The William Aldridge Foundation

FORCES SUPPORT CHARITY have kindly invited the involvement of the WILLIAM ALDRIDGE FOUNDATION to assist with a survey and research paper being drawn up to help identify the areas of support that is currently missing for bereaved Military Families.

All family members incl. Parents, husbands, wives, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles will be given the opportunity to get involved in defining how this research is conducted to best benefit all concerned, by attending a 'Focus' meeting to be held at the University of Wolverhampton....

This is a great opportunity for those living with the difficulties of bereavement to have their issues included in the research.

FORCES SUPPORT PRESS RELEASE:

Forces Support Charity (Charity No:1136954) was set up to provide practical help for families of service personnel lost to current war.

A surviving wife, now the sole parent for their children, finds herself having to grieve whilst address the tasks her partner used to take responsibility for. Crushed vertebrae make it impossible for her to manage the garden and the children’s play area that their father had maintained so well for them. As the garden grows out of control, the pressure created by its untidy and increasingly unsafe state becomes an additional element of grief and difficulty when her heart and mind crave to find solace and recovery.

We will provide the practical help to resolve this problem. Those jobs that may now become of larger significance since the lost loved one has gone, a daily reminder that makes grieving all the more complex and painful, Forces Support Charity will help to resolve them.

A mother, used to doing a big ‘stocking-up’ shopping trip when her daughter came home on leave, finds an empty cupboard, a stark reflection of her own feelings and a task she doesn’t really know how to overcome.

Forces Support Charity organises volunteers and funding; whichever is needed.

If you have lost a family member or know of someone in your community that has been left bereft by the current Afghanistan conflict and would like our help, please contact us by phone: 01568 614146, email: forcessupport@btconnect.com or visit our website: www.forcessupport.org.uk for more information.

We are holding a focus group in partnership with Wolverhampton University to help determine the questions that should be asked to determine where we can best provide help. This will mould how our funds raised will be distributed, either by us or other organisations doing excellent work, none of which we want to duplicate and will endeavour to work in conjunction with, making grants available to them too.

If you have lost a family member to war and would like to take part in the focus group, please call us. We can arrange transport or pay travelling expenses and cover child minding fees. The University have kindly offered light refreshments, though dates are yet to be arranged. We would like to get this underway by the end of March if possible so it would be great if people could contact us promptly.

Yours faithfully

Cllr. Brig. Peter Jones CBE