Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund launches new partnerships with RFEA The Forces Employment Charity and Combat Stress

Read more about how the Lloyd’s market can support the Armed Forces community.

Focus on mental health

LPF has funded training and equipment for Combat Stress’ new national pilot, sensory modulation. This is the practice that helps individuals understand their senses and coping strategies to ground and calm them. This is being delivered by occupational therapists to 1,300+ veterans who suffer from mental health conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety or depression. All the Combat Stress occupational therapists have been trained in the practice and have found new ways to deliver this remotely.

The evidence shows that this approach works helping to strengthen family relationships, increase participation in trauma therapy, and increase job satisfaction. Now building on this initial project, LPF will work with Combat Stress over the next three years to fund research to develop the evidence for the use of sensory modulation for veterans experiencing trauma as well as building resilience in veterans with mental health conditions. The aim of the research is to showcase this new approach and how it can improve veterans’ lives and careers if used more widely.

Focus on employment

LPF funded the pilot of a new Families Employment Advisor with RFEA, the Forces Employment charity. The project supports spouses and families of serving Armed Forces and ex service personnel into employment. The pilot focused on families in need where the veteran was struggling to find or sustain work. In the first year, 77 spouses or partners were supported with career diagnostics, casework, and access to vocational training and to suitable jobs. The aim is to increase confidence, stability, wellbeing, employability and ultimately lead to employment, education or training. We are delighted that this role has been funded going forward, and so LPF have committed to funding two more roles for the next three years in two new locations, to expand and meet the growing demand, delivered virtually for now.

Jane’s story

Jane lives in Glasgow and had been a stay-at-home parent for three and a half years and had housing issues. Jane registered for support but then waited three months to engage with the adviser as she was juggling her children and their health. Jane was supported to develop her CV identifying her skills and how to match them to job descriptions to successfully apply for jobs and with knowledge on how and where to job search. Jane says: “With my experience of using RFEA I found that the personalised approach the most helpful - with an advisor looking at me as an individual rather than generic information which most of helping “spouse into employment” seems to be”. Jane successfully secured a job with her local Council and is doing well.

Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund has also awarded grants to Stoll, The Ripple Pond, Scotty’s Little Soldiers and The FirstLight Trust funding projects that help enable veterans and their families to build successful civilian lives and careers. In response to COVID-19, Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund has also made additional unrestricted donations to its partners to help support through these unprecedented times.

There are a range of ways the Lloyd’s market can get involved to support these partnerships, in collaboration with the Lloyd’s Military Network:

1. Volunteering opportunities
   We are looking for volunteers to assist with a range of opportunities including delivering (or taking part in) online employability workshops or mentoring ex-military staff or spouses.
2. Host a virtual training session
   Combat Stress can run a session on how to better support veterans in the workplace in relation to recruitment, mental health and managing stress.
3. Hold a talk or webinar
   Combat Stress can hold a talk on how to understand your senses and how this affects how people manage stress in the workplace, with tips and techniques for improving stress levels.
4. Host a work placement
   Through the Lloyd’s military network, companies can offer a work opportunity to a veteran as part of a formal placement programme.
5. Fundraise for our partners
   If colleagues want to take on a virtual challenge, we have a range of events to get involved with.
6. Pro-bono support
   Our partners are looking for help to build an online employability training platform that helps translates military experience into a civilian friendly C.V. Or, give advice around using LinkedIn as a training tool or delivering training sessions to RFEA staff.
7. See where your donation has gone
   Visit some of the funded projects to see where collectively, we have made a difference.