Support for Military Families

Today’s focus is on the military family.  Did you know that 1.9 million children have one or more parents in the military, and 900,000 of them have had a parent deployed multiple times?  This places stress on the entire family, so let’s support them whenever and however we can.  Here are some ideas and resources:

Today’s video features Queen Latifah and the Sesame Street characters, who offer support to military families: http://youtu.be/4QoOlBjXESU  The Sesame Street workshops, in partnership with the USO, just finished spending time in Arizona this month entertaining military children at Luke, MCAS/Yuma, Davis-Monthan, and Ft. Huachuca bases.  For more information about their initiatives, see: http://www.sesameworkshop.org/what-we-do

Here are some free services available to children with parents in the military:

• Free online tutoring, available 24x7: http://www.tutor.com/MILITARY 
• If you are interested in having a mentor, or being one, for a child of a military family, Yavapai Big Brothers Big Sisters is part of Operation Family Support: contact dspitler@azbigs.org, or see www.azbigs.org for more information.
• A variety of family-oriented services offered through your local YMCA: http://www.asymca.org/ 
• And free passes to National Parks will give fun for the whole military family, see: http://www.militaryfamily.org/feature-articles/service-members-families-get.html 

Parenting can be stressful for everyone, but separations and moves common in military families can leave you at a loss for words.  A little extra help finding the right words can help you avoid unnecessary pitfalls at those critical moments.  Helpful discussion guides for parents who are deploying or reuniting are available at: http://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/families.asp

There is an online community for military spouses, with free newsletters, financial tips, and information about Blue Star Families, located at: http://www.military.com/spouse  If you’re unfamiliar with the good work of Blue Star Families, here’s more about them: http://www.bluestarfam.org/

And…Happy 59th birthday to the Air Force on September 18th.