THE Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) has launched its ‘Third Age’ at the charity’s FiMpacT Forum held at The QEII Centre in Westminster, marking the culmination of six years of grant giving to help ex-Service personnel transition into civilian life.
To date, FiMT has given more than 100 grants totalling nearly £15 million, most notably over the past year to health and wellbeing-related projects. This has included work into ending veterans’ homelessness, partnering with King’s College London on mental health issues and the associated stigma, and producing a guide for care homes with veterans.
The Third Age of FiMT will focus on driving and sustaining the positive impact on ex-Service personnel’s lives already achieved by FiMT’s work. This new age will also focus on challenging the negative stereotypes around veterans.
Chief executive Ray Lock said: “Our approach identifies six areas for improving the lives of ex-Service personnel – covering Housing, Employment (including training and education), Health and Wellbeing (physical and mental), Finance, the Criminal Justice System and Relationships. The Third Age will be an exciting move from being activity led, to strategically driven and coherently focused. We’re ramping up the impact of our work, whilst maintaining the generation of knowledge and evidence for which we have become renowned.”
Hans Pung, chairman of the Forces in Mind Trust, said: “As well as developing the impact of the work we’re already doing, we will also be promoting evidence over anecdote – such as working on altering stubborn perceptions of former Service personnel as ‘mad, bad, or sad’. We will be doing this through focusing on the real truth of personal lives, and working to establish an evidence base which truly reflects ex-Service personnel’s biographical histories, current situations and future needs.”