Scotty’s Little Soldiers, the charity for bereaved military children and young people, has welcomed Rachel Scott to the team as Head of Service.
Scotty’s mission is to provide relief from the effects of bereavement to children and young people who have experienced the death of a parent who served in the British Armed Forces. The charity provides a range of support to its members, aged 0-25 years, ensuring that throughout their childhood, young people have access to the very best emotional health and wellbeing support, outstanding development opportunities and the chance to smile again.
So far in 2024, Scotty’s has supported 665 young people, 22 of those joined this year. The charity aims to be supporting 1000+ bereaved military children annually by 2030 and is now embarking in a growth phase in order ensure an efficient and effective service to an increasing volume of beneficiaries.
Rachel will play a key role in shaping Scotty’s Service Delivery, ensuring it is tailored to the very specific needs of children and young people who have been bereaved of a military parent.
Rachel has worked in the charity sector, both in the UK and internationally for nearly 20 years. She specialises in working with vulnerable populations and has frontline experience with diverse groups including refugees, asylum seekers, people who are vulnerably housed or homeless, isolated seniors, people with mental health or addiction issues, and children and young people including those with SEND. She brings with her extensive experience in charity management, programme development, research and evidence, impact monitoring and policy influencing.
Commenting on joining Scotty’s, Rachel said:
“It’s a really exciting time to join Scotty’s. The team are already doing so much to support bereaved military children and young people and it’s making a real difference, but I will get to pull all that learning and data together to fully measure and understand that impact. Scotty’s aims to support children and young people in quite a unique way – offering holistic support that really addresses the known impact of bereavement – from social isolation, communication, self-esteem and educational achievement. It will be a privilege to help Scotty’s grow and support more families.”
Scotty’s CEO, Stuart Robinson, added:
“We’re really pleased to welcome Rachel to the team at Scotty’s. Her passion for supporting young people and her previous experience is going to help take the impact of the charity to the next level. We’re building an organisation that will be around for bereaved military families for the long term, and Rachel’s appointment is one of four roles joining myself and our Founder Nikki on Scotty’s first senior leadership team, ensuring sustainability and continuity of our support.”
To pledge your commitment to supporting children and young people who have experienced the death of a parent who served in the British Armed Forces, go to https://www.scottyslittlesoldiers.co.uk/scottyspledge
