A grant of £5,700 from the Army Benevolent Fund is helping to fund Shared Parenting Scotland to provide training and support for military families after separation or relationship breakdown.
Military marriages can experience strain when one member is deployed, and military life can place stressors on relationships. Shared Parenting Scotland has supported former and serving soldiers for several years and has a dedicated website for veterans.
Shared Parenting Scotland aims to help parents provide a healthy and supportive environment to raise their children after separation, promoting their care and responsibilities as equally as possible. The charity offers online training, coaching, one-to-one support, information and advice, which puts the child’s welfare and wellbeing as central to parenting.
With our grant, Shared Parenting Scotland will provide subsidised places on its two key training programmes. Through a mix of advice, online training, group work and one-to-one coaching sessions, these programmes will help improve emotional skills and positive communication between separating military parents regarding their children’s welfare.
The charity’s Veterans and Armed Forces Manager is a former Royal Marine who is able to build strong working relationships with Armed Forces parents using his understanding of their specific challenges.
The charity’s annual survey shows that 61% of its parents felt better informed in maintaining their relationship with their children. Most participants in its training programmes felt an improvement in their mental health and are more hopeful about the future.
Brigadier (Ret’d) Peter Monteith, Chief Operating Officer, Army Benevolent Fund, said:
“We fund several charities that specialise in mental health, welfare and emotional support to parents and children, whatever their circumstances. We were pleased to fund Shared Parenting Scotland this year to provide military families experiencing separation or relationship breakdown with the high-quality training and support offered by the charity.”