Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust Opens Place Based Grants for Families (UK)

Portfolio grants support local projects addressing separation and relocation for serving families and reservists

The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust has opened the Together for Service Families: Placed Based Grants Programme, offering portfolio grants of up to £350,000 for location-focused projects supporting families of serving personnel and reservists within the UK.

The grant sits within the Trust’s 2024-27 strategy and aligns with the Covenant Fund Funding Framework theme of ensuring armed forces communities are not disadvantaged. It aims to mitigate the impact of service-related separation and relocation, including deployment, exercises and training, unaccompanied postings, weekending and long-distance commuting, repeated short-notice time away and moving home.

Projects must be delivered in a specific place over up to 3.5 years, with up to six months intended for a discovery and development phase. Applicants are expected to demonstrate how people with lived experience will help plan the work and how delivery will respond to emerging needs.

The Trust expects proposals to deliver outcomes including reduced loneliness and isolation during periods of separation or relocation, improved mental health and wellbeing through preventative, early help or targeted support and stronger local understanding of what types of assistance work well for serving families. Additional outcomes include support for families to navigate separation, reintegration and relocation, plus improved collaboration and streamlined pathways through stronger partnerships and better service integration.

Applications are open to UK-based registered charities with substantial recent experience supporting armed forces communities, registered for at least three years at the time of application, and to local authorities. Collaboration is a requirement, with applicants expected to bring together statutory and non-statutory partners and local base representatives where relevant.

Eligible costs include staff time, volunteer expenses, travel, session materials and equipment, accessibility costs, overheads, partner costs, plus evaluation and learning activities.

There is a two-stage application process.