Family Life and the Armed Forces Community Evaluation
/Thanks to funding from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust we have been really busy providing digital support to military families during the C-19 lockdown.
Forward Assist is a charity that helps Veterans to reintegrate into civilian life and provides services to assist them in building the capacity and skills to access employment. The services offered by Forward Assist include support, advice and guidance, and advocacy services. The organisation also runs projects intended to reduce social isolation and loneliness and to support Veterans and their families by improving their health and wellbeing. Forward Assist runs the Citizenship Reloaded programme, which provides an eight-week Veteran-specific course to facilitate the transition to civilian life. The programme includes interactive group sessions with experienced social workers and mental health professionals who can provide support and advice for the families.
The Family First project was in its early stages at the time of writing (December 2020); however, it intended to provide holistic support for the family in an environment suitable for the needs of children, parents and the entire family. The project acknowledges the importance of sustained support for Armed Forces families and so plans to provide a long-term service for as long as its beneficiaries require support. It aims to build long-term relationships with Armed Forces families based on trust, integrity and openness. The project intends to provide tailored counselling sessions for Armed Forces families both virtually and in groups (COVID-19 permitting). Subjects covered will include healthy relationships, life skills, emotion regulation, managing anxiety and depression, and positive living sessions including family activities (such as cooking sessions) and therapeutic activities for Veterans and their partners. Forward Assist has noted that it has conducted an extensive consultation to understand the needs of Armed Forces families in order to develop support that is tailored to their specific needs. At the conclusion of the project, Forward Assist will conduct an evaluation that will look at the effects on the Veterans and their families via anonymous questionnaires and one-to-one sessions in order to examine and assess the impact of the project.
