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Greenwich Hospital Funding Award

Gary Seath 1 month ago

Funding Media

Greenwich Hospital awards a grant of £103,000 to Forces Children Scotland.

The funding supports their continued work with children and young people from Naval families across Scotland over the next year.

The Edinburgh-based Charity, founded in 1815, supports children and young people from armed forces and veteran families to thrive and overcome challenges that can arise from armed forces life. This funding enables Forces Children Scotland to deliver co-produced projects, services and wider activities with and for children and young people from Naval families.

The support offered by Forces Children Scotland focuses on improving outcomes for children and young people with a focus on education, mental health and wellbeing, youth participation, influencing and policy, and financial support when needed.

For some families, the focus is on supporting access to mental health resources. The charity provides a dedicated ‘Your Mind Matters’ Hub and offers a range of resources and tools, co-produced together with this community, that young people can access to help them manage feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, sadness and anger and is further supported with access to a wellbeing journal.

For others, it’s about providing regional forums for young people to enhance peer and social connectivity, to co-develop projects that enhance empathy and understanding or upholding children’s rights. The charity delivers youth participation and influencing work focusing on amplifying the voice of this community at a local, regional and national level.

To further support families and young people in education, the charity has developed an online learning offer with a range of accredited CPD face-to-face and digital training to help educators understand the stresses and strains of armed forces family life and how it impacts wellbeing and mental health, which can affect educational attainment.

The charity is sharing learnings through its partnerships with the SCiP Alliance, The Naval Children’s Charity and the wider military/academic forums to improve the evidence base and resources available to support all armed forces children.

Dr Maria Theofanous, Research and Education Grants Manager, Greenwich Hospital, said:

“Children and young people from serving and former armed forces families should not face additional hurdles. Our grant award to Forces Children Scotland recognises the value of their projects and their ongoing support in helping to address the specific issues families in Scotland face.”

Meg Thomas, Acting CEO and Policy Lead, for Forces Children Scotland, said:

“This funding will make a significant impact in helping us to achieve our strategic aims and vision; from enhancing our reach to working directly with more families from our community to co-develop a range of pioneering initiatives, developing our evidence base and collaborative activity across military, third sector and academic forums, to enhancing empathy, understanding, policy and practice.”