Supporting the wider Armed Forces sector: How the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust responded to the Covid-19 pandemic evaluation report
Supporting the wider Armed Forces sector
2020 was no ordinary year. The Covid-19 pandemic caused various challenges for many organisations supporting the Forces community and the Trust was determined to do all we could to keep supporting our grant holders and their beneficiaries.
As organisations decided how best to respond to the needs of those they support, so the Trust sought to be as flexible and responsive as we could in delivering our grants to support the military community.
Our main aims were to:
- support our existing grant holders to make any changes needed to their grant
- deliver new funding programmes at pace, which would help reduce the impact of the Covid pandemic on Armed Forces communities and the organisations that support them
- ensure the Trust’s grant holders did not receive any delays to payments as a result of the Trust
moving to remote working.
By the end of August 2020, we’d awarded nearly £9 million through three dedicated funding programmes, all specifically addressing the challenges faced by vulnerable members of our Forces communities.
We’ve published a report that explores how the Trust supported Armed Forces communities that were particulary affected by Covid, and the organisations that supported them.
What were grants spent on?
Garden maintenance, home deliveries of essential items, deliveries to improve wellbeing (such as books) assistance offered and social contact through telephones and digital platforms, were just a few examples of what the organisations we awarded used their grant funding for.
Under our Forces Communities Together programme, Armed Forces communities, including welfare units, used their grants to bring some joy to those unable to access services or with limited contact during this period of isolation.
Under the Veterans Should Not Be Forgotten programme, there were over 30,000 beneficiaries – vulnerable veterans with reduced social contact.
Programme evaluation report
The report explores how the Trust’s programmes were used to reduce the impact on Armed Forces communities during Covid-19 restrictions and how a staggering amount of support was provided to Forces communities in a very short amount of time.
We invite you to read our latest evaluation report to learn more about how the Trust supported a whole range of organisations, working with the Armed Forces community, to respond to the challenges the Covid-19 pandemic brought.