The Hull FC Community Foundation will be providing additional support to local veterans with a new ‘Positive Futures’ programme, which will branch out into four separate projects.
Thanks to further funding from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust, the weekly ‘Positive Futures’ sessions will offer practical activities and support to male and female veterans that have served in recent conflicts and who are living in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire.
With projects like ‘Part of the Team’ predominantly engaging older veterans aged 55+, ‘Positive Futures’ has been developed by a group of younger veterans accessing ‘FC Veterans’ physical activity sessions who are keen to reach peers who may have been left isolated and vulnerable by the pandemic and now require targeted support to aid their re-integration.
The programme will be split into four segments:
‘Connect Club’: Funding received from the Armed Forces Covenant Trust Fund will support a group of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans to become peer mentors who will be empowered to deliver this two-hour session from the MKM Stadium Community Hub on a weeknight. Involving pool, table tennis and darts, this will seek to build the foundations for veterans to connect and build comradeship with their peers.
‘Double Club’: This will look to implement a fitness-based approach to the wider programme, with 40 minutes of gym-based activity followed by 40 minutes of group-based resilience conversation. Whilst the fitness component reinforces healthy lifestyles and allows participants to build friendships with those with a shared intertest, the opportunity to have prevention/early intervention conversations about mental health in a relaxed, non-clinical environment will equip participants with greater resilience, working closely with partners such as Hull & East Yorkshire Mind.
‘Active Families’: A weekly family session will be held at the Community Foundation’s Youth Performance Centre, to fundamentally focus on using the power of sport to support inter-family connections. Children and young people will be encouraged to take part in sport and physical activity, whilst parents will have use of the facility’s social rooms to further their relationships with peers. This activity will be veteran-led, with support provided to facilitate new activities wherever requested.
‘Unite Together’: Hull FC Community Foundation is a proud advocate of female sport and as such, have purposefully sought to include a female sport and physical activity for female veterans. Led by the Foundation’s female wellbeing lead, veterans will have access to a unique ‘Unite’ programme which will empower them to participate in activities which improve physical wellbeing and mental fitness.
Ex-serviceman Steve Sampher, the Hull FC Community Foundation’s Pathways Officer, said: “Having previously served myself, I understand the appetite for supportive programmes for veterans to help alleviate any mental stress and feelings of loneliness.
“What the Hull FC Community Foundation has established for veterans over the last 18 months has been fantastic.
“We are now looking to enhance our services for veterans, becoming even more inclusive and widening our scope for the level of support we can provide. I think it’s fantastic that Hull & East Yorkshire Mind are helping out, particularly with mental health issues being so prevalent in the current climate.”
For more information on the ‘Positive Futures’ programme, please email steve.sampher@hullfc.com.
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