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Innovative digital deployment pack launches for forces children

Gary Seath 1 week ago

Media

Innovative digital deployment pack launches for forces children

Forces Children Scotland has launched tailored digital support to help young people overcome unique deployment challenges.

An interactive deployment rollercoaster is at its heart providing lots of information, advice, and downloadable resources to help this community to navigate and understand how they may be feeling at various points of the Deployment Cycle.

Deployment can be a challenging time, bringing feelings of uncertainty, anxiety, and isolation throughout the seven stages of the cycle. Consultations led by the charity with this community evidenced a need for child-friendly, accessible information.

Funding from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust and BFBS Big Salute enabled the charity to work directly with young people over the past year.

Those involved shared personal experiences of deployment to co-design an interactive digital landing page and supporting downloadable resources to help alleviate challenges that can impact mental health and wellbeing, education, and learning, and much more.

A young person involved in the co-production process, said:

“It feels great knowing that we will make a change in other people’s lives and that what we have been working towards is happening and we are a part of it! ⁠I hope that we can help young people, especially in armed forces families, not stress as much about their parent being deployed, and find interesting and useful ways to relieve some of that stress.

I would like other people to learn and understand that we aren’t weak just because we get upset or stressed when our parent gets deployed, we are strong people, and I hope this deployment pack makes it enjoyable and relaxing to use as they go through this difficult time!”

Judith Blair, Learning and Development Worker for Forces Children Scotland, said:

“Forces Children Scotland’s co-produced Deployment Rollercoaster has been an engaging, fun and extremely rewarding project to work on.

The funding has enabled us to work directly with young people from armed forces communities to co-develop the resource.  By listening specifically to their lived experience, we have been able to co-produce a resource which understands the specific needs of this community.

With the launch of the Deployment Rollercoaster, we hope that it will support children and young people with their mental health and wellbeing and will prove to be a successful and trusted resource to use in the future.”

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Editors Notes:

Visit The Deployment Rollercoaster – Forces Children Scotland for further information.

For more information, please contact Gary Seath, Marketing, Communications, and Development Manager – gary.seath@forceschildrenscotland.org.uk.

Images available upon request.

 

About Forces Children Scotland:

We support over 13,000 children and young people from armed forces communities across Scotland to realise their potential and thrive.

This is achieved through the delivery of mental health & wellbeing, youth participation, family support, education & learning, and policy services to meet their unique support needs. Moreover, we assist educators, professionals, and decision-makers to enhance their understanding and practice to meet the unique support needs of this community.

We put the lived experience of children and young people from this community at the heart of everything we do, and work directly with our team to co-produce our projects, services, and campaigns to ensure we collaborate as a collective force for good to achieve our vision of making Scotland a place where all children & young people from armed forces communities can realise their potential and thrive.