Reflections on a year to remember

With schools closing their doors, out-of-office email messages activated, and all those wonderful festive celebrations under way, we are reflecting on our 2024 highlights.

We have so much to celebrate and be proud of this year. Much of this recently shared through our 2024 Impact Report, in which we described how far we have come in achieving our mission of making Scotland a place where all children and young people from armed forces communities can realise their potential and thrive.

We have reached and supported greater numbers of children and young people from armed forces communities to help build confidence, develop new skills, expand future horizons, and forge new connections.

Better still, we have made progress in extending our reach by engaging greater numbers of primary school and early years-aged children to understand their unique support and transitional needs.

Abigail Rankin, our Youth Participation Worker in the North of Scotland, tells us more about reaching greater numbers of young people:

“My highlight of 2024 was being able to start in some new schools in the Moray area and meet new young people in the process. This has been exciting to be able to share what Forces Children Scotland offers to more young people and get them involved in some of our wider projects.

Also, being able to start a new Forum group in Kinloss Primary has been a real highlight, meeting regularly with a small group of children, and hearing their stories and experiences. A few of these children had big moves coming up and we were able to speak about this and help support and give them a voice in the process. It has been great to use some of our participation resources to help support and engage these young people.”

We continue to provide professional help to children and young people in understanding and overcoming mental health and wellbeing challenges through bespoke face-to-face and digital support services.

Gillian Gray delivers our Your Mind Matters (YMM) mental health and wellbeing service in the West of Scotland, who said:

“One of the highlights has been the working partnerships created whilst working within the school and the wider Helensburgh community, attending various events including the HMB Clyde Families Day at the Drumfork Centre. The YMM service also worked to create a new section of the YMM digital hub focusing on wellbeing materials for primary-school aged children through a series of videos and printable resources.”

Jillian Bradfield recently started her role as Lighthouse Project Worker delivering mental health and wellbeing support for pupils at Queen Victoria School, who said:

“I think it’s great to get the Lighthouse Project back up and running and I am excited to get to know the Queen Victoria pupils and staff and to become part of their school community. My hope is to create a safe and non-judgemental space where pupils at Queen Victoria School can feel comfortable coming to speak to me about anything- nothing is too big or too small, and we will figure out any problems together.”

We have amplified the voice and lived experience of children and young people louder than ever through the launch of innovative projects and campaigns to enhance empathy, and understanding of forces life, plus much more.

Nina Collins, Children and Young People’s Participation Manager, who celebrated five wonderful years at the charity this year, said:

“Thinking about the highlights of my year is tricky – there’s been so many things! It’s been meeting with new children and young people this year and hearing about their experiences, seeing them developing a connection with their peers in the session and knowing that they’re feeling heard. It’s knowing that in the future these children and young people may be joining us for a meeting with an MSP or at an event where they’ll have an opportunity to be heard by decision makers.

On my list would also be the Talking Mats Project where we’ve been designing a new tool for children and young people to share their thoughts and feelings and seeing our deployment resource be brought to life by young people (and our amazing Jude in the background!) Can’t miss out working on our amazing Rights Report and the great residentials we’ve had this year.

To sum up though working with fabulous children and young people has made this year amazing for me! Looking forward to what next year will bring! See you there!”

We are now on the radar of greater numbers of policymakers to advocate for meaningful change and greater participation in future influencing and policymaking.

Much of what we have achieved this year has served to enhance our evidence base which informs our decision-making and improves service provision.

Meg Thomas, Deputy CEO and Policy Lead at Forces Children Scotland, said:

“My highlight would have to be It’s not just their job, it’s our whole lives. Working with the young people to identify the rights affected by forces life, developing the composite stories that reflected their experiences and bring them to life through the animations was amazing. I really should stop being surprised by how wise the young people are – they are never anything else!

Reports only have impact if they reach the right people and start a process of change. It was such a privilege therefore to support 6 young people to meet with the Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping The Promise, Natalie Don-Innes to tell her about the report and ask her to support the changes needed. She has already written back to tell them what she is doing to make things better!

The year has come to an end with Martin Whitfield MSP mentioning the report during the parliamentary debate on supporting the veteran and armed forces community. The Minister for HE/FE and Veterans has committed to reading the report and we have offered to meet with him in the new year. Hopefully another great opportunity for the young people to talk directly with decision makers.”

Better still, our evidence base is shared through the development of CPD learning opportunities, resources, and engagements across military and professional sectors to enhance practice as well as influence wider meaningful change to meeting the unique support needs of children and young people from armed forces communities.

Judith Blair, our Learning and Development Worker, said:

“There have been so many highlights this year for Learning and Development.  We’ve continued to provide professional help in understanding and overcoming mental health and wellbeing challenges through bespoke face-to-face and online training.

A real standout for me was visiting the team in St Geradines in Moray, where we had lots of fun exploring the emotional cycle of deployment through our Deployment Balloon activity. A few eyebrows were raised when I entered the classroom with two bin bags full of balloons! Once we got into the swing of the activity however there was lots of laughter and, more crucially, understanding and reflective discussion.

The rollout of our Mascot competition proved to be a great success with over 50 entries received. The winning mascot, ‘Hamish the Cow’ created by Isla, has featured in our new Deployment Rollercoaster resource. We are incredibly excited to incorporate Hamsh into new learning resources in the new year allowing for more child-friendly resources to be created for children and young people

Finally, we’ve developed rolled out the Deployment Rollercoaster which helps explain what deployment is in a child-friendly way. This has allowed children, young people, and adults to see that all emotions are valid and that it’s ok to feel different emotions throughout the deployment cycle.

The rollercoaster is supported by accessible resources for children, young people, and parents to help support their child’s mental health and wellbeing at each stage of the ride. I’m excited to see what happens in the new year where we will review the resource and its impact on children and young people from forces families.”

We have also finished the year on a massive high in welcoming Steven Sweeney to the charity as our new Chief Executive Officer.

Steven Said:

“Having only recently joined Forces Children Scotland at the start of December, I’ll need to give you a highlight of the month as opposed to a highlight of the year! I have found our small but mighty team so passionate about supporting children and young people from the forces community to reach their potential and thrive.

Onboarding into any new organisation comes with lots of reading to get up to speed, reflecting on the difference made in our most recent Impact Report has got me feeling rather proud of my new colleagues, and excited about the future.

The impact demonstrated across our projects, services, campaigns, and more, is rather impressive. I’d encourage you to have a look for yourself. Best of the lot however, is saved for Josh, Laura, Imogen, Sophia and Izzy, who share their personal experiences and incredible stories. Well played Forces Children Scotland team for a great to 2024, here’s to an even better 2025!”

Watch Steven’s interview.

£75,776.21 was awarded to armed forces and veteran families across Scotland.

These grants are designed to assist with a wide range of needs, from covering life’s essentials, education, and training costs to extracurricular activities, ensuring that financial barriers do not hinder development and aspiration. We do this through our education and aspiration and financial crisis funds as well as by providing specific financial support for young carers, and students.

Ariella Azoulay plays a huge role behind the scenes supporting some of these families, who said:

“2024 saw another successful year for our University and College Grant for students from armed forces and veteran families. We were able to fund 27 students for over £40,000, supporting them as they pursued courses ranging from Photography and Broadcast Production to Neuroscience and Mechanical Engineering. Students used these funds to cover expenses like living costs, learning resources and travel costs.

One particular highlight was hearing back from two sisters we supported throughout their studies. They both graduated in 2024, and we were touched to hear that they felt the support they received from Forces Children Scotland was so valuable that they couldn’t have done it without us.”

We could not have achieved anything without your wonderful support!

We wish to express our gratitude to The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust, The Veterans Foundation, The Scottish Children’s Lottery, The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, The Army Benevolent Fund, and The Scottish Veterans Fund.

We also wish to thank all individuals, community groups, and businesses that have generously supported Forces Children Scotland through donations, challenge, community and corporate fundraising.

We wish everyone a wonderful festive season and look forward to achieving more incredible things in 2025!