Sporting Force is a veterans charity that works predominantly with professional football clubs. Our charity is supported by the EFL, LMA and the Premier League. Sporting Force has a simple mission to help ex-service men and women make the transition into life as a civilian through placements in the sports industry. Military life is active by working with sports organisations we can offer opportunities that appeal, ignite a passion and help create a new life outside of the services.

By working with football clubs across the UK offering education, exercise and social events to help relieve mental health and social isolation. We ensure that all the opportunities on offer are inclusive and can be adapted to meet the needs of our disabled veterans.

Sporting Force can offer mental health awareness workshops to help the clubs with integration and support going forward of veterans with PTSD and other mental health issues. Research has suggested that the two best self-help strategies are exercise and social support. For anxiety sufferers exercise helps reduce worry, panic and other symptoms.

Sporting Force offers sport, exercise, camaraderie and being part of a team again, things that veterans all miss. Sporting Force in partnership with the football clubs place wounded, injured and sick veterans into training programmes and work. The exact areas veterans will operate in will be decided by the clubs, Sporting Force and the veterans themselves.

I am sure you appreciates the impact that a programme using football to support the mental health and wellbeing of armed forces veterans would have. Harnessing the power of our national game to assist young service men and women once they have left the armed forces helps them adjust to civilian life. Our Veterans Onside program builds on this and goes further to help and support veterans opening routes into employment in addition to the improvements in health and mental wellbeing. Over 600 veterans have attended premier league football matches and rugby matches as the club’s guests.

By working with us any sports club can create opportunities for those individuals who might not otherwise engage or be aware of the welfare and mental health services available to them including football coaching qualifications and involvement in the club.

They Utilise community programmes clubs already operate rather than creating extra programmes. Taking part with civilians will help the transition for the veterans rather than a dedicated programme that can be isolating. We have veterans currently volunteering in Kicks and Outreach projects in clubs. Some have attended Employability Courses in football clubs such as Arsenal and QPR.

Last summer and this summer we have placed veterans as Team Leaders and Support Workers in the NCS (National Citizen Service) in seasonal roles. More recently with the opening of the Veterans Hub in Newton Aycliffe we have delivered coaching courses to support the delivery of Sport and PE in schools, Mental Health First Aid (Armed Forces Community) for veterans but also employers and support organisations. We also run a bi-monthly Veterans and Services Breakfast Club that all armed forces, emergency services serving and veterans can attend for banter and a meal.

Current major projects include a Recruitment Drive with 50 positions (further 200 later this summer) for Tottenham Hotspurs and the creation of a Para Snow Sports Team with a trip to Austria in April.

Our veterans are predominantly aged between 20-50 years and may well have served in Afghanistan, Iraq, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Bosnia or Kosovo. On leaving the Forces, some veterans find that they have no “home” to return to. Friends from school, family members and old mates have lived a very different life. They feel even more isolated because they no longer fit in with former colleagues still in service.

Deprived of the camaraderie, excitement and action a military lifestyle had given them and which they were used to, they have nothing to shape their lives. For some this change in their life means that bouts of heavy drinking, relationship breakdown, trouble with the police and feelings of isolation and despair are all too common.

Some veterans do not feel valued by society, a feeling that is most evident in the young veterans group and amongst veterans of recent conflicts in Iraq, the Balkans and Afghanistan. Often it takes a crisis before these proud veterans consider asking for help. Often, they are too proud to speak out, feeling they must suffer in silence. A common feeling is that they are not properly understood or supported by the wider community. Veterans don’t expect special treatment – just to be treated fairly.

This year we are finalists for the prestigious Soldiering On Awards with Awards on the 20th of April in Westminster. Sporting Forces is funded through grants and fundraising. We have a big one in July at the St Johns Football Club in Bishop Auckland. We are looking for donations and sponsors for the event. We are also looking for teams to play against the veterans and serving personnel.

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