[envira-gallery id=”911″]The Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) and the North East Veterans Network, held a joint event at Finchale Training College in Durham, last Friday (29th May).

The FiMT-sponsored event, which was attended by 60 people, was the seventh in the series of briefings and the best attended to date.  There was a wide range of attendees including representatives from the public sector, Armed Forces charities and other organisations which work to support Service personnel, veterans, and their families.

The briefing was led by Chief Executive FiMT, Air Vice-Marshal Ray Lock CBE, and supported by his executive team.   The presentation covered FiMT’s work to provide an evidence base which aims to influence policy making and service delivery in order to enable ex-Service personnel and their families to lead successful civilian lives.

It also included an update on a couple of FiMT’s currently funded projects in the North East (including the Joint Transition Support Service at Finchale College), an overview of FiMT’s grant application process, and future plans in areas such as families, and the Veterans’ Research Hub. There was a chance for those attending to ask FiMT’s executive team questions before an opportunity for further discussion and networking over lunch. FiMT were extremely grateful for the help and support offered by their hosts at Finchale, and would also like to thank everyone who attended and made the event so interesting and enjoyable.

A further FiMT sector briefing event will take place in Manchester on 18th September with more details available shortly.

To view the presentation given at the briefing, follow this link.

~ENDS~

Notes to Editors: For interview requests, photos or more information, please contact:

Alice Farrow at The PR Office on afarrow@theproffice.com  / mobile:  07788 540 924 / direct dial: 0207 284 6955.

  • About the Forces in Mind Trust: The Forces in Mind Trust came about from a partnership between the Big Lottery Fund, Cobseo (The Confederation of Service Charities) and other charities and organisations. FiMT continues the Fund’s long-standing legacy of support for veterans across the UK with an endowment of £35 million awarded in 2012. Since 2004 the Fund has given more than £88 million to programmes supporting veterans. http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/.
  • During its first two years, FiMT has commissioned seminal research reports such as the Transition Mapping Study (TMS) which reviewed how the entire transition process from military to civilian life currently works and how it is viewed by stakeholders and recent Service leavers.  The economic model developed for the report calculated the total cost of poor transition to the UK as a whole to be £113 million in 2012, whilst the report itself has been discussed across Whitehall and debated in the House of Lords.