AFF has been awarded £500,000 to work with the Naval and RAF Families Federations on building a portfolio of support for those on overseas assignments, from before relocation to reintegration back in the UK.
The grant from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust for the Valuing Forces Families Overseas programme is over four years.
Following an initial externally run discovery phase to engage with families, statutory organisations, other charities and chain of command, the federations will launch a range of support work including early engagement briefings, an overseas employment information hub and a tri-Service digital engagement platform to provide families with key posting information.
Rachel Smith, AFF’s Head of Policy, said. “To be awarded the grant was a huge achievement for the Families Federations as they continue to advocate for and provide evidence on the unique needs of serving personnel and families overseas across all three Services.
“We are glad this evidence has been brought to the attention of the trust and has been realised in order for them to award this grant funding for us to provide targeted support for serving personnel and families through the overseas assignment lifecycle.”
Uncovering hidden need
AFF will deliver a transformational support programme, in partnership with the Naval Families Federation and the RAF Families Federation, that aims to tackle some of the need that has already been identified through work that we do, but through an independent research study, will also uncover hidden need across all three Services that is not yet realised.
Through our portfolio of individual programmes, we intend to address the cycle of overseas assignments holistically and provide serving personnel and their families the information, support, and advocacy they need to make the best-informed choices to have a positive overseas experience.
Rachel said: “We hope that the design of this programme will enable reach across every nation that our Armed Forces serve in, and we very much look forward to working with the other two Families Federations, the individual Services, and other organisations in order to deliver a programme that shapes the way the Armed Forces charity sector looks at supporting those serving overseas beyond the life of this grant.”
In a joint statement the three Chief Executives said: “This is a really exciting time for all three Families Federations, and we look forward to working closely with the trust and the single services on this unique, transformative programme.”
For further details, see covenantfund.org.uk
POSTED ON 2 MAY 2025
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