such a success that it has now been running for three years and provides blind veterans who were previously isolated with the opportunity to meet up for a chat, a bite to eat and to partake in various activities such as bowls.

Within the charity, Saran has played a huge part in creating a trusting and supportive working culture in the team and community. Here are what some of her colleagues said about her:

“Soon after starting my new post, Saran invited me to shadow her whilst visiting a veteran. Saran greeted me with a big smile, a warm hug, and welcomed me to the team. Her positivity and friendly personality has an obvious effect on the team, and she is always willing to help out any way that she can. Saran treats every beneficiary she meets like an old friend, and I believe this shows how dedicated she is to her role as Community Support Worker."

“From the very start of working at Blind Veterans UK Saran has been nothing but supportive, kind and caring. She never makes you feel like any question is too big or too small and will always give you her time. She is always there to guide me and support her team. She cares deeply about our veterans and always strives to do her best for all of them. I honestly don’t think you could ask for a better person on a team. If there were more Sarans in the world, we would be very lucky. She is truly a beautiful person inside and out. I feel lucky to work with her and call her a friend."