Bonds between communities and the Armed Forces are set to be strengthened as the Ministry of Defence has just launched the Community Covenant Grant.
Vigilance reliably gathered that up to £30M over 4 financial years has been set aside to help communities undertake projects that promote greater understanding between the military and civilian populations.
It will be recalled that in May this year, the Government published the Armed Forces Covenant which, amongst other things, aims to improve the support available for serving personnel, their families and veterans.
Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans, Andrew Robathan said: “We are committed to ensuring that our Armed Forces, veterans and their families have the support they need and are treated with the dignity they deserve. The Community Covenant will help cement that support at a local level across the UK.”
Minister Robathan added: “The Armed Forces Family already enjoys a good rapport with their civilian counterparts and projects funded by the grant scheme will build even closer ties in both communities. The grant scheme will provide funding to foster this support.”
According to an MoD source the grant scheme will consider applications for funding between £100 to £250,000, to be spent on projects which promote closer ties or a greater understanding of the military in the local community. Examples could be:
- A public exhibition showing recent activity of the local Armed Forces unit, such as a tour in Afghanistan;
- One off activities such as an activity camp involving the Armed Forces and young people;
- A community outreach project that brings together veterans with their non-service equivalents to highlight what support is available to them in their local community.
Applications, the source said should show there is a demonstrable benefit to both the Armed Forces and the civilian community and the MOD will only pay for one-off project costs.
Bids can only be submitted from areas which already have a Community Covenant in place. Guidance on how to establish a Community Covenant can be found on our website at www.mod.uk/covenant.
Where a Community Covenant is in place, the Armed Forces and Local Authority signatories to this document will consider the bids in the first instance. Endorsed bids will then be considered by an MOD panel which will also include representation from HM Treasury and subject matter experts as required.