Meet Michelle Alston – Chief Executive, Forces in Mind Trust

Tell us more about Forces in Mind Trust…

Forces in Mind Trust is an independent charity funded by a 20-year endowment from the National Lottery Community Fund to work to ensure that all Service personnel and their families make a successful transition to civilian life. For the vast majority of the around 16,000 people who leave the Armed Forces each year, their transition is successful, but some need additional support and they are who we exist to help. We do this by funding research and evidence to better understand their issues, then identifying and sharing what works, and convening people to work collaboratively to improve former personnel and families’ transition experience.

How does being a part of the Cobseo Executive Committee support your organisation?

It provides another way for us to be part of the cross-sector discussions about the key issues facing the Armed Forces community, helping us to identify areas of need that may require further evidence or understanding. It also allows us to contribute towards the Armed Forces charity sector through helping ensure that Cobseo can provide the support and information the membership need, helping them to support their beneficiaries.

How does being a member of Cobseo enhance the support that your organisation is able to provide?

It allows us to be part of a wider collective of Armed Forces charities, which enables us to share our work and research more widely with those we may not have connected with if we were not a member of Cobseo, therefore enhancing our reach and output to relevant organisations. Being a member of Cobseo also allows us to attend some of the clusters and through being a part of these wider discussions, we are able to take back learnings and apply these to our work.

What makes you proud of the work in the sector?

We’ve been really proud to consider those cohorts whose needs might not always be as well recognised or understood, and to be able to fund research into their unique challenges and contributions. We hope that some of the reports over the last year relating to female veterans, the non-UK community, veterans’ families and ethnic minorities will help to lead to better recognition and support for them.