Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) has published its 2020 Impact Report, showcasing projects from the past year and the Trust’s work to support the sector during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The report reveals the outcomes of its work supporting ex-Service personnel to transition to civilian life. During 2020, FiMT funded 31 projects and awarded £4.2 million, more than any previous year.
FiMT-funded projects in 2020 included:
- The first research into moral injury in the UK Armed Forces, which had implications for front-line workers in the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as for the military community.
- An evaluation of an online mentoring pilot for veterans in Scotland which found that 80% of participants reported an improvement in their emotional wellbeing.
- A survey on the impact of Covid-19 on Armed Forces charities, which found that 72% of respondents reported a decrease in monthly income, and enabled Cobseo to put forward a successful bid for government funding for the sector.
- Interim funding to enable more than 100 ex-Service personnel to complete the BuildForce programme, which supports veterans to gain employment in the construction industry, after it had key funding suspended due to the pandemic.
The 2020 Impact Report outlines the steps the Trust took to support the sector through the pandemic. FiMT made over 30 time or financial adjustments to ongoing projects due to the impact of Covid-19, in addition to funding 31 new projects, a 55% increase than 2019.
The Impact Report is published as Ray Lock, the founding Chief Executive of FiMT, prepares to step down and hand over to new Chief Executive Mike Ellicock in June 2021.
Ray Lock CBE, Chief Executive of Forces in Mind Trust, said
“As my time at FiMT draws to a close, I am proud to present this report as a catalogue of just some of the remarkable achievements of my team in 2020. During this difficult year, simply continuing our work would have been an achievement – but we went far beyond this. We funded more projects, published more research and reached more people than ever before. We redoubled our efforts to build the capacity of Armed Forces Charities and supported our grant holders when almost every project was affected by Covid-19.
“As we reach the mid-point of FiMT’s 20-year lifetime, this report shows not only the immediate impact of our work this year, but also the continued impact of our previous projects – and it doesn’t stretch the imagination too far to see how the work we are doing will continue to improve the lives of ex-Service personnel and their families in years to come.”
The report can be viewed in full here: https://www.fim-trust.org/reports/
