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The Naval Children’s Charity are thrilled to be launching ‘Doing Distance’ – a psychological toolkit for armed forces children, to help them navigate the challenges that come with service life, particularly around separation and mobility.
Whether you are a parent of a military child, or a supporting adult from their school or local community, this new psychological toolkit has been specially designed to help support your armed forces children. This toolkit has been compiled with the help from the team at ‘Bear Us In Mind’, a group with over 30 years’ experience working directly with families around separation and loss.
The Naval Children’s Charity’s aim is for these resources to help military children and their supporting adults to navigate the highs and lows of service life. These tools will help with the processing of the challenges experienced by children and young people and enable them hold on to special memories. All these resources will be available to download for free.
Clare Scherer MBE, from the Naval Children’s Charity, said:
”We could not be more grateful to Julie Stokes and the Bear Us In Mind team for their generosity in allowing us to adapt and use this amazing toolkit. We really think it will bring help and support to lots of our families as they deal with some of the challenges that come with life as a service family.”
The ‘Doing Distance’ toolkit can be found here.
As International Women’s Day is being celebrated across the globe, here at the Naval Children’s Charity we would like to celebrate things a little closer to home. Last month our Chief Executive Officer, Clare Scherer, went to Buckingham Palace to receive her MBE from The Princess Royal, in recognition of her services to Naval families.
Clare received the award as part of His Majesty Charles III’s inaugural ‘Birthday Honours List’.
“I am extremely proud and delighted to be the recipient of this award. It truly is an honour and I am deeply grateful to HM The King,” said Ms Scherer.
First working with the NCC as a consultant in 2008, Clare was appointed CEO in 2018.
During that time, the charity has undergone a successful re-brand, commissioned extensive research into the stresses on the lives of military children in the UK, and produced a suite of resources that help Naval families cope with deployment, grief and mental health.
“The [MBE] award is in recognition of my work supporting Naval families and, in reality, the award is for my entire team of staff at the NCC,” says Clare.
“They are the ones who work closely with our families, children and young people, ensuring that their needs are met in a compassionate and meaningful way and I would like to commend them for the dedication and passion they bring to the Charity.”
At the NCC, we believe that to be the child of someone who is, or has been, in the Naval Service should be a positive and enhancing experience – something to be borne with pride.
As such, over the next few years, the NCC is expanding its ‘Life Chances’ programmes; offering all Naval children new experiences which will give them the skills to thrive in their future lives and careers.
Clare added: “We are excited to be developing our support to all our Naval Children, not just those where there is crisis driven by disability, illness or significant financial hardship.
“Many of our children and young people are impacted by their parents’ service in the Royal Navy and we look forward to providing them with resources and opportunities to help them cope and enable them to thrive, helping them to be the best they can be.”
Congratulations once again, Clare Scherer MBE.
Our wonderful friends at Greenwich Hospital and the Royal Naval Sailing Association (RNSA) are delighted to provide free sailing opportunities for children of families of personnel serving in the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Fleet Auxiliary. This is a super exciting chance to support Service families and introduce them to the fun and many benefits of sailing.
The dedicated courses aim is to get hundreds of 8-17 year olds sailing in 2025 and beyond. They will be doing everything they can to make these weeks fully accessible and inclusive with no previous experience needed. The project will include a water safety element to help develop confidence for those less well versed with the sea! Please do get in touch as sailing is not only great fun, but also provides a great vehicle for building a whole range of skills in young people as well as enhancing fitness and well-being.
For 2025 some great changes have been made including:
Find all the details here: https://rnsayouthcrew.org.uk/
April is the Month of the Military Child – a month where we champion our amazing, resilient children and young people from Armed Forces families. They can experience many challenges because they are from an Armed Forces family, and we are in awe of how brilliant they are.
This April, 2025, the MOTMC has a theme of ‘Memories’ – which could not be more appropriate for us here at the Naval Children’s Charity as we celebrate our bicentenary – 200 years of our own memories supporting our Naval children.
We would like you to help us celebrate you and our bicentenary by sharing with us your memories – be as creative as you like: write something, turn it into a poem, draw it, paint it, sculpt it or just send us a photo of you and your Armed Forces family that is a memory you cherish. With your permission we will share these on social media and our website as we celebrate throughout the month.
Send your memories including your name and age to ncc@navalchildrenscharity.org.uk
Each year to celebrate we also come together with the Ministry of Defence, other military charities, schools, and many other partner organisations to celebrate military children and raise awareness of service life.
This year the theme is Memories and there will be many activities and events taking place across the country. Here’s just a taste of what we have planned so far…
Never Such Innocence – Creative School Workshops
We are really pleased to be partnering with Never Such Innocence to deliver school workshops across the UK that encourage and amplify the voices of service children.
Never Such Innocence have a team of creative practitioners who visit schools to hold workshops in poetry, art, speech and songwriting. The workshops provide young people with the creative tools to express their feelings and produce powerful pieces of work around the theme of conflict and service life.
The workshops are not just for military children, they are a great way for all children to learn about what military life looks like for their classmates and peers. In fact, we hope to reach schools who may have relatively small numbers of service children with these workshops so that the interaction can raise awareness of service life across the whole school community and create a lasting impact.
We still have a few school places remaining for 2025 so if you’re interested please email us at ncc@navalchildrenscharity.org.uk
Portsmouth Community Planter – Victoria Park
Working in partnership with Aggies and Pompey Military Kids, we have secured a community planter space in the recently revamped gardens of Victoria Park, Portsmouth. Award winning garden designer and mental health advocate, Leigh Johnstone (also known as The Beardy Gardener!) will be working with the children and young people to design and ‘plant up’ the space. We intend for this to be an ongoing project, with the children regularly updating the space with seasonal decorations and maintaining the plants.
Find out more and sign up to Pompey Military Kids here.
Purple Up! Day – 25th April 2025
Inspired to get involved in Month of the Military Child? 25th April is ‘Purple Up! Day’.
Wear purple to show your support for Service children and remember to send your photos to ncc@navalchildrenscharity.org.uk and donate here.
Find out more about other MotMC activities and other ways to get involved here.
Keep an eye on our socials for further updates and developments!
Here at the Naval Children’s Charity, we are looking to revamp our ‘Life Chances’ programme which is all about giving opportunities for young people to learn, develop and thrive (TallShip Voyages, Debating Classes, Residential Camps etc.) Now we want YOU to help shape what opportunities we give our young people. So, we have teamed up with ‘Leaders Unlocked’, who specialise in enabling young people to have a stronger voice and influence the issues that affect their lives.
Are you aged 12-25?
Do you come from a naval family and live in the UK?
Then please get involved and influence what you and your peers can take advantage of, whilst gaining valuable leadership skills and experience.
What is the Life Chances Co-design project?
The Life Chances Co-design project will give young people from naval families in the UK the opportunity to build their leadership skills and create change for other young people.
The Life Chances programme is led by the Naval Children’s Charity and offers a variety of opportunities and activities to children and young people from naval families. The Charity is keen to further develop the Life Chances programme in collaboration with the young people it aims to benefit.
The project will recruit a diverse group of approximately 12-15 young people from naval families that live in the UK.
The project aims to:
The project is a partnership between the Naval Children’s Charity and Leaders Unlocked, a social enterprise supporting young people to influence the decisions that affect them in society.
What will I get from being part of the project?
How do I apply?
Email here for your application form and then forward your completed form to Alev Zahir: alev@leaders-unlocked.org by Friday 23rd February 2024.
What happens next?
Once we receive your application, we will then carry out brief telephone interviews with a shortlist of applicants. All applicants will be informed by the week after the application deadline whether they have been selected for interview.
Remember: please email your completed application form to Alev Zahir:
alev@leaders-unlocked.org by Friday 23rd February 2024.
We have joined forces with our friends at the both the Annington Challenge and the Outward Bound Trust, whose missions are to inspire young people to believe they can achieve more than they ever thought possible.
If you are from a Naval family, are aged 10-19 and ready for an adventure… then look no further, we have a unique opportunity for you to take on the Annington Challenge. This is the chance for young people to experience an Outward Bound course at a heavily subsidised price. Places are available for all young people, regardless of their parent or guardian’s rank.
Choose from 5-19 day experiences in amazing locations. From rowing across lakes to camping in the wild, outdoor adventure will be at the heart of everything you do. All accommodation, food and equipment are provided.
Apply HERE now for 2024 and get ready the summer of a lifetime! It only takes a few minutes.
We are delighted to have teamed up with Over The Wall, a UK based charity for children and young people with health challenges and disabilities to discover a world of mischief and magic.
They provide a safe place to step outside of comfort zones, establish friendships and build confidence through meaningful and exciting activities and we have secured 8 places at a selection of different camps.
We are inviting applications from children and young people aged 8-17 years, who are currently experiencing health challenges or have finished treatment in the last 3 years. Also, the invitation is open to children and young people aged 8-17 yrs who have a sibling (0 – 17yrs) who is currently experiencing health challenges or has finished treatment in the last 3 years.
There are spaces available at:
Scotland Health Challenge / Siblings Camp, Strathallan School, Perth – Mon 8th – Fri 12th July
Midlands Week 1 Health Challenge / Siblings Camp, Whitemoor Lakes, Staffordshire – Mon 5th – Fri 9th August
Midlands Week 2 Health Challenge / Siblings Camp, Whitemoor Lakes, Staffordshire – Mon 12th – Fri 16th August
You can apply directly here: https://secure.jotformpro.com/form/42643514508958
We have recently formed an exciting partnership with Artswork, a youth arts charity whose work is to empower children and young people through creativity. A specific programme, called ‘Your Creative Future’ gives Naval families (serving or Veteran) an opportunity to attend a series of workshops completely free of charge. These fantastic workshops give young people the opportunity to explore their potential in a creative career.
Your Creative Future is a short programme of activities will give Naval families the opportunity to learn about the wide range of creative careers and explore the many pathways into creative work to help them take the steps into a career they love.
When?
Five Saturday morning workshops:
20 April; 4th May; 18 May; 8 June; 22 June 2024
Where?
Accessible online via Zoom from wherever you are.
What is included?
Please sign-up to the programme by filling out this application form.
The FAQ’s can be seen below but if you would like a downloadable PDF of these to keep handy, please find that below:
If you would like to share the poster with people you know, you can find a downloadable version below:
Your Creative Future – NCC x Artswork
If you have any questions about the programme, please email info@artswork.org.uk and we’ll be happy to help.
The past few weeks have filled us with joy, attending several homecoming events watching families be reunited in time for Christmas. We are aware however, that this hasn’t been the case for all families and with that in mind, please do remember that we offer all naval children free resources to help cope with having a parent away.
Our office will be closed from the 21st December to the 2nd January and the team is looking forward to some time off to recharge their batteries after an incredibly busy 2023. However, we know that many of you will be struggling at this time of year, for many different reasons.
Please contact your local authority or the NHS on 111 or www.111.nhs.uk if you need support during this period. If you’re struggling with your mental health, reach out to The Samaritans either through their website or their 24/7 helpline 116 123 (freephone). Mind’s website has some brilliant resources for managing your wellbeing.
With times still being a financial strain for many, we were thrilled that V2 Radio, the local commercial station for Sussex, asked their listeners to take part in a toy appeal, of which we were a beneficiary. As you can see from the picture above, we received an incredible number of gifts that will make Christmas morning a little more special for some of our young people.
Speaking of our young people, we are delighted to have teamed up with Over The Wall, a UK based charity for children and young people with health challenges and disabilities to discover a world of mischief and magic.
They provide a safe place to step outside of comfort zones, establish friendships and build confidence through meaningful and exciting activities and we have secured 8 places at a selection of different camps next year. We are inviting applications from children and young people aged 8-17 years, who are currently experiencing health challenges or have finished treatment in the last 3 years. Also, the invitation is open to children and young people aged 8-17 years who have a sibling (0 – 17 years) who is currently experiencing health challenges or has finished treatment in the last 3 years. Pop to our Facebook page for more details.
And the opportunities for our young people don’t stop there. We have been extremely lucky and have managed to secure some more voyages with Tallships Youth Trust!!!
The available dates:
February 13th -17th for 12–15-year-olds. The voyage is Portsmouth to Portsmouth
March 25th –29th for 16–25-year-olds. Again, the voyage is Portsmouth to Portsmouth
October 13th–17th October for 12 – 15-year-olds and again it is a Portsmouth to Portsmouth Voyage but as this falls in the Scottish half term, we will be providing transport from and back to Glasgow. SPACES ARE LIMITED, so email your expression of interest to us and we will send an application form to you.
We are also launching two new projects in January so look out for more details. With Leaders Unlocked we want to hear from you – we are looking for young people between the ages of 12 and 25 (with a particular focus on Portsmouth, Plymouth, Somerset and Helensburgh – so we can see what life is like for the different strands of the Royal Navy) with the aim of exploring what your lives are really like – and along the way work with you to develop your leadership skills for the future. This exciting project will help inform us how to find the best opportunities for our Life Chances programme – so we can make a real difference in your lives. The application process for this will be launched in January so look out for details.
For those of you who are interested in the cultural and creative industries we will also be launching a Digitally Mediated Creative programme – Your Creative Future. If you want to know more about what a career in the Arts or how to turn your creative side into a career and you are aged between 14 and 25 then this could be for you. You will hear from Mentors in different Creative roles and get 1:1 support to look at opportunities for you. Places are limited to 30 so look out for how to apply.
Well, all that is left is for me to say is that on behalf of everyone at the Naval Children’s Charity we wish you all a Wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year.
Best wishes,
Clare Scherer MBE
Chief Executive Officer, Naval Children’s Charity
