Are you a Naval young person planning to go to University this Autumn?

We are excited to be partnering with Aspire (part of the JS Group) to deliver a new way to support our Naval children during their time at university. Students in receipt of an Education bursary from The Naval Children’s Charity will be able to access Aspire’s student engagement portal. It will enable faster payments to our students with additional benefits such as useful budgeting tools and a streamlined application process. Aspire works with more than 30 universities across the UK with a long history of delivering and managing student bursaries.   To find out more about how to apply please email us caseworkers@navalchildrenscharity.org.uk and we can send you the forms and the criteria for applying.

Volunteer Week

This week is Volunteers’ Week, an annual UK-wide campaign launched in 1984 to celebrate and recognise the contributions of volunteers. It provides a platform for organisations and communities to thank volunteers for their invaluable efforts. We would like to thank all our wonderful volunteers, who do so much to support and help raise awareness for The Naval Children’s Charity!
If you are considering embracing any sort of volunteering or fundraising this year, we would love you to bear us in mind. Any support offered be it helping at one of our events or in one of our offices for a few hours would be greatly beneficial to the Charity. There is always something to be done! Or, if you would like to fundraise in any sort of way, please do get in touch.  100% of every pound we are given goes towards supporting our Naval children.

Thomas Wells

With that in mind we would like to say a huge thank you to Thomas Wells who, along with his friends Jack and Sam, conquered the highest peaks of Scotland, England and Wales within 24 hours. Thomas’ father served in the Royal Marines for 28 years and Thomas is very aware of the challenges families and children from military backgrounds face. We can’t thank you enough for your tremendous efforts – you are brilliant!

Bicentenary Merchandise

Did we mention it is our Bicentenary year? The Naval Children’s Charity has been, in some form or another, providing help to the children of Naval personnel for 200 years. To celebrate we have a wonderful range of commemorative merchandise for sale. If you fancy baking in style, then we have just the aprons! Orders can be placed via our website. We will also be selling items at events throughout the year. Follow this link and please do take a look at what we have available.

The Naval Children’s Charity are delighted to announce a three-year joint funding pledge from Greenwich Hospital and Royal Navy Royal & Marines Charity (RNRMC), who have committed £720,000 per year for three years, totalling £2,160,000, to support their Benevolence Grants Programme. This funding will enhance the vital support provided to Royal Navy and Royal Marines families.

This essential funding will enable The Naval Children’s Charity to deliver direct financial support to any Naval family that may find themselves in a time of need or crisis.

CEO of The Naval Children’s Charity, Clare Scherer, shared her heartfelt appreciation:

“We are incredibly grateful to RNRMC and Greenwich Hospital for their generous commitment. This funding will allow us to continue providing essential support to Royal Navy and Royal Marines families, ensuring they have the resources they need during times of difficulty. It’s through partnerships like this that we can make a tangible difference in the lives of those who serve or have served.”

Director of Greenwich Hospital, Deirdre Mills, said

“Greenwich Hospital is pleased to collaborate with RNRMC in supporting the Naval Children’s Charity’s Benevolence Grants Programme. This funding ensures that serving and former Royal Navy and Royal Marines families facing hardship can access the financial support they need, when they need it most. By working together, we can make a critical difference to the lives of more children in the Royal Navy community.”

CEO of RNRMC, Andrew Jameson said

“We are delighted to work with Greenwich Hospital once again to support the Naval Children’s Charity with this important grant. Their work in supporting the children of Naval families is truly amazing, making a real difference in their lives. We have had a long and meaningful relationship with the Naval Children’s Charity, and we are pleased to continue standing alongside them in their vital work.”

The Naval Children’s Charity has been helping Naval children for 200 years, this includes serving personnel and veterans of the Naval Service (Royal Navy, Royal Marines, QARNNS, WRNS, Reserves or Royal Fleet Auxiliary). With this funding pledge, this work can continue helping to make a lasting difference in children and young people’s lives.

To donate or find out more about the charity please visit their website: https://www.navalchildrenscharity.org.uk

About The Naval Children’s Charity

We help our Naval children wherever they are, across the UK and globally. Our headquarters is based in Portsmouth with outreach caseworkers based in Helensburgh and Plymouth. We have a wonderful Trustee Board who support us in what we do.

The first orphanage opened in 1825 and since then we have evolved to ensure we best meet the needs of our children and young people. We have recently formed a Youth Council of young people who are helping us to develop our strategy, putting their voice at the heart of what we do.

We help around 2000 children directly each year and many thousands more through our resources and work with communities and other organisations.

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. For those children where life is more difficult, we are there to help.

About Greenwich Hospital 

Greenwich Hospital is the single largest funder of individual, educational and welfare support to serving and former Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel and their families. We work to make a real and lasting difference in their lives during military service, during transition to civilian life and when they or their family need support. 

Founded by the Crown in 1694 to assist wounded, injured, and elderly Royal Navy sailors and their families, we have evolved to meet the changing needs of those who serve. Today, we fund grants, award educational and training bursaries and support charitable activities in areas ranging from education to housing, health and wellbeing, employability and crisis support. 

We work in partnership with the Royal Navy, military charities and other relevant organisations to meet the current and future needs of the Royal Navy community. We aim to make a real and lasting difference in the lives of those in our community who need it most. 

Total charitable spend: £6.26m (Sept 2023-Aug 2024) 

Find out more from our Impact Report: 
GH_impact_report_23-24_spreads.pdf 

About Royal Navy & Royal Marines Charity 

Royal Navy & Royal Marines Charity is the principal charity of the Royal Navy. We are at the heart of supporting our Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Fleet Auxiliary personnel and their families, past, present and future.

Since 2007, we have funded projects and facilities that boost morale for those who serve today. 

We also distribute millions of pounds annually to organisations and charities which care for the children, families and veterans of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

RNRMC is proud to have HRH The Princess Royal as our Patron.  

For more information on Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity, call 023 9387 1520 or visit www.rnrmc.org.uk.  

Spring has Sprung!

Over the past two months we have been celebrating children and young people (C&YP) with caring responsibilities and those from Armed Forces Families as we marked Young Carers Action Day along with Month of the Military Child. With that in mind, we’d love to draw your attention to The Children’s Society’s The Nexus Project.

Nexus is a three-year project funded by the Armed Forces Covenant Trust. The project aims to improve support, resources and access to services for young carers within Armed Forces Families.

Caring at a young age can impact a child’s wellbeing, health, education, and free time. These issues are exacerbated for young carers within Armed Forces Families due to parent deployments, frequent house moves and living in secure military housing.

Nexus aims to work with professionals from Armed Forces support services, young carers services, schools, the NHS and others to drive change by:

• empowering young people to explore their lived experiences
• building specialist service networks
• advising on systems change
• campaigning alongside young carers
• equipping and training professionals.

They can also help young carers understand their rights, introduce them to other young carers and advise on different ways into education and employment. For more information please click here

MotMC:

We have celebrated the Month of the Military Child in a variety of ways, including working in partnership with Aggies and Pompey Military Kids to secure a community planter space in the recently revamped gardens of Victoria Park, Portsmouth. With the help of award winning garden designer and mental health advocate, Leigh Johnstone aka The @beardygardener the children and young people (C&YP) worked hard to design and ‘plant up’ the space. This will be an ongoing project, with the C&YP regularly updating the space with seasonal decorations and maintaining the plants.

We were delighted to fund Never Such Innocence to deliver school workshops across the UK that encouraged and amplified the voices of Service children. Never Such Innocence have a team of creative practitioners who visited schools in Wales, Preston, Scotland and the Southwest to hold workshops in poetry, art, speech and songwriting. The workshops provided 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 were not just for military children, they were a great way for all children to learn about what military life looks like for their classmates and peers.

Bicentenary:

We would like to say a massive thank you to Andy Jackson MBE and his partner Helen who very generously turned Andy’s 80th birthday party into a fundraising event for The Naval Children’s Charity. Held at The Ex-Serviceman’s Club in Havant, Andy and Helen raised an amazing amount for us, and we are so incredibly grateful. Thank you both so very much, you are officially inducted into our NCC200 Bicentenary ‘Wall of Fame’.

As part of our bicentenary celebrations, we are delighted to present our brand new range of limited edition ‘NCC 200’ merchandise. If you would like to have a look at our fantastic array you can see all the options available here.

Resources:

We pride ourselves on the wide range and selection of resources we offer our Naval children, from our ‘Doing Distance’ online worksheets, to our ‘Time Penguin’ and ‘Time Rabbit’ books with their knitted companions.

We are about to launch our new range of Wellbeing Packs, in partnership with The Naval Families Federation as a follow on to our Books for All offer. Keep your eyes on our social media channels for the launch of the new and improved offer!

Work Experience Opportunities:

Whatever your young person is considering for the future, work experience is always a valuable addition to any CV! 

However, we know work experience can be hard to come by, or fit around existing studies, which is why we’ve teamed up with Springpod to offer young people aged 13+ a whole host of free, online work experience opportunities. The platform also hosts lots of helpful videos about apprenticeships, T-levels and other qualification routes.

Young people can register for FREE by heading to Sign Up | Springpod

Please input The Naval Children’s Charity as the School/College when registering.