COMMUNITY
Forces Support is a UK-based
charity focused on meeting
practical needs for families
that have lost a serviceman
during combat.
Forces Support
Forces Support was set up in honour
of brave service personnel who have
lost their lives in current and recent
conflicts, or while serving within
these times.
The charity was set up in March 2010
after the co-founder, Bill McCance
searched relentlessly for a charity to
provide practical assistance for the
wife of a serviceman killed in
Afghanistan in 2009, but discovered
that this type of practical support
was not available.
The charity serves the United
Kingdom and provides general
maintenance around the home and
garden – the work the lost family
member would have done for his or
her family. Professional builders and
maintenance personnel carry out the
work required. Applications are
accepted from parents, widows,
widowers and children of bereaved
personnel.
No job is deemed too small or too
big, and can range from fitting a
mirror, cutting a hedge, painting a
small area, to redoing a hallway, or a
whole garden area.
The founder had no experience of
the third sector and its funding
streams when he started the charity,
so he began by creating a business
that would in turn support the
charities work indefinitely.
To do this he opened shops that sell
donated goods and in the first three
years, the charity was run with the
proceeds. His work as recognised
and in 2013, Forces Support was the
Winner of the Foundation for
Entrepreneurs: Fast Growth Award
2013; a finalist for the Ernst & Young
Entrepreneur of the year awards;
and also won the Great British
Entrepreneur of the year awards.
Forces Support is continually aiming
to improve its services and a second
research project it commissioned
passed t