Forces Children Scotland are delighted to share new tailored digital support to help children and young people overcome unique deployment challenges. Find out more in this blog…
Deployment can sometimes bring feelings of uncertainty, anxiety, and isolation. Consultations with children and young people from armed forces families, led by Forces Children Scotland, evidenced a need for a child-friendly resource with easily accessible information.
Judith Blair, Learning and Development worker for Forces Children Scotland had this to say about the creation of the new resource:
“Funding from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust and BFBS Big Salute has enabled us to work directly with children and young people from armed forces communities to co-develop the resource. By listening specifically to their lived experience, we have been able to create a resource which understands the needs of this community.”
The resource is an interactive deployment rollercoaster, which provides lots of information, advice, and downloadable resources to help understand how children and young people may feel at various points of the Deployment Cycle.
The Deployment Rollercoaster allows them to see that all emotions are valid and it’s ok to feel different emotions throughout the deployment cycle. The rollercoaster is supported by accessible resources for children, young people and parents to help support their child’s mental health and wellbeing at each stage of the ride.
Judith Blair continues:
“The Deployment Rollercoaster has been an engaging, fun and extremely rewarding project to work on.
During our initial sessions we engaged with five local authorities including Fife, Moray, Edinburgh, West Dunbartonshire and Argyll and Bute. These local authorities were selected as they contain some of the highest concentrated areas of military families in Scotland. In the final stage of production, we had a core group of five young people who helped finalise the design and make any necessary changes.
The young people tried out various protypes and discussed different ways the rollercoaster could be displayed on screen. They decided on an interactive, moving roller coaster cart on the website to make it fun, child-friendly and accessible to young people.
With the launch of the Deployment Rollercoaster, we hope that it will support children and young people with their mental health and wellbeing and will prove to be a successful and trusted resource to use in the future.”
A young person involved in the creation of the Deployment Rollercoaster said:
“It feels great knowing that we will make a change in other people’s lives and that what we have been working towards is happening and we are a part of it! I hope that we can help young people, especially in armed forces families, not stress as much about their parent being deployed, and find interesting and useful ways to relieve some of that stress.
I would like other people to learn and understand that we aren’t weak just because we get upset or stressed when our parent gets deployed, we are strong people, and I hope this deployment pack makes it enjoyable and relaxing to use as they go through this difficult time!”
The Deployment Rollercoaster can be accessed here: The Deployment Rollercoaster – Forces Children Scotland
Details of Forces Children Scotland’s Learning Offer can be found here: Learning offer for educators and professionals – Forces Children Scotland
