Reflecting on Five Years of Impact and Building a Sustainable Future

As our final round of charitable funding for the Armed Forces Spouse Personal Development Programme comes to a close, this moment offers an opportunity to reflect on five years of measurable impact, powerful collaboration, and the lessons that are shaping a new, self-sustaining future for our work.

Collaboration and Partnership at the Core

From the outset, the Programme was underpinned by deep collaboration and multi-agency partnerships — essential to its design, delivery, and impact.

The Programme was co-developed by:

• Warwickshire County Council, including the Armed Forces Covenant Project Worker and Adult & Community Learning Services.
• Army Welfare Service, offering vital insights into military family life and helping to reach participants.
• UK Armed Forces Covenant Trust, providing match funding for the Programme.
• Your New Wings (Tina Smith), who was engaged once funding was secured to design and deliver the coaching elements.

This collective expertise ensured the Programme was rooted in coaching best practice, educational insight, and a deep understanding of Armed Forces community challenges.

Adapting Through Challenge: The Covid-19 Pivot

Originally conceived as an in-person programme serving two Army bases in Warwickshire, Covid-19 restrictions during the pilot required a rapid pivot. With lockdowns and outbreaks on base preventing in-person delivery, the team shifted online – a change that unlocked unexpected opportunity.

By opening access to spouses across all UK Armed Forces branches – the Army, Navy, Royal Air Force, and Marines – the Programme grew from a local initiative into a nationally accessible, collaborative network. This expansion also deepened our partnerships and broadened our understanding of the unique needs of military families.

A Coaching Mindset: The Foundation of Transformation

The Programme was built upon a coaching mindset rooted in empathy, empowerment, and person-centred growth, aligned with the principles of the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

Spouses were not seen as passive recipients of support, but as capable individuals with untapped potential. Through deep listening, powerful questioning, and a non-judgmental space for reflection, coaching became a catalyst for transformation.

Methodologies included:

• 1:1 coaching at the start and end of the programme for personalised goal-setting and reflection.
• Weekly group coaching sessions that fostered peer connection, mutual accountability, and community learning.
• Reflective tools such as the Wheel of Life, journaling, and goal-planning exercises to help participants clarify priorities and direction.
• Exploration Week sessions introducing participants to external networks, expanding their awareness of opportunities and resources.

Each component was designed to enhance confidence, wellbeing and social connection to clarify and legitimise the individual’s pathway choices, reinforcing family values and / or enhancing employability – building the mindset and skillset needed for heart centred, purpose-driven lives.

The Results: Measurable Change and Human Stories

By creating a psychologically safe space for exploration and growth, the Programme catalysed rapid, meaningful change. Participants consistently reported feeling more confident, connected, and in control of their future.

Key outcomes over four years include:

• 60 graduates completed the Programme across 6 cohorts, representing all UK Armed Forces services.
• Highly significant increases of 34% in confidence and 39% in happiness around Personal Growth & Learning
• Consistent mindset improvements across 12 areas of life measurements with the greatest averages being:

• Personal Growth & Learning: +39%
• Confidence: +34%
• Work & Career: +34%
• Money: +25%

Participants described feeling more positive, hopeful, and empowered to support their spouses and families – and, most importantly, to prioritise their own goals and identity.

The greatest difference came from feeling seen, heard, and respected – both by their coach and by peers in a safe, non-judgemental group environment. This sense of belonging became the foundation for lasting personal growth.

Evolving the Model: From Charity to Community

Until 2025, the Programme was funded entirely by charitable grants. With that funding now complete, the challenge – and opportunity – became clear: how do we continue the work without losing the momentum we’ve built?

The answer lies in evolution and empowerment.

• Over 160 spouses applied for the Programme, with funding limited to 60 places, revealing clear unmet demand.
• With many spouses facing financial barriers to self-funding, we sought a new model that would put more control in their hands.
• In early 2025, 23 graduates volunteered to co-create a sustainable community, ensuring that future spouses could access support beyond traditional grant cycles.

The Birth of the Global Dragonfly Community

In March 2025, Your New Wings launched the Global Dragonfly Community – an online platform created with Armed Forces spouses, for Armed Forces spouses.

The Community now hosts:

• The Enhanced, Core, and Essential versions of the original programme.
• Supporting additional courses such as Mindfulness, Self-Care and Wellbeing, and Thriving in the Midst of Change.
• Monthly accountability sessions, book clubs, and co-working spaces for ongoing connection.

Graduates of the programme now lead and moderate some of the activities, supporting new participants and helping shape the next chapter.

Looking Ahead: Sustaining Growth and Impact

Encouraged by strong outcomes and the enthusiasm of graduates, the next phase of the Programme focused on accessibility and sustainability.
This included:

• Launching the three programme tiers at different price points (Introductory, Core, and Enhanced) in 2025.
• Introducing flexible payment plans and scholarship opportunities.
• Plans to publish an entry-level personal development guidebook in 2026 to help spouses build confidence and take their first steps toward growth.

These efforts aim to make the Programme both scalable and sustainable – ensuring that no spouse is left behind due to funding constraints.

Conclusion: Beyond Funding, Toward Flourishing

As we transition from a fully funded model, we are developing a blended ecosystem in the form of an online community which allows funded programmes to run alongside additional self-funded training and coaching, all of which creates a permanent safe space for connection and learning. We are empowering spouses to take shared ownership of their ongoing development; we are not simply continuing the programme – we are evolving it.

The past five years have proven what is possible when coaching, collaboration, and compassion intersect. The Global Dragonfly Community represents a new chapter – a scalable, sustainable model of social impact allowing the ripple effects of this work to extend far beyond the original funding period.

With continued partnership from funders, corporate allies, and community advocates, we can ensure that this momentum continues – expanding our reach to more Armed Forces families, and, in time, to other communities with similar challenges.

As women we face many transitions over our lifetime. Change is synonymous with life. Some change is welcome, while some change is not. All change is challenging, but to what degree depends largely on our circumstance. The same situation is often experienced very differently by each of us. We are all individuals. What is a struggle for some women may be a breeze for others. But we can all look back over our lives and identify key transformative periods, where we were (or are) in struggle, pain, change. And they don’t necessarily come one at a time! In fact, we seem to be in a transition of some type constantly.

I invite you to join me in a reflection on your key life transitions, as I share mine. Sit with these and really drink in what amazing things you have overcome in your life and what it has led to in terms of growth and wisdom. My clients often share that taking stock of what they have previously achieved, gives them appreciation of just how far they have come, and often the confidence to face the current challenges in their lives.  

In my experience, frustration and anger often accompany the times in our lives where we are going through transition. Often the struggle associated with change and transitioning is to do with us being out of alignment. We seek transition because of the tension between the life we are living, and the one we seek. (Sometimes subconsciously).

“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living”. Gail Sheehy

I have had a very blessed life. As I reflect on the transitions I have experience on my journey I witness a wide range of emotions – gratitude and joy, mixed with fear, sadness, trepidation and exhilaration, they are all there.  Most transitions, be they positive or negative have come with growth of some kind. (As you read through my list, why not tick them off if you have experienced these, or similar too, and add your own at the space at the bottom).

These are some of my big transitions…

• Primary School (of 12 students) to High School (of 250 students)
• High School to University
• Being single to being part of a couple
• Life on a farm in rural Australia to life at university in the city (Melbourne, Australia)
• Becoming an Aunty
• Student to Professional
• Professional to traveller (for 10 months backpacking in Asia & Europe)
• A returned traveller – back to everyday life
• Aquatic Ecologist to Environmental Project Manager
• Living in Australia to living in Kent in the UK
• Moving from UK back to Australia after 3 years away
• Becoming a mother
• Moving house (multiple times)
• Becoming a mother (again)
• My father-in-law being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease
• My eldest son starting school
• My youngest son starting school
• Moving from suburbs (Melbourne) to life in Sao Paulo Brazil (same population as Australia!)
• Moving into expat life
• Repatriation to Australia
• The 10-month illness and death of my Dad
• Struggling with my next steps professionally
• Finding coaching
• Becoming a coach
• Moving out of expat life
• Moving to the UK
• Starting my own business
• Becoming a Professional Certified Coach
• Having a partnership business fail
• Teaching Life Skills
• Teaching Coaching
• MENOPAUSE!
• Son learning to drive
• Son going moving away (to University) – this one I am in right now

And so in my minds eye I transition physically from the farm I grew up on, to University in the city. From country to country, home to house, home to house…

Emotionally, I transitioned from a family of 6 (4 kids) to being alone to becoming a couple to becoming a professional to becoming an expat to repatriating to becoming a parent to becoming a stay-at-home mum to losing a parent to becoming a coach to becoming a business owner to becoming a coach trainer to becoming a coach mentor to becoming a …  I realise that there is a lot of ‘becoming’ a lot of the growth.

And, you know, with all this transitioning, I still feel like that little farm girl on the inside. Like Russian babushka dolls, we carry all of these experiences along with us on our journey.  We grow and change, but we also stay the same.

I choose to work with women in transition because I understand how challenging transition can be.  This is especially the case for women because we are most likely to be dealing with the emotional needs of our families and parents or others within our communities.

How about you? What are some of the standout transitions you have experienced?  What have been the positive and/or negatives associated with your transitions, as you change and grow as a person? 

It is often helpful to take the time to reflect on where we have come from and what we have learnt on our journey to this moment.

Personally, I find that I have no sooner achieved a goal (transitioned into something new) than I am off searching for the next thing I NEED to do…

To take stock of how far we have come and what we have accomplished is something I don’t seem do to enough of. How about you?

From my experiences of transition and change in my life I have found several things to be true.

• I am more able to deal with transformation than I ever think I am in the beginning.
• The transformation always takes longer than I want it to.
• There is always something to be learnt, even with the most painful transition.
• We make our own luck. We get to choose, in every moment of our lives. We will not always choose the best path, but if we are open to learning, we will always come out of a transition with some positive learning and growth.
• That particularly in the tough transitions, speaking with my coach always helps!

So, I encourage you to take the time to take stock. Relish the wisdom you have accumulated from living your best life and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you are struggling in a particular transition.