Hello,
Last week I had one of those days when I felt a real milestone had been achieved.
I joined key military and civilian leaders at the newly remodelled MOD Lyneham to represent the council in signing the refreshed Wiltshire Armed Forces Covenant. It was a thought provoking occasion and was far more than the signing of a really important document. It was about the pledge and commitment from the county’s key organisations, including ours, to work together to do all that we can to support the Armed Forces.
We are proud of our long association with the military, and rightly so, and I often tell people that Wiltshire’s unique selling point is its relationship with the military. It’s what makes us unique – we are a military county.
The covenant itself is a commitment that we as the local
authority, together with businesses, the public and voluntary sectors will work
with the military to bring our collective knowledge, experience and expertise
to provide help and advice to members of the Armed Forces and to benefit our
county both economically and in local communities.
In turn, the covenant encourages the Armed Forces to support
their community and promote activity which encourages integration with civilian
life.
Given our special relationship with the military, Wiltshire
should be leading the way with the covenant and we were one of the first
counties to sign up, so I was really pleased at the strength of support for the
refreshed covenant, which encourages businesses to sign up too. Businesses have
a huge role in this as they can offer employment to skilled Armed Forces
leavers and their spouses, as well as supporting reservists with the time they
need.
Our relationship with the military will only get stronger, as we welcome 4,000 service personnel, along with 3,200 family members, over the next few years as part of the Army Basing Programme. We’ve worked hard to develop this special partnership, and we will continue to do so, because it is so important to Wiltshire.
This week we’ll be celebrating a different kind of
partnership – the partnership we have with businesses, and how we can work
together to help the next generation of elite athletes.
Since 2012 we have worked to connect businesses with our rising sports stars and provide a foundation fund that enables grants to be allocated to help them on their journey to stardom.
Our fourth annual Wiltshire Business and Sports Gala Dinner takes place in the Atrium on Thursday.
All of the money raised from the businesses that support the event goes into the Funding Future Olympians and Paralympians foundation fund, which helps local sports stars either with an elite grant or a scholarship grant – allocated to our younger sports people aged 8 to 16.
Our Wiltshire athletes have had amazing success so far and many are now well known household names and they have instilled a huge sense of pride in our county as they represent us on the worldwide stage.
We know there are many more stars out there – who may just need a little bit of financial support to help them get where they’re going. That’s what we’ll be doing on Thursday, when we present 11 more grants that
I know will make a real difference to these athletes – and, I’m sure, that we’ll be joining them in celebrating the achievement of their own milestones very soon.
Jane
