HMS Oardacious and Huggable Heroes

HMS Oardacious’ Submarine Service Mental Health Fund launches its "Huggable Heroes" initiative, aiming to bring comfort to children of Submariners.

As part of Month of the Military Child, HMS Oardacious is launching its new “Huggable Heroes” initiative in conjunction with a film highlighting some of the challenges faced by children with a Submariner parent. (Scroll down for film)

In the film, Sophie Fraser (Families Representative for the HMS Oardacious Management Committee) shares her experience as the spouse of a Submariner with two young children and explains some of the ways that HMS Oardacious is working with other organisations and experts to advocate for this unique community.  Sophie’s husband, Callum Fraser, rowed across the Atlantic in both the 2019 and 2022 HMS Oardacious teams, and Sophie has been intrinsically involved in the project since it was created in 2018. 

HMS Oardacious’ Submarine Service Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund is delighted to announce its funding of a pilot project purchasing 250 Huggable Heroes® vouchers for the children of Submariners currently assigned to Submarines . Huggable Heroes are cuddly toys printed with a photograph of their serving parent, aiming to help children deal with the challenges of separation during the deployment period.  During the trial project, those eligible will be contacted by the Royal Navy to provide more details on how to claim their voucher.

Sophie says: “Members of our organisation have each experienced many deployments and the impact these can have on Mental Health. As such, the team are incredibly passionate about being ambassadors for Mental Health and Wellbeing for both serving personnel and their families and that it is as important to support the families as it is the serving personnel within the Royal Navy. As such, one of the aims of the HMS Oardacious – Submarine Service Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund is dedicated to finding ways to support children of serving personnel who can have varying reactions to a deployment.  The Huggable Heroes® toys represent their parents and give children a tangible reminder of their parent looks like, so they can feel close to them even though in reality they’re a long way away. As we celebrate Month of the Military Child, it was the perfect time to announce the pilot project”.

Cdr Matthew Main, Marine Engineer Officer and Skipper of the HMS Oardacious 2023 Rowing Crew, explains the importance of supporting Submariner families.  “We’re trained for it, when we deploy we’re with other submariners who are literally in the same boat… but our families haven’t signed up for it necessarily, certainly the children haven’t.  Charities and organisations like HMS Oardacious are there to helping to look after your family and to support them through a difficult period.”

Sophie is joined in the film by Helen Mason, Occupational and EMDR Therapist and Co-Founder of The Submarine Mermaid Postal Service Project, a first of its kind project to support young children during submarine deployments where a parent, carer or relative is on deployment to contact the shore.  Helen’s involvement in the film highlights the importance of peer support and the resourcefulness of our Submarine family’s community. 

The HMS Oardacious – Submarine Service Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund, supported by RNRMC, is committed to funding resources, projects and events that support the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Submariners and their families during the deployment cycle.  Deployment cycles are a challenging period for everyone involved, not just when the serving person is at sea but also in the pre and post deployment period and the Submarine Service places significant demand on the time of their personnel which can impact their ability to have a normal routine, even when the platform is alongside. The fund is always interested in requests for grants which can help reduce the Mental Health and Wellbeing impact of this part of Royal Navy life.

HMS Oardacious welcome grant requests, for more application guidance and eligibility criteria, visit https://www.rnrmc.org.uk/apply-grant/hms-oardacious-fund.

HMS Oardacious have a website, www.hmsoardacious.com and can be found on Instagram, Facebook and X @HMSOardacious

Huggable Heroes® are an award winning toy, lovingly handmade in Norfolk, England.  The Heroes fit perfectly under little arms to carry around and they are small enough for older children to tuck into school bags.  Find out more at www.huggableheroes.uk.

Youth Voice Survey 2024

Tri-Service Youth Voice Survey 2024

Led by the Tri-Service Youth Voice Steering Group, this survey aims to gather the opinions of as many youth voices as possible. Whether you are addressing the challenges of frequent relocations, social barriers, accessing further education, or work opportunities, every voice matters. The survey is anonymous, ensuring young people may express themselves freely.  

The survey will capture military children’s perspectives, insights, and suggestions. After all, being a part of a Service family can have unique experiences and challenges. The voices of our military youth are vital in shaping the support services and initiatives provided to military families.  

Help us amplify the voices of our Armed Forces youth community by completing the survey today!  

Don’t miss out on the survey’s closing date, Friday 31 May 2024.  

If you want to be involved in your area’s youth voice, then please contact the MOD today.  

Month of the Military Child

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

Purple Up! Day is a fantastic opportunity if you would like to show your support for us and maybe even join our #NCC200 Club by fundraising for us on the day. If you would like to participate, please wear purple clothing to show your support, you may also like to get your school/organisation involved, whilst fundraising for us. You can download our poster here for further information. Send your photos to: ncc@navalchildrenscharity.org.uk, use the hashtags #MotMC and #ncc200 on social media to share your activities and support, then donate here.

Keep an eye on our socials for further updates and developments!

Does your child have special educational needs?

Does your child live with a disability?

If the answer is yes then it’s very possible that you are feeling worried, overwhelmed, isolated, confused, frustrated…the list could go on and on! Even if everything is currently going well for your child, you may feel that you would like to gain deeper understanding of how to support them or maybe there is an issue where having some different strategies could make life at little easier?

Whatever your situation, no matter what the need or disability, navigating the world of SEND (special educational needs and disability) can feel, at best, challenging, at worst, impossible, so it can help to know where to go for support, information, and guidance.

There is lots of support out there, but it is difficult to know where to go. Every English Local Authority has a duty to publish the services they provide for children with SEND via a Local Offer, so if you google your Local authority and Local Offer you should find this page. As part of their duty the Local Authority also need to provide a SEND information, advice, and support service (SENDIASS). The details for this will also be found on the Local Offer.  There are also many organisations that can provide support with your child’s specific needs or disability or for particular challenges you may be facing however despite all this available help families tell us   it can still be really difficult to know where to start or how to navigate through the system to find the right assistance.

That’s why the Naval Children Charity is partnering with KIDS to offer families support via their KIDS Family Support Online SEND Family Support . Drawing on KIDS experience of supporting children/young people with disabilities and their families for over 50 years, this support is only a phone or video call away.

KIDS Family Support Online provides you with a variety of support options depending on your situation and what you need. Via the website you can book a free initial consultation which allows you the time to talk about your situation and the support you are looking for. A follow-up email, with the detail of the support that can be offered will then be provided. Once you are happy to go ahead, KIDS will make you an online appointment with a member of their specialist team. As part of the partnership offer with Kids, the NCC may be able to support you with the costs of the ongoing specialist support depending on your circumstances, so it is important you let them know you are a Naval family (Serving or Veteran, RN, RM, Reserves or RFA).  They can then refer you to us for assessment for funding.

If you would rather email than speak on the phone you are very welcome to do so via the SEND Family Support.

KIDS are there for whatever your need may be, for example, assistance with benefits applications, working through the complexities of an Educational Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or emotional support relating to one issue or your whole situation. If they cannot help, they will help you find someone who can.  To access SEND family support please contact https://familysupport.kids.org.uk/ and quote NCCKIDS010

To find out more about how the Naval Children’s Charity can support you and your child please contact our Neurodiversity Lead, Cheryl Owens Cheryl.owens@navalchildrenscharity.org.uk

 

Royal Naval Association

Once Navy, Always Navy. The RNA is a wonderful organisation for shipmates and oppos. There are branches all around the UK and we are so grateful to the many of them that send us in donations.

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