Spotlight on Wales: Female Veterans Alliance
Did you know there are 15,970 female veterans registered as living in Wales and 251,400 female veterans in the UK?
We are Kelly Farr and Lisa Rawlings, both female Royal Air Force veterans - Kelly served 17 years as an Avionics Engineer and left in 2020 and Lisa served 25 years in Flight Operations and left in 2014. Kelly now runs an award-winning mental health & wellbeing training company, called YourNorth, and Lisa works as Talent Acquition for Sierra Nevada Corporation Mission Systems UK.
Even though we were both in the RAF for a very long time, our paths didn’t cross until 2021 and we immediately clicked due to our vision of raising the profile and championing women that are currently serving, or that had served in the UK Armed Forces.
One of the issues we wanted to initially address was that the veteran hubs we had both visited were predominately an ‘old boys club’. So in June 2021, we launched Caerphilly Veterans Support Hub (CVSH) – during our first session on a sunny Saturday morning we had 4 veterans around a table. Fast forward to now and we have 80+ veterans and their family members in attendance each week. What’s very important to mention is that a large portion of our members are female veterans – which is unheard of in other veteran hubs! We have asked the women why now and why our hub?...they tell us it’s because they have female veterans at the helm!
Due to the success of launching a thriving, inclusive Hub in Caerphilly, we launched further veteran support hubs in Monmouthshire & Torfaen, both with 50+ veterans in attendance each week and many of the members are female veterans.
Following on from the ground breaking feat of establishing multiple support Hubs throughout Wales that have a large number of female members, we knew there was more work to be done.
We both witnessed first-hand the impact life in the Armed Forces (both negative and positive) had on the veterans in the communities around them.
What became evident was a substantial gap in the support for female veterans in comparison to their male counterparts; even where support was available to both genders there was a clear disparity in awareness and support in equity; a product of male biased research. The lack of research tailored towards female veterans was both sizeable and worrisome, allowing for those affected to slip through support gaps, resulting in feelings of isolation and abandonment; significantly impacting their mental health.
In April 2022 we founded the Female Veterans Alliance (FVA); a national non-profit organisation that aims to empower and support females who have served in the UK Armed Forces. Our mission is to provide advocacy, resources, and a supportive community for female veterans. We recognise the unique challenges faced by females in the military and veteran community, and seek to address these by promoting gender equity, advocating for policy changes, and fostering a sense of belonging and sisterhood among female veterans.
The FVA also raises awareness about the contributions and experiences of women in the military, highlighting their achievements and addressing issues such as military sexual trauma, access to healthcare, and transition to civilian life.
We don’t focus on the ‘doom and gloom’; we feel passionately about championing the success stories from the plethora of incredible women that have left the military, to also inspire the next generation of serving personnel and to share best practice.
In June 2022 we hosted our inaugural ‘Female Veterans’ workshop; we had 43 female veterans in a room in Caerphilly, South Wales. We discussed the 6 key themes from the Veterans Strategy and compiled a report outlining the findings and recommendations; “Female veterans: The forgotten and invisible servicewomen of our Armed Forces”. What was very apparent was the growing recognition that female veterans encounter distinct challenges during their transition to civilian life. These challenges can include issues related to healthcare, mental health, employment, housing, and social integration. Female veterans often have unique needs and experiences that require targeted support and resources and our 2022 report focused on what external agencies and organisations must do to support this incredible cohort of women. For example, there are 15,790 female veterans in Wales, and there is no female peer mentor in NHS Veterans Wales to support this cohort with their mental health!? One of the other issues that came up repeatedly during the workshop was some ladies felt the resettlement course was not fit for purpose and called for a female specific course available for Service leavers, to discuss the challenges around menopause, childcare etc.
We started out as 2 women wanting to champion other women; this community that we had formed as a group in a voluntary capacity quickly grew arms and legs after the extraordinary success of the June workshop and the subsequent outpouring of support and requests for ‘more’ on social media!
In October 2023 we hosted our second workshop, in Wrexham, to gather further information for our next report of findings and recommendations, and we have recently published our second report.
Our next workshop (andf the final one for Wales) will be held in the Village hotel Swansea on 26th September.
Additionally we have a stakeholder day planned for Nov to be held in Cardiff. Details to be confirmed.
“Ladies, when you take your seat at the table, make room for more chairs.”