Author: NFF

Aggie Weston’s

Key role: Supporting families

Aggie Weston’s is here to help serving members of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and their families. They provide pastoral support around the country and enable families to stay connected through projects such as Storybook Waves. More information can be found here.

Help for Heroes

Key Role: Fundraising and grant making, advice and guidance, support to families

Help for Heroes are a vast network of professionals and partners. They help serving members of the Armed Forces and Veterans and support families through physical and emotional rehabilitation and recovery, identifying new career opportunities as well as offering financial and welfare support. They also run beneficiary support networks, to offer support, camaraderie and a listening ear.

During their first 10 years, they have directly helped more than 17,000 individuals and their families in this way. Offering this to thousands more who need it remains possible thanks to their supporters, and specialist charity partners. More information can be found here.

The Royal British Legion (RBL)

Key Role: Fundraising and grant-making, advice and guidance, support to families

The Royal British Legion provides lifelong support for the Armed Forces Community – Serving men and women (Regulars and Reservists), veterans, and their families. They provide information, advice and guidance to help the Armed Forces Community find and access the support they need.

The Legion provides families of serving and ex-Service personnel the chance to take a break and get away from the stresses and strains of everyday life through their Family Holiday Breaks scheme. They also run Adventure Breaks for young people, so that they can enjoy themselves, meet new people, have new experiences, improve their self-esteem and most of all have fun, while giving parents a well-earned break. More information can be found here.

The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Children’s Fund

Key Role: Providing financial support for children

The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Children’s Fund (RNRMCF) provides a range of support to children whose parents work, or have worked, for the Naval Service. This support includes childcare, special needs education, days out and in-home support in times of crisis. An area of particular growth has been the Charity’s focus on assisting children within its remit who have special needs. This work now accounts for nearly half of its awards to beneficiaries. In the last year alone, RNRMCF has supported over 1,500 children, but with over 40,000 servicemen currently in the Naval Service, it is keen to ensure that Naval families know where to find them. More information can be found here.

The Royal Naval Benevolent Trust (RNBT)

Key Role: Providing financial support

RNBT gives help, in cases of need, to serving and former Royal Naval ratings and Royal Marines other ranks, which includes Reservists. They also help their partners, children and some others connected with them. They make grants to assist in a very wide variety of circumstances, such as help towards living expenses, house repairs, disability aids, job training, all sorts of financial difficulties, care home top-up fees, domiciliary care and much more. Every year RNBT respond to just under three thousand applications with grants totaling about £1.3 million. More information can be found here.

SAIL

Key Role: Advice and guidance

Seafarers’ Advice and Information Line – this organisation gives free advice to seafarers and their families on issues such as benefits, debt, housing and is part of the UK’s Citizen’s Advice Network. More information can be found here.

SSAFA (Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association)

Key Role: Fundraising and grant-making, advice and guidance, support to families

SSAFA provides lifelong support to anyone who is currently serving or has ever served in the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the British Army or the Royal Air Force (Regulars and Reserves) and their families. They have a network of trained volunteers on Army, RAF and Naval bases in the UK and around the world who can give you local support. They provide a range of personalised services, including welfare advice, housing and healthcare, and signposting to organisations that offer more specialised support. More information can be found here.

SSAFA Forcesline is a free and confidential telephone helpline and email service that provides support for Serving (regulars and reserves) and ex-Service men and women from the Armed Forces and for their families. As an independent charity, SSAFA is not part of the military Chain of Command. The team are there to listen and not to judge. They can give you factual information and ‘signpost’ ways forward to assist you. They can also speak with you in confidence if you, or someone you know, are absent without leave (AWOL).

To contact Forcesline from the UK, please call the freephone number: 0800 731 4880.  The line is open from 0900 – 1700 (UK local time) Monday – Friday. To contact Forcesline from overseas please call –

Germany: 0800 731 4880

Cyprus: 800 91065
Falkland Islands: # 6111
Anywhere in the world (Call-back): + 44 (0)207 463 9292

To email Forcesline, click here.

COBSEO

Key Role: Information about Service charities

COBSEO, as the Confederation of Service Charities, provides a single point of contact for interaction with Government, including local government and the Devolved Administrations; with the Royal Household; with the Private Sector; and, of course, with other members of the Armed Forces Community. This allows COBSEO members to interact with all interested parties and especially to cooperate and collaborate with others in order to provide the best possible level of support to our beneficiaries.

The COBSEO website holds a Member Directory which details the type of support that the member charities can provide. This database can be searched using various criteria, such as ‘education’ or ‘disability support’. More information can be found here.

Military Wives Choir Foundation

With an aim to bring women in the military community closer together through singing, there are now over 70 Military Wives Choirs in British Military bases across the UK, and overseas, helping to combat this isolation. For more information and to find a Military Wives Choir near you, click here, or call 020 7463 9407.

The Royal Navy & Royal Marines Charity (RNRMC)

Key Role: Fundraising and grant-making

The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity is the principal charity of the Royal Navy. The charity exists to support sailors, marines and their families, for life. Since 2007, they have funded projects and facilities that boost morale for those who serve today. They also distribute millions of pounds annually to military charities which care for the children, families and veterans of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.

In practical terms, the RNRMC is a fundraising and grant-making charity. This means it delivers its charitable outputs through dispensing grants to:

• Other Naval charities;
• Military charities;
• Other charities with Naval beneficiaries;
• Ships, units and personnel of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines and Auxiliaries;
• Individual serving personnel and veterans through the RNOC and RMCTF.

More information can be found here.

The Royal Navy & Royal Marines Widows’ Association

Key Role: Providing advice and support

The Royal Navy & Royal Marines Widows’ Association was formed in 2008 when a small group of widows decided to set up an association to support other widows with the aim of bringing friendship, support, guidance and comfort to those who have experienced the trauma of bereavement.

Their members range in age from their 20’s through to their 80’s, each with a different story to tell, but bound by a common bond of support and friendship.

Unfortunately there is no easy answer to the grief bereavement brings, there is no time scale, each of us will take a different path on the journey. However, they have all been helped along by friendships they have made in the association and they would like to offer their support to other too. More information can be found here.

Royal Navy Officers’ Charity (RNOC)

Key Role: Financial support

RNOC provides benevolence to both serving and retired officers of the Naval Service (RN, RM and QARNNS), their spouses, former spouses and dependants who are in need of financial support. The Charity continues to make a real difference to the quality of life for beneficiaries through the breadth of their grant making. Support includes assistance to those on low incomes, care home fees, scholarships and re-training to gain employment. More information can be found here.

Seafarers UK

Key Role: Fundraising and grant-making

Seafarers UK is a charity that has been helping people in the maritime community for 100 years, by providing vital support to seafarers in need and their families.

They do this this by giving grants to organisations and projects that make a real difference to people’s lives, across the Merchant Navy, Fishing Fleets, Royal Navy and Royal Marines. They gave grants totaling £3.2 million to over 60 maritime welfare charities in 2017. More information can be found here.

Women’s Royal Naval Service Benevolent Trust (WRNS BT)

Key role: Providing financial support and advice

The primary object of this Trust is to provide relief in cases of necessity or distress among its members and their dependants. The Trust is also empowered, to make grants for the education of dependants. The Trust aims to give help in the most constructive way possible, whilst dealing with all requests speedily and effectively. The Trust maintains a close working relationship with all the other Service Charities to ensure the best possible assistance for its members.

Assistance need not only be financial; many members have found the advice available even more valuable than material aid. More information can be found here.