Afghanistan Veterans Fund
Overview
The Office for Veterans Affairs has asked the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust (the Trust) to run programmes that will award grants to improve wellbeing, resilience and promote good mental health, responding to increased needs in veterans who have served in Afghanistan and other recent conflicts and the wider veterans community.
The four Funding Strands
The Afghanistan Veterans Fund will support projects that improve wellbeing, resilience and promote good mental health, responding to increased needs in veterans who have served in Afghanistan and other recent conflicts and the wider veterans community.
Strand 1 – Supporting Veterans community mental health
This Strand will award grants to organisations that can show that they already provide mental health clinical support and treatment.
Eligible organisations can apply for a grant to invest in an increase in their capacity to meet additional needs in terms of both increased ask for help, and the increased complexity of those already receiving support.
- Grants of up to £100K are available.
Strand 2 - Increasing supportive comradeship, connectedness, and engagement to improve wellbeing, resilience, and good mental health.
This Strand will make a small number of grants to Armed Forces charities that can show that they can run a small grant programme which will make small grants to Service Associations, to enable them to develop supportive comradeship, connectiveness and engagement for their members
Applicants must have substantial experience in managing UK wide grant making programmes, and must have detailed knowledge of, and links to, either the Army, RAF or Navy with a UK spread of beneficiaries. They will also need to be able to show how they will measure the impact of grants that they make.
Additional information:
Afghanistan Veterans Fund T and C's (covenantfund.org.uk)
STANDARD AGREEMENT FOR A DELEGATED GRANT SCHEME (covenantfund.org.uk)
- Grants of up to £300K are available. Exceptionally, larger grants may also be available.
Strand 3 - Enabling veterans/veteran support organisations to support Afghanistan refugees in the United Kingdom.
This Strand will make a small number of grants to Armed Forces charities who can show that they can develop and deliver UK wide volunteering programmes for veterans to enable veterans to give support to organisations who are aiming to welcome Afghan people.
Projects must deliver clear benefits directly to veterans, enabling them to support Afghan people as effectively as possible. Applications must be clearly able to show how veterans will benefit, and how they will be supported in their volunteering.
- Grants of up to £300K are available. Exceptionally, larger grants may also be available.
Strand 4 - Regional & more localised projects that increase capacity in services and initiatives that offer support & comradeship, engagement, and wellbeing efforts.
This Strand provides funding for regional and more localised projects that increase capacity in services and initiatives that offer support and comradeship, engagement and wellbeing efforts for those in the Armed Forces community impacted by events in Afghanistan.
Support must be particularly focused on veterans since 2000 or those who served in recent conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan and aimed at reaching veterans who may not already be engaged. This can include families of serving personnel, and of veterans. It can include families that have been bereaved. It can also include family members that care for veterans.
They expect demand for this Strand to be high. Please do read the specific Strand 4 guidance carefully.
- Projects can be more regionally or locally focussed.
Eligibility
To be eligible for this funding under Strands 1-3, you must be:
- a registered charity that specifically supports Armed Forces communities, that has been registered for at least three years at the time of your application.
In addition, under Strand 4 only, the following types of organisations can also apply:
- a registered charity that specifically supports Armed Forces communities, that has been registered for at least two years at the time of your application.
- a registered charity with substantial recent experience of supporting Armed Forces communities that has been registered for at least two years at the time of your application; or
- A Community Interest Company (CIC) that specifically supports Armed Forces communities, that has been registered for at least two years at the time of your application. Please read the guidance for the individual Strand that you are applying under for more detail on eligibility, as well as the size and duration of grants.