Sponsored by The Forces in Mind Trust
About this Award…
An award to honour a group of people, team or organisation that has demonstrated an enduring commitment to a collaborative approach, engaging with each other and other external organisations to support the sector within the wider military community.
The judges will be looking for evidence of:
- An engaging story behind the people, team or organisation, why they came together, the identified needs they are meeting and quantified demands for the service.
- What challenges (both operational and personal) have been faced and how they have been overcome.
- The results for the armed forces community have been achieved through commitment and a collaborative approach.
- The different or unique characteristics of the teamwork can set standards of best practice across the sector and therefore makes this nomination special.
This award is suitable for a team.
Meet our 2021 Winner!
Greater Manchester Police
A team of 35 Armed Forces leads who are predominantly veterans themselves work across all districts of Greater Manchester to provide community support.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) services a community of 2,800,000 people, of which around 250,000 are members of the Armed Forces community (AFC). Officers interact with these people daily – as colleagues, vulnerable victims, witnesses, and also as offenders.
A team of 35 Armed Forces leads who are predominantly veterans themselves work across all districts to provide community support. It has resulted in GMP receiving interest from many other forces and even organisations outside of policing. The group has supported UK police forces as far afield as Jersey, as well as other organisations including but not limited to the BBC, Cadent Gas and Mitie. The group helps other police forces to introduce a minimum national standard for the Armed Forces community who have had contact with the police anywhere in the UK.
Chris Sykes, Assistant Chief Constable:
“Thank you for the Soldiering On Awards for recognising our hard work. I do feel a little bit guilty accepting this award when it’s the staff – the police officers on the ground – doing the hard work. We do an awful lot of work trying to support the Armed Forces Community, both those that serve with Greater Manchester Police, and those we support in the community.Inspector Jim Jones:
“I can’t tell you what it means! We’ve strived to try and become the most Armed Forces friendly force in the country, and when we received the gold award in the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme, we knew we needed to continue that momentum. An award from the community we’re trying to support is as good as it gets!”Previous Winners: 2020 – Sussex, Kent & Medway Armed Forces Network Team 2019 – Unforgotten Forces 2018 – Cobseo Housing Cluster 2017 – Forces Friends Project
