The Armed Forces Covenant Trust announced that the Force for Change programme is once again offering grant funding to registered charities and Community Interest Companies that have substantial experience supporting Armed Forces communities.
Grants of up to £10,000 are available for local community projects that can start within a month of being awarded a grant and be completed within a year or less.
Projects should address one of two main themes:
- Empowering Armed Forces communities to become more engaged in their local area.
- Providing opportunities for isolated members of the Armed Forces community to take part in activities that improve general wellbeing.
Funding can be used for a wide range of projects. The following are some examples of the types of projects that might be prioritised:
- Projects that encourage veterans and Armed Forces families to be less isolated.
- Projects supporting children and young people from Armed Forces families who found lockdown challenging. This might include play projects, sports or arts projects and projects encouraging friendships and interaction with children and young people from local civilian communities.
- Projects supporting parents from Armed Forces families with pre-school aged or very young children.
- Projects that will have a positive impact on wellbeing for veterans or carers of veterans, or Armed Forces families.
- Projects that help local Armed Forces charities or CICs to keep delivering help to local Armed Forces communities, where COVID has made this more challenging.
The grant can be used to pay for most things needed for the project or activity, such as:
- Staff time for the fixed-term project, including time-managing volunteers that may be involved in the project.
- Purchasing items that provide practical support, or that can enable activities to take place.
- Purchasing items that are needed to provide support, such as additional telephones or laptops.
- Reasonable costs for storing and transporting items, including wear and tear on private vehicles.
- Reasonable overheads that reflect the cost of delivering the project.
To be eligible to apply, organisations must be one of the following:
- An established registered charity or community interest company (CIC) with substantial recent experience of supporting Armed Forces communities.
- An Armed Forces unit or base.
- A local authority.
- A school.
There will be three application rounds in 2021.
The deadline for the first round is 12 April 2021 (midday).