- Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust announces funding programmes for the 2021/22 financial year.
- Programmes have a focus on supporting post-Covid recovery for Armed Forces communities.
- Three funding programmes will open for applications in April 2021.
The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust (the Trust) has announced new funding programmes for the 2021/22 financial year. These programmes are designed to support veterans, Armed Forces families and serving personnel, to recover from some of the wider impacts of the Covid pandemic.
Sustaining Support for Armed Forces communities
The £6 million Sustaining Support for Armed Forces Communities programme will open in April. This programme will provide funding for existing charitable projects that give help to Armed Forces communities, but which need short term support to continue, as a result of the impact of Covid on charitable income.
Armed Forces charities, and charities that have an existing track record of providing support for Armed Forces communities, will be able to apply for a grant of up to £100,000 for up to one year. Organisations applying for a grant will need to show they provide support to people from Armed Forces communities, and that it would have a negative effect, particularly on veterans and Armed Forces families, if this work could not be continued. Support for core costs will be available for Armed Forces charities.
Melloney Poole, Chief Executive of the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust said:
“The Trust is delighted to be sharing more information about the funding programmes that will open from April 2020, that will continue to provide support for Armed Forces communities and the charities that support them. The Covid pandemic has had such a profound impact on the lives of so many veterans, Armed Forces families and serving personnel. These programmes will enable us to support and contribute to the post Covid recovery work to address some of the challenges that Covid has brought to our communities – particularly through the £6 million Sustaining Support for Armed Forces communities programme.”
New rounds of popular programmes
Other funding programmes that will be available through the Trust from April 2021 are Round 2 of the NAAFI Fund: supporting projects within Armed Forces units that improve quality of life for serving personnel and their families. There will also be further rounds of the Force for Change programme, which provides small grants for local projects supporting Armed Forces communities to become less isolated and engage more in their local area.
Two strategic programmes coming soon
In Summer 2021, the Trust will open two further strategic programmes. The Supporting Veterans in Acute Hospital Settings programme will work with a small number of NHS hospitals to pilot a new approach of providing targeted support for veterans, which will help to connect veterans to a wider range of services in the charity and health sectors, joining up care. This programme will support work in all four nations and will benefit patients and staff in raising awareness of the Armed Forces Covenant.
The Strengthening Delivery of the Covenant programme will provide continuation grants to local authorities under Strengthening Delivery of the Covenant: Sustaining Impact, which builds on the work of local authorities through the earlier Strengthening Delivery of the Covenant programme, to ensure that the learning and the gains from this programme are not lost and that all local authorities have access to the eLearning and support they will need to draw on to deliver their commitments to the Covenant in a post-Covid world.
Find out more
The Trust will provide further information on all of these programmes in due course as they go live.
To find out more about the Trust and its grant programme commitments, visit their website: www.covenantfund.org.uk
