Mission: Family: A decade of progress for family support, but more work remains - Navy Community, Navy Spouse and Family Resources - Navy Times

Mission: Family: A decade of progress for family support, but more work remains

Sheri Hummer remembers feeling isolated living in the civilian community near Camp Pendleton, Calif., where her husband, a Marine captain, was a company commander.

She had a 1-year-old baby and no family in the area, her husband was preparing for a six-month deployment — and the battalion had no family support program.

So the company Marines helped create a small program of their own. They raised $150 for her to take care of the families during that deployment.

Through newsletters and get-togethers, “we kept the families together, and the company came back from the deployment, and it was successful,” she said.

That was in the 1980s. As she and her husband, now-Maj. Gen. Steven Hummer, talked about family readiness issues at a recent forum of the Military Officers Association of America, it hit home how far we’ve come.

The stress of nine years of war has pushed defense and service officials, lawmakers, private organizations and researchers to look at issues affecting military families and what can be done to help them. First lady Michelle Obama has also sought to focus attention on military families and their sacrifices.

And while we still may have a long way to go, think of just a few of the progressive programs created in the past decade:

• Paid family readiness officers in the Army and Marine Corps to help take the stress off volunteer spouses.

• Military family life consultants for some military communities and schools, funded by defense officials, providing confidential assistance.

• Confidential counseling sessions through Military OneSource for families and service members, plus a 24-hour online and phone presence that has expanded resources far beyond the weekday brick-and-mortar family centers.

• A spouse tuition assistance program that helps pay for training for portable careers for some spouses and career counseling for all. Although the My Career Advancement Account program has been scaled back, it clearly fulfills a great need for spouses of junior enlisted members and officers.

• Free tutoring for children and family members, even those in college, through www.tutor.com/military.

Families will continue to make the most of what they have. But a key to the future of family programs are leaders such as Hummer, his bosses, and others across the services who understand the importance of helping families connect with the resources they need — and take an interest in making that happen.

“It’s vital to keep families informed and engaged throughout the deployment cycle,” the major general said. “Spouses are the glue that keeps families together.”

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E-mail Karen Jowers, the wife of a retired service member.