Military
Number of unique resources found: 153
Did you find what you were looking for? If not, try our full text search or let us know by completing our survey form.
Description: Designed to inform military families about a unique home away from home program. Because members of the military and their families are stationed worldwide and must often travel great distances for specialized medical care, Fisher House Foundation donates "comfort homes," built on the grounds of major military and VA medical centers. These homes enable family members to be close to a loved one at the most stressful times - during the hospitalization for an unexpected illness, disease, or injury.
Description: This site provides information for military spouses in an effort to promote self-sufficiency and satisfaction with the military family lifestyle and an improved standard of living for military families.
Military Teens on the Move: An Internet Resource for Military Youth Facing Relocation
Description: Military Teens On The Move web site provides an innovative approach to providing relocation support for military families and children via the Internet. Resources are tailored to meet the unique needs of military teens facing relocation, to help teens play a more proactive role in the relocation process, reconnect quickly to their new communities and positive peer groups, and develop and maintain a positive relationship with their parents and families.
Description: Military oriented website specifically for wives and families of military personnel. Includes links to Military Wives Website, Army Wives Website, Air Force Wives Website, Coast Guard Wives Website, Marine Corps Wives Website, Navy Wives Website, Reserve Wives Website, Military Kidz Website, Military Husbands Website.
National Military Family Association
Description: NMFA is a national organization dedicated to identifying and resolving issues of concern to military families. Their mission is to serve the families of the seven uniformed services through education, information and advocacy. The site offers newsletters, fact sheets and other links to family resources of interest to military families.
National Military Family Association
Description: A website devoted completely to the families of the seven uniformed services through education, information and advocacy.
National Network of Child Care Resource and Referral (NACCRRA)
Description: The National Network of Child Care Resource and Referral (NACCRRA) provides training, resources and best practices standards to local and state agenices that support high-quality, accountable services and promotes national policies and partnerships that facilitate universal access to high quality child care.
Description: Navy Moms Organization was founded to offer support to the families of Sailors serving in the United States Navy. Chat rooms and message boards are available to give family members an opportunity to share with each other.
On Our Behalf: Supporting Guard and Reserve Families 
Description: This blog begun tells the story of National Guard and Reserve families, that recognizes their courage and sacrifice and encourages community support. Includes links to children's art, deployment issues, and news about the Guard and Reserve.
The Military Child Education Coalition
Description: The Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) works to help schools and military installations deliver accurate, timely information to meet transitioning parent and student needs, and in the development and education of children from military families. Their purpose is to share information in order to develop systems and processes to resolve transition issues for military students.
Description: The aim of the Military Family Network is to bridge the gap between military and civilian life by providing a comprehensive network of resources and information for military families and a way for them to connect with each other and the specific resources in their communities that help empower them and increase their well-being and success.
– General Information –
4-H Military and Community Partnerships Showcase
Author: Davis, Paula ; Kay Brown, Jennifer Heady, Vickie Mullins, Dale Pract, Sofia Rodgers, Tammy Turnmeyer, Heather Steinzor
Description: Learn how to integrate and incorporate military youth into 4-H program initiatives. This presentation is applicable to any at-risk audience. You will understand how to address the opportunities and challenges of conducting programs for on and off base military and civilian youth from a diverse background.
A National Tragedy: Helping Children Cope
Description: A fact sheet with tips for adults on how to help children and adolescents deal with national tragedies.
Advice for Stepparents When Their Spouse is Being Deployed
Description: Provides tips for dealing with issues that arise when the military deployment of a spouse creates challenges related to the legal relationship between stepparents and stepchildren.
America at War: Helping Children Cope
Author: Gnatuk, Carole (20 more by this author); Sam Quick; Brian Fitzpatrick; Alex Lesueur
Description: This special media article provides suggestions for parents on talking with their children and helping them cope with the fears and uncertainties of war.
America Supports You: Our Miltary Men and Women
Description: "America Supports You," a nationwide program launched by the Department of Defense, recognizes citizens' support for our military men and women and communicates that support to members of our Armed Forces at home and abroad.
Are You Aware of the Army Youth Programs in Your Neighborhood?
Author: Pointer, Germaine (1 more by this author); Brooke Boswell, DeAnn Acosta, John Baggott
Description: Military youth face different challenges than traditional at-risk youth but they are at-risk none the less. With the current deployment cycles and uncertainty in military households, these young people need safe nurturing environments with a sense of acceptance and belonging. Become familiar with Army CYSS Community Based Programs and will learn how to work with Army Youth Development Specialists to enhance these programs to benefit youth.
Description: This website is designed specifically for U.S. Army families and family members. It includes information on home and family life, deployment, finances, work and careers. The site requires users to login in order to fully utilize all resources.
Battle buddies share 'the toughest job in the Army'
Description: This article highlights the role of families when spouses are deployed.
Description: Child Care Aware is a non-profit initiative committed to helping parents find the best information on locating quality child care and child care resources in their community. Provides links on resources for helping parents select, choose, and evaluate child care options.
Children and Grief (Los Ninos y la Pena por la Muerte de un ser Querido)
Description: The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has shared this fact sheet on children and how they experience grief so that parents and professionals are able to help a child that is coping with death. Children experience the loss of a loved one in a very different way than adults, with their reactions depending on their age and their developmental level. Suggestions for when to seek additional supports is included. Also available in Spanish, Los Ninos y la Pena por la Muerte de un ser Querido No. 8 at http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/informacion_para_la_familia/los_ninos_y_la_pena_por_la_muerte_de_un_ser_querido_no_8.
Children and Youth: Find Out How To Get Fit
Description: The Services recognize the importance of physical fitness and healthy living habits for the military community and have created innovative programs to promote healthy living for children and youth.
Communicating Operation: Military Kids (OMK) to Political Stakeholders
Author: Welch, Mary Ellen; Lisa Marcinkowski, Kevin Wright, Mona Johnson, Kendra Wells
Description: Communicating the impact of Operation Military Kids (OMK) with key stakeholders including community and state political stakeholders, military partners, and educational leaders is a critical component to long-term support and success. This workshop will provide practical and creative strategies that can be implemented by professionals working with military children and their families that are interested in establishing and maintaining effective communications. Participants will learn how the adoption of communications strategies fosters a network of community support for military families.
First Lady Michelle Obama Announces Presidential Directive on Military Families
Description: This brief discusses the announcement of the presidential directive on military families.
Helping Adolescents Cope with Grief
Author: Shriner, Joyce (3 more by this author)
Description: This is a fact sheet on helping children through grief with effective communication.
Identifying and Building Upon Strengths in Military Families
Author: Greder, Kimberly (7 more by this author)
Description: A 60-minute web conference on building strengths in military families, this is your opportunity to hear from Military and Extension family experts and learn about the primary research related to family strengths and specific strategies to help military families promote family well-being. Sponsored by the Family Development concentration of eXtension's Military Families Learning Community.
Description: The Military Family Support Programs operate within the Family Development and Resource Management Unit of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. The focus of the Military Family Support Programs is to improve the quality of life for soldiers and their families. Contains information on leadership, food safety, nutrition, wellness, elder care, parenting, literacy, and family relationships.
Military Families Learning Community
Description: The Military Families Learning Community also features "Essentials for Those Who Care for Military Children and Families," a series of more than 15 Podcasts from top military experts discussing Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps cultures; available mental health services for Active Duty, Veteran, National Guard and Reserve; impact of deployment on military children and families; becoming a TRICARE provider; Military OneSource; and building community capacity to serve military families.
Military Families Learning Community Master Speaker Series
Description: Top experts in each of the military’s service branches address issues of military culture, the impact of military and combat deployment on children and families, and the strengths and perspectives of those serving in the US Armed Services.
Description: Department of Defense offers access to Military OneSource Online, and provides help to cope with a host of issues. Users can click on a topic of interest or use the key word search to access informative articles, helpful tools, audio tips on hundreds of specific topics, and more. Includes parenting, child care, education, retirement, disability, financial, legal, health, addition, and emotional well-being geared to military families.
Description: This website from the Department of Defense is designed to help families with elementary, middle and high school children who are dealing with deployment, moving, or other issues associated with the stresses of military service.
Mindsets to Support Military Connected Children and Families
Description: This article discusses the needs of military connected children and families.
OMK Connects Deployment Cycle Support Yellow Ribbon Programming to Youth
Author: Harries, Kia ; Amber Runke
Description: Helping young people cope with the deployment of a loved one is the focus of this 60-lesson curriculum, emphasizing life skills throughout the deployment cycle. Review the curriculum and companion volunteer training guide, learn how these lessons can be used in a variety of settings with a mixture of ages, and how to involve the family in the conversations after the lesson.
Author: Cross, Charlotte (2 more by this author); Jody Jackson
Description: Sharing NH OMK successful strategies for implementing Tour of Discovery Camps will be the focus of this workshop. Participants will explore the following camp themes: theater, babysitting, aerospace, cooking, and outdoor adventure. They will learn about the development, marketing, delivery, and evaluation of these OMK camps. In addition, participants will generate ideas useful in their own camp program implementation.
Preparing for Deployment in the 21st Century
Author: Varcoe, Karen (1 more by this author); Holly Gifford; Nancy B. Lees
Description: This presentation covers issues that families face both at home and away in communicating and working together when one member is deployed on military service.
Remarks by the First Lady at National Military Family Association Summit
Description: This brief provides remarks by First Lady Obama at the National Military Family Association Summit.
Sesame Street and The Electric Company's Military Families Near and Far
Description: Military Families Near and Far is a website developed by Sesame Street and The Electric Company in cooperation with the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury. The website is designed to help children and parents stay connected and communicate during times of deployment, change and uncertainty. Resources include a bilingual website designed for military families; Feel Electric! - a mobile app that encourages children to explore and express their emotions; and The Electric Company Extended Learning Program with afterschool tools for educators, filled with literacy and math-based lesson plans, games, activities, and tips.
Description: As a special service to military families coping with deployment and frequent reassignments, Sittercity connects families with quality local in-home caregivers, with caregivers nationwide. Sittercity Memberships are funded by the DoD at no cost to military families.
Southern Hospitality — Camping with Operation: Military Kids
Author: Hines, Charlene Morse; Casey Mull, Harriett C Edwards, Scott Enroughty, Georgene Bender, Cliff Lewis, Carrera Harris
Description: This session highlights the diverse populations of military youth, southern states responses to this diversity and some best practice tips. Camping in the South for military youth ranged from targeting special needs campers in Alabama, the use of technology before and during camp in Florida, fostering relationships between military youth and non-military 4-Hers in Tennessee, purple camps in Georgia, and the wide scope of camping experiences in North Carolina.
Strengthen Relationships During Deployment, Separation
Author: Peterson, Nancy (1 more by this author)
Description: Discusses the stress placed on spouses, partners and extended family members during periods of military deployment and other separations. Provides suggestions from Charlotte Shoup Olsen on tips for strengthening a relationship during a separation.
Strengthening Families Through Military 4-H Partnerships
Author: Jones, Debra (1 more by this author); Joanne Roueche
Description: Extension, 4-H, and the military have been partners since World War I. Through the recent decade, the U.S. Army, Air Force, and 4-H have partnered to provide positive youth development on military installations involving over 7,000 youth in 4-H clubs in the U.S. and abroad. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, a new initiative extends this same support to military youth and families who are not affiliated with military installations, but who are dispersed in rural, urban, and suburban communities across the nation through the National Guard and Reserve. All youth involved through military outreach are enrolled as 4-H members through their respective counties. As the program becomes more widely known, counties integrate these youth in local, state, regional, and national 4-H activities and events. Authors share their experience developing relationships, implementing positive youth development programs, and explain how these successful actions resulted in funding sources for increased outreach.
Supporting Family Resilience: What Does the Evidence Say?
Description: Invited Research Presentation at the 2011 USDA DoD Family Resiliency Conference by Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth. Programs to build family strengths, and minimize and prevent family problems have been designed and implemented for years in both civilian and military communities. This presentation focuses on scientific evidence supporting strategies shown to be effective or promising, and the lessons they suggest for future work with military families. Dr. MacDermid Wadsworth directs the Military Family Research Institute and the Center for Families, and serves as Associate Dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences at Purdue University. Her research focus is relationships between job conditions and family life, especially on military families and organizational policies, programs and practices.
Description: This article discusses some of the challenges military families are facing as troops deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq return home. But from on-base counseling offices to the White House, the realization is growing that the strain on military families does not end when the warriors come home. Problems as severe as post-traumatic stress disorder and as mundane as who pays the bills can make reintegration after the deployment as difficult as the separation during it.
– Other Resources –
Description: This website provides resources and information geared to all aspects of military family members.
Beyond the Yellow Ribbon… your Fort Minnesota
Description: "Beyond the Yellow Ribbon" is a program to support returning service men and women and provides resources and information for military families.
Center for Deployment Psychology: Preparing Professionals to Support Service Members and Families
Description: As the number, duration and frequency of military deployments increase, so do the behavioral health difficulties of Service members and their families. To better fulfill the unmet deployment-related behavioral health needs of Service members and their families, the Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP). The CDP’s mission is to train military and civilian psychologists, psychology interns/residents and other behavioral health professionals to provide high quality deployment-related behavioral health services to military personnel and their families.
Family Assistance Centers (National Guard Family Program)
Description: The National Guard Family Program provides information and supports aimed at family members of the National Guard.
Google for Veterans and Families
Description: Google for Veterans and Families provides tools aimed at assisting the veteran community as veterans transition into civilian lives.
Personal Finance - Military Families
Description: This webpage provides resources on personal finance for military families.
Description: The Real Warriors Campaign is a multimedia public education initiative sponsored by the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury. The campaign is designed to encourage help-seeking behavior among service members, veterans and military families coping with invisible wounds.
Town Hall with Senior Enlisted Advisors from the Military Services
Description: Featured opportunity at the 2011 USDA / DoD Family Resiliency Conference, the Senior Enlisted Advisors (SEAs), the most senior enlisted member of each military service, addressed the issues of enlisted personnel to the highest positions in the Department of Defense. The SEAs’ primary focus is supporting service members and military families. They generally devote much time traveling throughout the world observing training and communicating with service members and their families. An opportunity to interact with all the Services' Senior Enlisted Advisors in one room does not occur very often. They are available to field questions and discuss issues centered on themes such as: family support, deployment support, health care and psychological services, personal financial readiness, spouse employment, and quality of education.
Veterans Education and Transition Services
Description: VETS incorporates academics, institutional access, student involvement and research, not only to support the success of enrolled student veterans, but to understand their experiences more authentically and maintain a program that is effective and dynamic.
VetNet: A Career Service for Those Who've Served
Description: This website is a resource for those transitioning from military to civilian life. Provides training and resources for finding a job or starting a business. Includes a resource library of how-to guides and a database of over one million jobs. VetNet is a collaboration between veteran-focused NGOs designed to help vets and their families find careers.
Description: Sesame Workshop presents personal stories about coping with the death of a parent. Katie Couric joins Elmo and his furry friends to model communication between adults and children. They’ll also offer thoughtful suggestions and strategies that help the whole family.
– Professional Development –
Advice for Stepparents When Their Spouse is Being Deployed
Description: Provides tips for dealing with issues that arise when the military deployment of a spouse creates challenges related to the legal relationship between stepparents and stepchildren.
Assessing the Needs of Service Members and Their Families: A New Approach
Description: This resource describes a survey design framework developed by the RAND National Defense Research Institute (NDRI) and sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense for surveying service members and their families.
Center for Deployment Psychology: Preparing Professionals to Support Service Members and Families
Description: As the number, duration and frequency of military deployments increase, so do the behavioral health difficulties of Service members and their families. To better fulfill the unmet deployment-related behavioral health needs of Service members and their families, the Center for Deployment Psychology (CDP). The CDP’s mission is to train military and civilian psychologists, psychology interns/residents and other behavioral health professionals to provide high quality deployment-related behavioral health services to military personnel and their families.
Childcare and Youth Training and Technical Assistance Program
Description: This website features research-based information, resources, and professional development for childcare professionals serving military connected families.
Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness
Description: The Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness is an interactive, web-based hub designed to help professionals enhance military family readiness and foster resiliency. The Clearinghouse partners with professionals working with military families to promote the use of evidence-based programs and practices.
Description: This is an archived webinar on how to maintain two-parent households in the fact of deployment or other separations. Presented by Angela Huebner, Virginia Tech and Kara Newby, Ohio State University Extension. Sponsored by the Family Development concentration of eXtension's Military Families Learning Network.
Description: The Community Covenant program is designed to foster and sustain effective state and community partnerships with the Army to improve the quality of life for Soldiers and their Families, both at their current duty stations and as they transfer to other states. It is a formal commitment of support by state and local communities to Soldiers and Families of the Army - Active, Guard and Reserve.
Complications of Raising Children While Parents are Deployed
Description: This is an archived web conference that focused on issues facing parents experience deployment such as permissions for medical treatment and school enrollment; the challenges for grandparents who are parenting the second time around; alleviating stress and fears for the grandchildren; and departure and reunification processes that will help ease transitions.
Essential Life Skills for Military Families
Description: Essential Life Skills for Military Families is a workshop designed to help military families anticipate and manage a variety of fast-hitting pressures, such as giving a spouse power of attorney, agreeing on how to spend money, and preparing for the unknown. By taking the workshop, Service Members and their families learn how to communicate effectively in times of stress, how to find social support systems, and how to sort out time-sensitive financial and legal matters.
Family Assistance Centers (National Guard Family Program)
Description: The National Guard Family Program provides information and supports aimed at family members of the National Guard.
Google for Veterans and Families
Description: Google for Veterans and Families provides tools aimed at assisting the veteran community as veterans transition into civilian lives.
Helping Military Families Create Systems of Social Support
Description: This is an archived version of a 60-minute web conference presented by the Family Development concentration of eXtension's Military Families Learning Community. Dennis K. Orthner, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Andrew Behnke, Ph.D., North Carolina State University discuss helping military families develop/strengthen social support systems and specific strategies to help military families promote family well-being.
Description: H.E.R.O.E.S. Care is a collaborative effort among well established non-governmental organizations (NGOs) designed to provide complete and proactive support for members of all branches of the military and their families through pre-deployment, deployment, family reintegration and post-deployment.
Keeping in Touch- When Distance Keeps You Apart
Author: Hill, Melinda (8 more by this author)
Description: Fact sheet with tips on how to stay in touch with relatives and family members separated by distance.
Military Families Learning Network
Description: The purpose of the Military Families Learning Network is to serve military family service professionals through engaged online communities which identify and make use of the highest quality, best practices, research-and evidence-based information, educational and curriculum materials, and programming activities and efforts.
Mindsets to Support Military Connected Children and Families
Description: This article discusses the needs of military connected children and families.
Description: This is a summary of a Program Showcase presented at the 2011 DOD/USDA Family Resilience Conference. Operation Family is a planning tool for families to use in preparation for the deployment of a family member. Families can use this tool to document important information and specify how they will make decisions during deployment. It is available on-line at no cost.
Description: The Real Warriors Campaign is a multimedia public education initiative sponsored by the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury. The campaign is designed to encourage help-seeking behavior among service members, veterans and military families coping with invisible wounds.
Description: Strong Bonds is a unit-based, chaplain-led program which assists commanders in building individual resiliency by strengthening the Army Family. The core mission of the Strong Bonds program is to increase individual Soldier and Family member readiness through relationship education and skills training.
Study Concludes Master Resilience Training Effective
Author: Vergun, David
Description: Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, or CSF, was launched in 2009 to teach Soldiers how to be psychologically strong in the face of adversity, such as combat. The program, also available to family members and DA civilians, was designed at the University of Pennsylvania by behavioral specialists using proven research-based methodologies.
The University of Arizona’s Military REACH
Description: The University of Arizona’s Military REACH was created in response to the need for policymakers, community leaders, educators, youth development professionals and other helping professionals to have access to relevant and current research, training, coaching tools and information to support military Service members and their families.
Tutor.com for Military Families
Description: Eligible military families have access to a free, online tutoring program provided by the DoD called Tutor.com for Military Families. Military families can access professional tutors 24/7 for help with homework, studying, test prep, college course work and career transitions. The program is especially helpful for students who have a parent deployed or who are moving frequently.
Description: Five age-based (Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, elementary, and teenagers) parenting toolkits for Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqui Freedom veterans and their partners. Provider Guide also provided. Especially for reconnecting w/ their youth after deployment. Paper copies will be sent to all VA medical centers this year.
Veterans Education and Transition Services
Description: VETS incorporates academics, institutional access, student involvement and research, not only to support the success of enrolled student veterans, but to understand their experiences more authentically and maintain a program that is effective and dynamic.
– Programming Resource –
9 Important Skills for Talking About Money
Description: This is an archived webinar in which Dr. Victor Harris presents Important Skills for talking about money on behalf of the Personal Finance Concentration of the Military Families Learning Network.
Adjustments Among Adolescents in Military Families When a Parent is Deployed
Author: Huebner, Angela (4 more by this author); Jay A. Mancini, Ph.D.
Description: This report summarizes the findings of a study supported by the Military Family Research Institute and the DOD Quality of Life Office that focused on the adaptations of adolescents in military families when a parent is deployed. Qualitative methods were used through focus groups conducted with youth attending camps in the summer of 2004. The findings provide a context for exploring new ways to support adolescents who have a deployed parent.
America at War: Helping Children Cope
Author: Gnatuk, Carole (20 more by this author); Sam Quick; Brian Fitzpatrick; Alex Lesueur
Description: This special media article provides suggestions for parents on talking with their children and helping them cope with the fears and uncertainties of war.
Description: As one of America’s foremost veterans service organizations, AMVETS (or American Veterans) has a proud history of assisting veterans and sponsoring numerous programs that serve our country and its citizens. The helping hand that AMVETS extends to veterans and their families takes many forms.
Description: This is the Home Page for the U. S. Army Family Advocacy Program. The site contains a series of resources focusing on child abuse prevention.
Description: This website provides information and resources for soldiers and their families.
Balancing Work and Family: A Focus on Building Military Family Resilience
Description: This is an archived webinar from the Family Development concentration of eXtension's Military Families Learning Network focused on working with military families.
Description: This is an archived webinar covering the steps to building a spending and saving plan that is likely to be followed.
Blue Star Mothers of America Inc
Description: The Blue Star Mothers of America, Inc. is a non-partisan, non-political organization. It is a non-profit (501[c]3) Veterans service organization supporting our military children while promoting patriotism.
Childcare and Youth Training and Technical Assistance Program
Description: This website features research-based information, resources, and professional development for childcare professionals serving military connected families.
Children and Youth: Find Out How To Get Fit
Description: The Services recognize the importance of physical fitness and healthy living habits for the military community and have created innovative programs to promote healthy living for children and youth.
Children and Youth: Find Out How To Get Fit
Description: The Services recognize the importance of physical fitness and healthy living habits for the military community and have created innovative programs to promote healthy living for children and youth.
Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness
Description: The Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness is an interactive, web-based hub designed to help professionals enhance military family readiness and foster resiliency. The Clearinghouse partners with professionals working with military families to promote the use of evidence-based programs and practices.
Description: This is an archived webinar from the Family Development concentration of eXtension's Military Families Learning Network focused on working with military families who are co-parenting during deployment.
Combat Stress: Injuries of War
Description: Combat Stress focuses on how parents support their young child by taking steps to heal. No one suffers a stress injury alone. This brochure provides information about combat/operational stress injuries, steps to help heal them, and people and organizations ready to offer support.
Communities Support Military Families
Author: Gnatuk, Carole (20 more by this author)
Description: The goal of the Communities Support Military Families program is to encourage community members to be caring neighbors in support of the military families in their midst. This publication helps participants build their knowledge about the structures and cultures of the various branches of the military; find information about the presence and needs of military families in their communities; reach out individually with empathy to meet specific needs of military families known to them; and assist the community to meet the needs of military families in practical and appropriate ways. The publication also outlines the emotional cycle of deployment that families generally experience and includes two activities to support military families.
Communities Support Military Families: Facilitator Guide
Author: Gnatuk, Carole (20 more by this author)
Description: The goal of the Communities Support Military Families program is to encourage community members to be caring neighbors in support of the military families in their midst. This publication helps participants build their knowledge about the structures and cultures of the various branches of the military; find information about the presence and needs of military families in their communities; reach out individually with empathy to meet specific needs of military families known to them; and assist the community to meet the needs of military families in practical and appropriate ways. The publication also outlines the emotional cycle of deployment that families generally experience and includes two activities to support military families.
Communities Support Military Families: Instructional PowerPoint Presentation
Author: Gnatuk, Carole (20 more by this author)
Description: PowerPoint to accompany the Communities Support Military Families program. The goal of the program is to encourage community members to be caring neighbors in support of the military families in their midst. It is designed to help participants build their knowledge about the structures and cultures of the various branches of the military; find information about the presence and needs of military families in their communities; reach out individually with empathy to meet specific needs of military families known to them; and assist the community to meet the needs of military families in practical and appropriate ways. The PowerPoints also outline the emotional cycle of deployment that families generally experience.
Description: The Community Covenant program is designed to foster and sustain effective state and community partnerships with the Army to improve the quality of life for Soldiers and their Families, both at their current duty stations and as they transfer to other states. It is a formal commitment of support by state and local communities to Soldiers and Families of the Army - Active, Guard and Reserve.
Deployment: Keeping Relationships Strong
Description: Deployment: Keeping Relationships Strong focuses on how to help a baby or toddler feel secure by parent–child connections strong—whether a parent home together or halfway across the world.
Description: This website provides information and resources for disabled American veterans.
Effects of Deployment Extend Beyond Military
Author: Peterson, Nancy (1 more by this author)
Description: Discusses the stress placed on parent, child, family and other relationships, even community services by military deployment. Provides suggestions from Chuck Smith for tackling these emotional issues.
Financial Implications of Divorce
Description: This is an archived webinar that discusses the financial implications of divorce.
FOCUS (Families OverComing Under Stress)
Description: FOCUS (Families OverComing Under Stress) provides resiliency training to military children and families. It teaches practical skills to meet the challenges of deployment and reintegration, to communicate and solve problems effectively, and to successfully set goals together and create a shared family story. FOCUS provides services for military children and families based at U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Army, and Air Force installations in California, Hawaii, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, Japan, and at several USMC Wounded Warrior sites.
Description: This fact sheet focuses on fostering resiliency in young children, the relationship between resiliency and protective factors, and suggestions on what educators can do foster resilience in the classroom.
Gardening with Military Family Members
Description: Tools for military helping professionals and military families to get into the garden. The site focuses on gardening benefits that are particularly relevant to military families.
Gardens sow common ground for military families to cope with deployment stress
Description: To give members of the military and their families a way to connect with each other, Cornell Cooperative Extension's (CCE) Defiant Gardens program plants gardens in the ground and in plastic containers on military bases and in communities with many military families and sends container gardens to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. The project is designed to increase military families' resiliency as they navigate the deployment cycle, as well as assist the families with the reunion and reintegration process.
Helping Children Cope During Deployment
Description: This fact sheet contains information to help children cope during a parents deployment.
Helping Military Families Create Systems of Social Support
Description: This is an archived webinar from the Family Development concentration of eXtension's Military Families Learning Network focused on working with military families to develop social support systems.
Description: H.E.R.O.E.S. Care is a collaborative effort among well established non-governmental organizations (NGOs) designed to provide complete and proactive support for members of all branches of the military and their families through pre-deployment, deployment, family reintegration and post-deployment.
Home Ownership: When is the right time?
Description: This is an archived webinar that discusses the home buying process including: financial readiness for the purchase, how to determine housing affordability and service –related considerations that may influence the purchase decision.
Homecoming: Reconnecting After Separations
Description: This brochure from Zero to Three was developed in partnership with the U.S. Marine Corps in support of Operation Parenting Edge. It focuses on how to help a baby or toddler feel secure during homecoming by having realistic expectations as family members reconnect and begin to discover a “new” normal.
Homefront: Taking Care of Yourself
Description: This brochure from Zero to Three focuses on how parents at home take better care of their baby or toddler by taking care of themselves, particularly with the added stressors of military life.
Housing and Foreclosure for Military Families
Description: This is an archived webinar on solutions to preventing, alternatives and navigating through foreclosure. Aimed at those working with military families.
How to Prepare Our Children and Stay Involved in their Education During Deployment
Description: This fact sheet describes the various stages of deployment and what children experience.
Identifying and Building Upon Strengths in Military Families
Description: This 60 minute session discusses ways to build and strengthen military families.
Author: Johnson, Mona (1 more by this author)
Description: This fact sheet provides an overview of the five stages of grief and loss that children experience and how educators can help children and youth deal with the death of a parent or loved one.
Implications of Relatives Raising Children While Parents are Deployed
Description: This is an archived webinar on logistical tasks that need to be addressed such as permissions for medical treatment and school enrollment; the challenges for grandparents who are parenting.
Income Tax Return Filing Issues for Members of the Armed Forces
Description: This is an archived webinar that introduces income tax rules for members of the United States Armed Forces.
Description: Joining Forces is one of President Obama's initiatives to encourage the public to give service members and their families the support and opportunities they need and have earned through their service to our country. Joining Forces has created resources specifically designed to help veterans translate their military skills into the civilian workforce.
Joint Service Training Inclusive Recreation for Wounded Warriors
Description: This four-day course focuses on the important role recreation and sports can have in the recovery process.
Military Child Education Coalition
Description: The Military Child Education Coalition provides support to military parents in terms of making school transitions. The site offers tips to military families to ensure smooth transitions for children facing frequent moves. It provides parents with information on military installations, out-processing, and worldwide relocation.
Description: The Military Family Support Programs operate within the Family Development and Resource Management Unit of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. The focus of the Military Family Support Programs is to improve the quality of life for soldiers and their families. Contains information on leadership, food safety, nutrition, wellness, elder care, parenting, literacy, and family relationships.
Military Families Learning Network
Description: The purpose of the Military Families Learning Network is to serve military family service professionals through engaged online communities which identify and make use of the highest quality, best practices, research-and evidence-based information, educational and curriculum materials, and programming activities and efforts.
Military Family Caregiving: Caregivers of Military Amputees
Description: The Texas AgriLife Extension Service Military Program has developed a series of Military Family Caregiving videos for those caring for wounded or ill service members. The series includes 11 topical videos designed to alleviate caregiver burden and provide a basic understanding of very serious injuries (VSI) and serious injuries (SI) sustained in military combat.
Caregiving can be emotionally, intellectually, and physically challenging at times. Learn how you can better serve your wounded warrior and yourself.
Military Family Caregiving: Caregiving Leaving You Feeling Blue?
Description: The Texas AgriLife Extension Service Military Program has developed a series of Military Family Caregiving videos for those caring for wounded or ill service members. The series includes 11 topical videos designed to alleviate caregiver burden and provide a basic understanding of very serious injuries (VSI) and serious injuries (SI) sustained in military combat.
Military Family Caregiving: Caring for Those with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Description: The Texas AgriLife Extension Service Military Program has developed a series of Military Family Caregiving videos for those caring for wounded or ill service members. The series includes 11 topical videos designed to alleviate caregiver burden and provide a basic understanding of very serious injuries (VSI) and serious injuries (SI) sustained in military combat.
Military Family Caregiving: Caring for Those with Severe Burns
Description: The Texas AgriLife Extension Service Military Program has developed a series of Military Family Caregiving videos for those caring for wounded or ill service members. The series includes 11 topical videos designed to alleviate caregiver burden and provide a basic understanding of very serious injuries (VSI) and serious injuries (SI) sustained in military combat.
Military Family Caregiving: Caring for Those with Traumatic Brain Injury
Description: The Texas AgriLife Extension Service Military Program has developed a series of Military Family Caregiving videos for those caring for wounded or ill service members. The series includes 11 topical videos designed to alleviate caregiver burden and provide a basic understanding of very serious injuries (VSI) and serious injuries (SI) sustained in military combat.
Military Family Caregiving: Caring for Those with Vision Loss
Description: The Texas AgriLife Extension Service Military Program has developed a series of Military Family Caregiving videos for those caring for wounded or ill service members. The series includes 11 topical videos designed to alleviate caregiver burden and provide a basic understanding of very serious injuries (VSI) and serious injuries (SI) sustained in military combat.
Military Family Caregiving: Caring for Wounded Warriors with Spinal Cord Injury
Description: The Texas AgriLife Extension Service Military Program has developed a series of Military Family Caregiving videos for those caring for wounded or ill service members. The series includes 11 topical videos designed to alleviate caregiver burden and provide a basic understanding of very serious injuries (VSI) and serious injuries (SI) sustained in military combat.
Military Family Caregiving: Military Caregiving 101
Description: The Texas AgriLife Extension Service Military Program has developed a series of Military Family Caregiving videos for those caring for wounded or ill service members. The series includes 11 topical videos designed to alleviate caregiver burden and provide a basic understanding of very serious injuries (VSI) and serious injuries (SI) sustained in military combat.
Military Family Caregiving: Once You Get the Call
Description: The Texas AgriLife Extension Service Military Program has developed a series of Military Family Caregiving videos for those caring for wounded or ill service members. The series includes 11 topical videos designed to alleviate caregiver burden and provide a basic understanding of very serious injuries (VSI) and serious injuries (SI) sustained in military combat.
Military Family Caregiving: Wounded Warriors and Intimacy
Description: The Texas AgriLife Extension Service Military Program has developed a series of Military Family Caregiving videos for those caring for wounded or ill service members. The series includes 11 topical videos designed to alleviate caregiver burden and provide a basic understanding of very serious injuries (VSI) and serious injuries (SI) sustained in military combat.
Caregiving can be emotionally, intellectually, and physically challenging at times. Learn how you can better serve your wounded warrior and yourself.
Description: Military INSTALLATIONS is a searchable directory of information about installation and community resources, can help service members and families keep healthy living a priority before, during, and after a move.
Military Kids, Homecoming and Reunion
Description: This fact sheet describes the three stages military families experience when families are reunited after deployment, namely anticipation, readjustment, and stabilization. It includes age-specific reactions that children and youth may experience (birth to 18 years) and tips for educators in helping them cope/adjust.
Description: Military One Source (MOS) supplements existing family programs by providing a website and a worldwide, 24 hour, seven-day-a-week information and referral telephone service to ALL active, Guard and Reserve Soldiers, deployed civilians and their families. MOS services are provided at no-cost.
Description: Military Pathways is a voluntary, anonymous mental health and alcohol education screening program offered to military personnel and their families in all branches, including the National Guard and Reserve.
National Guard Family Program's Online Community
Description: The National Guard Family Program's Online Community is a place to find contacts, information on programs and benefits, and more. Get tips, tools, and training on family issues.
New Families: Nurturing New Relationships
Description: New Families focuses on how to support a baby when expecting or after the baby is born by building strong and nurturing relationships around and with the baby.
Description: This is a summary of a Program Showcase presented at the 2011 DOD/USDA Family Resilience Conference. Operation Family is a planning tool for families to use in preparation for the deployment of a family member. Families can use this tool to document important information and specify how they will make decisions during deployment. It is available on-line at no cost.
Description: This site provides information on Operation Purple, summer camps aimed at giving military children tools to help deal with the stresses that result from a parent’s deployment.
Description: This website focuses on the challenges of families/loved ones of deployed military personnel, offers practical suggestions to churches, communities and individuals on how to support and encourage the military home front, and provides a comprehensive list of resources for families/loved ones of deployed military personnel
Description: When National Guard, Army Reserve and other military parents living in civilian communities are mobilized, their children suddenly become different. Now they are "military kids" but they still "look the same" to teachers, friends and the rest of the community. Their lives are turned upside down! Many of their usual support systems may no longer be adequate. Extensive media coverage of on-going military operations creates daily anxiety. These "new" military kids need to connect with other youth in similar situations. They seek friends and adults who can empathize and can help them cope with their new world. State and County Cooperative Extension staff, community agencies, schools, and 4-H Club youth are reaching out to military youth when their parents are deployed. Provides link to information and resources.
Description: The Positive Parenting Solutions Online Parenting Course can benefit all families, providing concrete tools and proven strategies to make parenting much less stressful and a lot more fun. This program is available to all eligible military service members.
Preparing for Deployment in the 21st Century
Author: Varcoe, Karen (1 more by this author); Holly Gifford; Nancy B. Lees
Description: This presentation covers issues that families face both at home and away in communicating and working together when one member is deployed on military service.
Purple Wagon: Resouces for Military Families
Description: This section of Purple Wagon provides several fact sheets for military families and their children. There are also a number of resources for teachers who may have the children of military parents in their classrooms.
Description: RecruitMilitary is a veteran-owned firm dedicated to helping veterans with education, veteran jobs and civilian careers, new business and franchise ownership, and training.
Retire Ready: Financial Planning for Later Life
Description: This is an archived webinar that provides an overview of the retirement planning process and key messages for military financial counselors to impart to service members of varying ages and years of service.
Roles and Responsibilities: Who Does Them When You Are Gone?
Author: Hill, Melinda (8 more by this author)
Description: The stay-at-home partner assumes new roles and responsibilities when the other partner is gone for a day, a week, a month, or longer. The effect of the change on the family depends greatly upon the family's coping system. This fact sheet discusses the personal resources or traits within individuals or family members that can assist them in managing the daily stressors caused by separation.
Secure Attachments: Building Caring Relationships with Parents and Children in Military Families
Description: This is an archived webinar that discusses building relationships with parents and children in military families.
Staying Connected with Children: Activities for Deployed and Deploying Parents
Author: Schultheis, Mary (2 more by this author); Judith Myers-Walls
Description: This fact sheet, aimed at deployed or deploying parents, provides suggestions for maintaining a sense of togetherness during periods of separation.
Strengthen Relationships During Deployment, Separation
Author: Peterson, Nancy (1 more by this author)
Description: Discusses the stress placed on spouses, partners and extended family members during periods of military deployment and other separations. Provides suggestions from Charlotte Shoup Olsen on tips for strengthening a relationship during a separation.
Stress in Young Children from Military Families
Description: This is an archived webinar that discusses how the brain processes different levels of stress and strategies for child care providers to help children manage stresses related to military life
Description: Strong Bonds is a unit-based, chaplain-led program which assists commanders in building individual resiliency by strengthening the Army Family. The core mission of the Strong Bonds program is to increase individual Soldier and Family member readiness through relationship education and skills training.
Supporting Babies and Toddlers in Military Families
Description: This brochure focuses on the unique experience of parenting a baby or toddler, particularly during times of stress and separation that military families may be experiencing.
Supporting Military Kids During Deployment
Author: Johnson, Mona (1 more by this author)
Description: This fact sheet provides information about the stages of deployment that children of military families face and suggests how those working with these children can provide support and understanding during these emotional and stressful times.
Supporting Military Kids During Deployment
Description: This fact sheet provides information about the stages of deployment that children of military families face and suggests how those working with these children can provide support and understanding during these emotional and stressful times.
Talking to Kids about Violence, Terrorism, and War
Description: This fact sheet is geared toward helping educators facilitate children's understanding of violence, terrorism, war and other world events. Offers suggestions for talking with children and responding to changes in behavior.
Talking with Military Kids About Money
Description: This is an archived webinar aimed at those working with military parents and other caregivers, and helping them have conversations about money with children.
Terrorism and Children: When War Is In the News
Author: Myers-Walls, Judith (6 more by this author)
Description: This updated site contains information for teachers and parents about how to talk to children about terrorism.
The Deployed Fathers and Families Guide
Description: The Deployed Fathers and Families Guide produced by the National Fatherhood Initiative has numerous resources to help fathers experiencing deployment.
The Military Family Research Institute
Description: The Military Family Research Institute conducts basic and applied research on the quality of life of military families and its implications for job satisfaction, performance, and retention. The institute is led by a team of interdisciplinary investigators. The site contains information on the institute’s research aimed at improving the lives of military families.
Description: The DoD's new Education Directory for Children with Special Needs provides useful, practical information for families of military dependents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Description: The Soldiers Project is a private, non-profit, independent group of volunteer licensed mental health professionals including psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, registered nurses and marriage and family therapists. They provide free counseling and support to military service members who have served or who expect to serve in the Iraq and/or Afghanistan conflicts and to veterans of those conflicts.
Description: This is an archived webinar that provides an overview of the Thrift Saving Plan for members of the uniformed services, and information about how this retirement savings plan is similar to 401(k) plans offered to private sector employees and can be incorporated as part of overall retirement planning strategy.
The University of Arizona’s Military REACH
Description: The University of Arizona’s Military REACH was created in response to the need for policymakers, community leaders, educators, youth development professionals and other helping professionals to have access to relevant and current research, training, coaching tools and information to support military Service members and their families.
Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS)
Description: The Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, Inc. (TAPS) is a national non-profit organization made up of, and providing services to, all those who have lost a loved one while serving in the Armed Forces. TAPS provides survivor peer support network, grief counseling referral, case worker assistance and crisis information to help families and military personnel cope and recover. Services are provided 24 hours a day and are free of charge.
Tutor.com for Military Families
Description: Eligible military families have access to a free, online tutoring program provided by the DoD called Tutor.com for Military Families. Military families can access professional tutors 24/7 for help with homework, studying, test prep, college course work and career transitions. The program is especially helpful for students who have a parent deployed or who are moving frequently.
Description: Uniting Through Reading (UTR), a program for military families, helps keep parents and children connected while separated during long deployments, through the medium of reading aloud on videotape.
Using Books in Child Care to Connect with Military Children’s Lives
Description: This is an archived webinar that discusses how reading with young children helps them expand their horizons, explore their feelings, conquer their fears, and connect with important adults in their lives.
Description: A nonprofit, congressionally chartered, private organization, the USO relies on the generosity of individuals, organizations and corporations to support its activities. The USO is not part of the U.S. government, but is recognized by the Department of Defense, Congress and President of the United States, who serves as Honorary Chairman of the USO.
Description: At VetJobs, veterans can find employment assistance, post a resume and search open positions. There are over 44,00 open jobs listed.
WELCOME HOME! How to Make a Difference in the Lives of Returning War Zone Veterans
Description: This fact sheet provides suggestions on how to assist military veterans and their families.
Description: Sesame Workshop presents personal stories about coping with the death of a parent. Katie Couric joins Elmo and his furry friends to model communication between adults and children. They’ll also offer thoughtful suggestions and strategies that help the whole family.
Author: Schultheis, Mary (2 more by this author); Judith Myers-Walls
Description: This fact sheet, aimed at deployed or deploying parents, provides suggestions for helping children cope with doubt, concern, and fear throughout the deployment period.
– Research –
Adjustments Among Adolescents in Military Families When a Parent is Deployed
Author: Huebner, Angela (4 more by this author); Jay A. Mancini, Ph.D.
Description: This report summarizes the findings of a study supported by the Military Family Research Institute and the DOD Quality of Life Office that focused on the adaptations of adolescents in military families when a parent is deployed. Qualitative methods were used through focus groups conducted with youth attending camps in the summer of 2004. The findings provide a context for exploring new ways to support adolescents who have a deployed parent.
Assessing the Needs of Service Members and Their Families: A New Approach
Description: This resource describes a survey design framework developed by the RAND National Defense Research Institute (NDRI) and sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense for surveying service members and their families.
Author: Huebner, Angela (4 more by this author); Heather Williams
Description: Video of research keynote presentation from the 2008 CYFAR Conference, discusses research on the impact of parental deployment on teens and the implications for service providers working with youth in military families.
Study Concludes Master Resilience Training Effective
Author: Vergun, David
Description: Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, or CSF, was launched in 2009 to teach Soldiers how to be psychologically strong in the face of adversity, such as combat. The program, also available to family members and DA civilians, was designed at the University of Pennsylvania by behavioral specialists using proven research-based methodologies.
The Military Family Research Institute
Description: The Military Family Research Institute conducts basic and applied research on the quality of life of military families and its implications for job satisfaction, performance, and retention. The institute is led by a team of interdisciplinary investigators. The site contains information on the institute’s research aimed at improving the lives of military families.
The University of Arizona’s Military REACH
Description: The University of Arizona’s Military REACH was created in response to the need for policymakers, community leaders, educators, youth development professionals and other helping professionals to have access to relevant and current research, training, coaching tools and information to support military Service members and their families.