Member Directory

Reading Force

Charity Number: 1159890

1) To advance a culture of literacy in the home by encouraging families to read together for pleasure and talk about a book by providing advice and assistance and materials to support shared reading activities; and
2) To promote and protect good health and wellbeing by using reading as a means of mitigating stress and
increasing communication and good family relationships, particularly following separation due to training, deployment, postings and mobility

Contact Information

http://www.readingforce.org.uk/
info@readingforce.org.uk
10 Homersham Road
Kingston Upon Thames
KT1 3PN
07890 476311

Support Offered

RF is a simple, fun, free family shared reading initiative for Service families, Reservists, Cadets, Veterans and injured service personnel – spouses and partners, pre-school children through to young adults, extended family and grandparents.
We provide free books and special scrapbooks and encourage Service families to form an informal book group with their family and friends; choose, read, talk about a book, and fill in the free scrapbook.

Sailors’ Children’s Society

Charity Number: 224505

Children’s charity supporting Royal or Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleet families in severe financial hardship.

Contact Information

http://www.sailorschildren.org.uk
info@sailorschildren.org.uk
Newland
Cottingham Road
Hull
HU6 7RJ
01482 342331

Support Offered

The family support scheme provides child welfare grants, clothing and emergency grants.

Caravans available for a week’s holiday.

Emotional support and links to other support organisations.

Sale Sharks Community Trust

Charity Number: 1142956
Company Number: 07461043

Sharks Community Trust is the charitable arm of Sale Sharks, the North West’s only Premiership Rugby club. The charity was established in 2012 to help use rugby and sport for the wider community benefit, drawing on the core values of rugby, which are teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship, to deliver a range of community engagement programmes.

The use of rugby and sport has been used for many years to engage young people, and it is this interest that Sharks Community Trust seeks to draw upon. This includes delivering numeracy programmes in the classroom, linking sport with encouraging healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle, and delivering education particularly to young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET). The Trust also has a comprehensive disability and inclusion programme, ‘In The Pack’ delivering a mixture of multi-sports and wheelchair sports to people with special and additional needs along with a successful ex-service personnel programme ‘Sharks Forces’ that supports veterans and their families with the transition from service to civilian with housing, employment and social and physical activity support.

Contact Information

http://www.salesharks.com/community
community@salesharks.com
Sale Sharks High Performance Centre
Carrington Lane
Manchester
M31 4AE

Support Offered

We offer services and activities to improve the physical health, mental health and employability skills of ex-service personnel and their families. We give them a visibility within their community delivering the project at community venues. Delivering drop-in social hubs to develop and maintain relationships with individuals who are sceptical and nervous at engaging with civilian society. Enhancing personal and social skills such as communication skills and confidence along with increasing employability skills and their well-being. We also work with the veteran’s family, introducing an intergenerational approach. We use our relationship with community rugby clubs across the North West to create a social hub for the whole community. We use gym and sport facilities based within clubs and use the clubhouse to host themed workshops. We also work closely with rugby clubs to identify volunteering opportunities as part of the programme. We create and offer a wide range of sporting activities for Veterans who are blind or visually impaired, there is a huge gap in the local offering from other key stakeholders in regards to physical activities suitable for Veterans with additional needs.

Scotty’s Little Soldiers

Charity Number: 1170528

To provide relief from the effects of bereavement to young people up to and including the age of 25 who have experienced the death of a parent who served with the armed forces of the crown.

Contact Information

http://www.scottyslittlesoldiers.co.uk
hello@scottyslittlesoldiers.co.uk
Unit 21 Bergen Way
King’s Lynn
PE30 2JG
08000 928 571

Support Offered

The charity is currently providing assistance to hundreds of bereaved Forces children and young people around the UK and services offered include guidance to parents and carers, access to professional child bereavement support, personal education and learning assistance (including grants) and fun activities such as holiday respite breaks and group events. These are all designed to remind the children and young people supported by Scotty’s that they are not alone.

Suffolk Family Carers

Charity Number: 1069937
Company Number: 3507600

Caring can be extremely complicated. The maze of rights and entitlements can be complicated. Filling in paperwork can be complicated. Trying to organise a break can be complicated. Our feelings about caring can certainly be complicated.

We’re here to make sure that no matter how complicated your query or your experience, you don’t have to care alone.
99% of family carers felt that Suffolk Family Carers listened, and gave them information and advice to empower them to make informed decisions about their caring role.

We provide innovative services, often ahead of the field. Our work with young carers is now long established and well respected in over 90 schools and colleges across Suffolk.
We have support workers in all the main hospitals across Suffolk, and GP surgeries in West & East Suffolk, to identify and support family carers.
Our work within the sphere of mental health and wellbeing is considered exemplary by family carers and practitioners alike. Signposting to relevant agencies and providing positive opportunities to meet others in a similar situation, share viewpoints and discuss different strategies.

Contact Information

http://suffolkfamilycarers.org/
hello@suffolkfamilycarers.org
Unit 9
Hillview Business Park
Old Ipswich Road,Claydon
IP6 0AJ

Support Offered

Suffolk Family Carers provides a wide range of support to unpaid family carers of all ages across Suffolk, helping them manage the emotional, practical and logistical challenges of caring. Our services are designed to ensure carers feel visible, valued, supported and connected.

1. Information, Advice and Guidance
– Offering comprehensive information and advice to help carers understand their rights, access support, and navigate complex systems such as health, social care, and benefits.
– Information Line handles more than 10,000 queries a year, providing tailored advice and practical solutions.

2. Emotional and Wellbeing Support
– Emotional support for family carers, recognising that caring can be isolating and emotionally complex. This includes wellbeing services regarded as exemplary by carers and practitioners.
– Support includes opportunities to meet others in similar situations, share experiences, and learn strategies for managing challenges.

3. Support in Hospitals and the Community
– Suffolk Family Carers has support workers based across major hospitals in Suffolk and in community locations across East and West Suffolk. These teams identify carers early and provide on the spot support.

4. Young Carer and Young Adult Carer Services
– Support for children and young people who care for family members, working in over 90 schools and colleges across Suffolk.
– They also support young adult carers aged 16–24 with tailored advice, training and opportunities.

6. Mental Health and Neurodivergent Support
– Specialist mental health and wellbeing support, signposting to relevant agencies and offering positive opportunities for peer connection.
– Neurodivergent (ND) Project, offering support, workshops and condition specific courses for carers.

7. Education, Training and Courses
– Educational programmes and training to help carers develop skills, better manage their caring responsibilities, and understand relevant conditions or systems.

8. Social Groups, Support Groups and Community Activities
– Support groups and social programmes that help carers build networks, reduce isolation, and access peer support.

9. Breaks and Respite Support
– Respite pass schemes are available to help carers take breaks from their responsibilities, supporting their own health and wellbeing.

Serving Suffolk Families Past & Present:

Suffolk Family Carers also delivers dedicated support through its Serving Suffolk Families work, focusing on the unique needs of family carers in the Armed Forces community living in Suffolk. This programme ensures that forces families—who often face mobility, separation, and increased emotional pressures—are identified, supported, and connected with the right services.

Support is offered to anyone in the armed forces community who has a family caring role, this includes serving, reservists, cadets, veterans, ex service.

Providing:

Information, advice and guidance- tailored specifically for family carers in the armed forces community , helping them understand rights, entitlements and local support options.

Awareness‑raising within the Armed Forces community, ensuring family carers are recognised and can access timely support.

Partnership working with military welfare teams, including at Wattisham Flying Station, RAF Honington and Rock Barracks, to ensure families based on‑site or in the wider community can easily seek help.

Carer Support Groups on military bases, run in partnership with SSAFA, offering a safe space for Armed Forces families to meet, share experiences and access emotional support. These groups run monthly at RAF Honington.

Tavistock Area Support Services (TASS)

Charity Number: 1129175

Tavistock Area Support Services (TASS) is a local registered charity founded 40 years ago in 1985 to support both older people and those living with disability in Tavistock and outlying rural areas. We provide vital support, services, groups and activities, with the aim to reduce loneliness and isolation and in turn promote friendships and connections, encourage independence, whilst improving health and wellbeing. We offer transport, mobility, outreach and befriending services, clubs and activities, we host lots of other organisations support groups and we have an Armed Forces Veterans Hub.

Contact Information

http://tasstavistock.org.uk/
enquiries@tasstavistock.org.uk
Chapel Street
Tavistock
PL19 8AG

Support Offered

We have a small team of staff and group leaders and a large group of volunteers all DBS checked and trained to support all our services and activities.
We have many of own support groups and welcome other professional, businesses and organisations to regularly attend to provide additional support and advice were necessary including DWP armed forces champion, The RMA-The Royal Marines Charity Transition Officer, Welfare, Training & Education, Padre. The Royal British Legion, HelpforHeroes, Tamar Energy, Tavistock memory Café & Dementia Alliance, Parkinson’s Support Group, Stroke Group, Macular Disease Society, Physically Challenged Group, Devon Sensory team, Grief Friendship Group, 2 rural drop in centres, and a community café.

The Armed Forces Equine Charity

Charity Number: 1184971
Company Number: 11843722

We support serving members of the Armed Forces, their partners and families; military veterans and those who have been bereaved; alongside the local community around where the Armed Forces are based.
We promote the efficiency of the Armed Forces, by nurturing talent, broadening opportunity and supporting the mental, physical and emotional well-being needs.

Contact Information

http://www.armedforcesequine.com
info@armedforcesequine.com
Cromwell House
Hubert Hamilton Rd
Bulford Barracks
SP4 9JY

Support Offered

We’re constantly adapting our approach to best suit the needs of those who come to us for support. We provide the following programmes:
Sport and Recreation – We support active lifestyles and the benefits they have on health and well-being, by providing equine competitions, sporting events and recreational activity. We aim to make our equine centres affordable to all who wish to use them.
Health and Wellbeing – We provide Equine Assisted Services (EAS) to Therapy, Recovery and Rehabilitation. We aim to deliver four equine therapy courses each year to help veterans who are facing severe mental challenges. The Virtual Equestrian Centre provides a platform with pre-recorded video content, tailored to the demands of equestrianism, and is accessible to everyone online.
Learning – We provide Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) to the Neuro Diverse community by focussing on developing life skills, values and building confidence and character.
Welfare – We provide community hubs in our centres, and have a Welfare Hub and Community Café in Tidworth
Governance and Assurance – We provide our equine centres with governance and assurance to deliver a firm base from which to operate.

The Bolton Guild of Help

Charity Number: 224760
Company Number: 223283

The Guild is set up to provide financial help, practical assistance and pastoral care to needy people residing within the Borough of Bolton. We have been doing this for more than one hundred years.
The Borough consists of Bolton, Horwich, Westhoughton, Farnworth, Blackrod and all the outlying villages plus anywhere else with a BL postcode who pays their council tax to Bolton Council.
Our Bolton Veterans Aid project provides support to an ever growing number of ex-serviceman and woman, and their families, resident in the Borough.

Contact Information

www.boltonguildofhelp.org.uk
info@boltonguildofhelp.org.uk
Scott House
27 Silverwell Street
Bolton
BL1 1PP

Support Offered

The Guild has been providing assistance to needy people in Bolton since 1905.
Assistance offered includes the provision of white & brown goods, school uniforms, and debt management advice via our partnership with Christians Against Poverty (CAP). Also, benefits checks via our partnership with Citizens Advice. But we will consider any reasonable requests for help and each case is judged on its merits.
The Guild also acts as a referral agency to local food banks. And, in partnership with Bolton Lions, we provide needy families with sacks of toys at Christmas
We work in partnership with SSAFA The Armed Forces Charity and, also, the Bolton Armed Forces Centre 4 Veterans in support of the military family within the Borough

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Our Executive Members

By @Cobseo 56 years ago

Afghanistan support

In light of recent events in Afghanistan, please find information and support resources here