Covid-19 response

In these challenging times we’ve been heartened by the responses from the projects that we work with and we’d like to let you know that we’ll do all we can to help the projects we’ve funded to keep supporting those who are ultimately benefiting from our grant funding, the Armed Forces community.

At the Trust, we have so far responded to the pandemic by

  • providing support to all our grant holders to help them continue their work.
  • delivering emergency funding quickly to support veterans who are particularly vulnerable
  • launching a package of programmes to support the Armed Forces community with funding from the Covenant Fund and from HM Treasury. Special attention on those who have faced hardships as a result of the pandemic; on projects to help isolated people reconnect with wider communities; projects that support improved mental health and encouraging stronger links between Armed Forces charities.

Support to current grant holders

The Trust has been open throughout the pandemic, and our small staff team are ready to support grant holders in delivering their funded projects. Any payments you are due will continue to reach you in good time.

We know that the organisations we’ve funded are working hard during this time and we are ready to support our grant holders by helping them make the changes to their funded projects that they might need – either through extending the time to complete their projects, or making changes to their activities, where these can be achieved within the terms and conditions of the grant.

Some of our grant holders have already worked with us to make changes to their funded projects, enabling the excellent support they give to the Armed Forces community to be delivered in a different way.

Find out more about the support we’re offering to grant holders

Emergency funding programmes

The Trust was delighted to announce the launch of an emergency programme, Veterans’ Should Not be Forgotten, in April 2020, funded by HM Treasury from the new £10M Veterans Fund announced in the March Budget. We worked with the Association of Veterans’ Drop-in Centres (ASDIC), Cobseo (the Confederation of Service Charities) and Age UK – to support vulnerable veterans who were unable to access services or who had limited social contact during the period of self isolation and restrictions relating to the pandemic.

With funding from the Covenant Fund, the Forces Communities Together programme awarded £859,000, supporting 100 short-term projects taking place during social restrictions and giving support to those who can’t access services or have limited social contact.

The Trust also delivered the Covid Impact Programme. This programme awarded the £6M that  DCMS and HM Treasury awarded to the MOD and Office for Veterans Affairs to support Armed Forces charities and Community Interest Companies (CICs) who were delivering services to veterans, Armed Forces families and others from the Armed Forces community.

Targeting social isolation and supporting veterans and Armed Forces families to reconnect with their communities.

Over the last few months, we have launched a range of programmes with a focus on reducing social isolation within the Armed Forces community, and helping veterans and Armed Forces families to reconnect with their communities.

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