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Shared Parenting Scotland

New support from the Veterans’ Foundation

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Shared Parenting Scotland has been awarded £50,000 over two years by the Veterans’ Foundation to support and develop our services for veterans and their children.

This award will fund the work of Mark Downie our Veterans/Armed Forces Manager in supporting veterans facing issues related to separation from their spouse/partner and contact with their children.

As well as taking direct enquiries through our helpline he is now holding a fortnightly drop-in session at Lothian Veterans Centre in Dalkeith, starting on the afternoon of Tuesday 16th April.

Regular changes of deployment, an operational necessity in the armed forces, can place particular stresses on some families. As Shared Parenting Scotland’s general work has become better known an increasing number of forces parents have reached out through our helpline or have attended group meetings.

Over the last few years Shared Parenting Scotland has been working closely with veteran and current serving parents – supporting them through advocacy work and through our successful training programmes, ‘New Ways For Families’ and ‘Love loss and living: managing the emotions of separation from children’.

Mark, a former Royal Marine, says, “I’ll be helping with advocacy support for veteran and serving parents especially when dealing with statutory bodies such as social work, local authorities and mediation services which are not always aware of how service life works.
We are not duplicating the support offered by the other veteran organisations but are are using our specialist knowledge of separation and child contact issues to give extra help to the increasing number of veteran and military parents that our partners refer to us.”

The Veterans’ Foundation raises its money through the Veterans’ Lottery and donations. Since inception in July 2016, it has given over £21 million through grants to nearly 450 unique organisations, many of them small to medium-sized and very worthwhile charities which are helping members of the Armed Forces community who are in need. The charities and other organisations they have helped include those tackling the challenges of mental and physical injuries, homelessness, unemployment, and children’s loss of parents while serving.

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Shared Parenting Scotland has been awarded £50,000 over two years by the Veterans Foundation to support its services for veterans and serving families and their children. The award will support the work of Shared Parenting Scotland’s Veterans Manager, Mark Downie, on work related to divorce and separation from a spouse/partner and contact with their children. Regular changes of deployment, an operational necessity in the armed forces, can place particular stresses on some families. As Shared Parenting Scotland’s general work has become better known an increasing number of forces parents have reached out through our helpline or have attended group meetings. Over the last few years Shared Parenting Scotland has been working closely with veteran and current serving parents - supporting them through advocacy work and through our successful training programmes, ‘New Ways For Families’ and ‘Love loss and living: managing the emotions of separation from children’. The Veterans Foundation grant will pay the salary costs of the Shared Parenting Scotland Veteran’s Manager, Mark Downie, to spend three days a week supporting individuals and raising awareness of our services in veterans’ and serving personnel networks. Mark, a former Royal Marine, says, “I’ll be helping with advocacy support for veteran and serving parents especially when dealing with statutory bodies such as social work, local authorities and mediation services which are not always aware of how service life works. We are not duplicating the support offered by the other veteran organisations. We are using our specialist knowledge of separation and child contact issues to give extra help to the increasing number of veteran and military parents that our partners refer to us.” The Veterans' Foundation has been set up to help fund charities and other charitable organisations that are helping serving and former members of the Armed Forces, and their dependants, who are in need. The Veterans' Foundation raises its money through the Veterans’ Lottery and donations. Since inception in July 2016, it has given over £11million through over 600 grants to over 300 unique organisations, many of them small to medium-sized and very worthwhile charities, which are helping members of the Armed Forces community who are in need. Forecasts indicate the Veterans’ Foundation will make grants totalling £4.4 million this financial year. The charities and other organisations they have helped include those tackling the challenges of mental and physical injuries, homelessness, unemployment, and children’s loss of parents while serving and remembrance.