The Veterans’ Foundation has awarded the top grant of £200,000 in its new major grants programme to Scotty’s Little Soldiers, the charity that supports bereaved children and young people coping with the death of a parent.
The Veterans’ Foundation’s major grants programme launched in 2024 to provide grants of between £100,000 and £200,000 to charities undertaking projects that assist with mental health and wellbeing issues among the armed forces community.
The grant will be awarded over two years, with 50% going to Scotty’s SMILES Programme and an equal amount to support ongoing administrative costs that help to create a sustainable charity.
Scotty’s Little Soldiers currently supports more than 700 children from the armed forces community from birth to 25 who have experienced the death of a parent.
Scotty’s aims to ensure its members don’t feel alone, by offering one-to-one bereavement support, respite breaks with the family, opportunities to meet others in a similar situation, and access to extracurricular activities.
The charity also ensures that each child enjoys a gift or voucher on their birthday, at Christmas and on the anniversary of their parent’s death.
“The death of a parent is hard for any child, but when they are part of the armed forces community, they face unique challenges,” said Scotty’s Little Soldiers founder, Nikki Scott, whose husband Corporal Lee Scott died during a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2009, when their children, Kai was five and Brooke just seven months old.
“This extremely generous grant from the Veterans’ Foundation will make a huge difference to the lives of bereaved military children and young people. The grant is spread over two years, which enables us to plan for the future, and provide the very best support for current and new members.
“As well us funding the SMILES Programme, the fact that 50% of the grant covers core costs, helps us to create a sustainable charity that will be here for years to come. We can’t stress enough the importance of future proofing Scotty’s, particularly as the membership continues to grow. Thank you so much to the Veterans’ Foundation.”
Veterans’ Foundation’s Grants Manager, Sarah Kelling, said:
“We are seeing more and more evidence that projects providing support in one area help improve the mental health and wellbeing of our armed forces community and realised that occasionally a little more goes a long way to making a big difference.
“That is why we felt it was important to provide grants awarding larger sums dedicated to projects demonstrating potential to make the largest impact.”
