Liverpool Armed Forces Forum event
LIVERPOOL’s Armed Forces Forum will be holding its fourth meeting next week.
The forum, which was set up in January 2020, is a platform for organisations offering services to people who have left the Armed Forces and their families as well as those who are still serving.
Next week’s meeting will be held on Thursday 15 April, from 10.30am-noon and will be held online, via Zoom.
The theme of this session is “Making a home in civilian society.”
Organisations that have not attended previous forum meetings are invited to attend – as well as those who have been to previous meetings – and booking must be made in advance via Eventbrite
Please note, the session is not open to members of the public.
Speakers at April’s event include:
- Dr Steve Rolfe – Research Fellow, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling
- Jenny Ward – Policy and Covenant Adviser and Health Policy Lead, Naval Families Federation.
The event will be chaired by Colleen Martin, Liverpool City Council’s Armed Forces strategic lead.
Liverpool City Council leads a long-established strategic group for Armed Forces Communities however the forum was set up to capture the variety of services and support available to the Armed Forces community in the city. Liverpool City Council currently holds the Armed Forces Covenant gold award of the Employer Recognition Scheme and also hosts the website Service Leavers Liverpool – www.serviceleaversliverpool.co.uk
Colleen Martin, Liverpool City Council’s Armed Forces strategic lead, said: “Securing a home is a vital part of supporting former members of the Armed Forces to start their new lives out of uniform.
“There can be a perception that ex-service personnel can often fall into homelessness, but in reality this is usually not the case and they are just as likely to own their own home as the rest of the population.
“We know in Liverpool that our partners such as Veterans HQ and Shelter do incredible work supporting service leavers with housing issues but we always want to do even better. Next week’s forum is a chance to share ideas and to explore what we can all do to address the wider needs of service leavers as they start to build a new home in Liverpool.
“I would urge any organisation that was unable to attend our previous meetings to get involved next week – we really want to hear what you think.”