The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust has launched a consultation asking veterans to help shape a £10M Fund to improve veteran’s mental health and wellbeing.
The Positive Pathways Programme will have a budget of £9M to fund projects that will develop and run activities which are supportive to ex- forces mental health and wellbeing.
Melloney Poole, Chief Executive of the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust said,
“We are delighted to be running a consultation into how this programme can best support veterans to boost their mental wellbeing, and improve their mental health by offering a range of activities. Help us to shape this programme, and tell us what sort of activities and support this programme should offer.”
The consultation will run until the 15 March 2019, and the Positive Pathways Programme will open in May 2019.
The Veteran’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund has two programmes
- The £9M Positive Pathways Programme: Funding new experiences for Ex Service Personnel
- A £1M Strategic Pathways Programme which will be delivered through a two stage application process. Guidance for the Expression of Interest stage will be launched on 14th December 2018.
Notes for Editors
The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust is an independent charity that manages the grant programmes funded by the Covenant Fund.
They also run wider funding programmes that support the Armed Forces Community.
These include the £10M Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund
More information about their work can be found here.
The Veterans Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund has £10M committed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the Autumn 2018 Budget to support veterans with mental health needs.
The £9M Positive Pathways Programme: Funding new experiences for Ex Service Personnel will be shaped through a consultation. The consultation is open for veterans, Armed Forces Charities and anyone else with a view to share.
Activities supported under the programme will link veterans to wider recovery pathways, and the Trust is asking about the best ways to do this.
The programme might fund four different types of projects:
• Sport: adventurous and other sports including adaptive and disability sports;
• Art/Culture: such as music, theatre or drama projects;
• Getting outside: gardening, out of doors activities such as forestry, bees;
• Heritage: including conservation, archaeology etc.
The consultation is also asking how activities supported can be part of a pathway of recovery.
This means that the organisations running the projects should have good awareness of mental health needs; know to provide appropriate support if people are not well and be connected with other organisations that can provide more specialist services.
The consultation will explore how veterans can be supported to get to the right places to meet their own, personal needs.
The consultation can be accessed here and downloaded here. Consultation guidance can be found here.