Cobseo, the Confederation of Service Charities, is a membership organisation representing, promoting and furthering the interests of the Armed Forces community. In response to the Covid pandemic we were asked by Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) to provide communications support to Cobseo members to highlight and increase awareness of the work Armed Forces charities and veterans had been doing to support communities.

We worked closely with the Cobseo team to source strong media stories, and then liaised with member organisations to build packages and identify suitable opportunities.

Each story had a community focus and demonstrated how the charities had adapted and supported their service users and the wider community since the start of the pandemic. The media approach varied for each organisation and we achieved coverage across national and regional print, online and broadcast titles through photocalls, feature pitches and filming opportunities.

Throughout our time working with Cobseo we also developed and delivered two training workshops to help strengthen the communications capacity of its members. In these sessions we focused on the need to adapt communications, how to do this and plan ahead throughout the pandemic, and also how to deliver an organisation’s messaging through media interviews. Over 110 Cobseo members attended.