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Guard and Reserve 2010: Support services

Support services for troops and their families are particularly important for National Guard and reserve personnel, who may not live near large military installations. Spiritual, legal, financial, employment and other resources are available from within the military as well as from private organizations.

Military Service: Chaplains

Military chaplains are members of the clergy qualified to serve as commissioned staff officers on active duty in the Selected Reserve and in the Volunteer Training Unit. They are authorized by their denominations’ governing bodies to perform the same services as civilian ministers, from religious instruction and baptisms to bar mitzvahs and weddings, as permitted by their faith group.

Chaplains are trained and certified to conduct religious services and provide instruction and counseling in accordance with their denominations’ ecclesiastical guidelines, as well as minister to those of other faiths.

Occupying a special niche in the military hierarchy, chaplains are senior members of the commander’s staff, with influence on nonspiritual matters affecting morale and welfare, morals, ethics and quality of life. They are insulated from the chain of command and obligated to hold in confidence the information received in counseling service members and their families. The Army and the Air Force have their own chaplain corps. The Navy provides chaplains to the Marine Corps and Coast Guard.

Contact: For more information, call the Military Chaplains Association at 703-533-5890; visit www.mca-usa.org; or e-mail chaplains@mca-usa.org.

Coast Guard Employee Assistance Program

The Employee Assistance Program is a toll-free help line and an additional resource for Coast Guard reservists on active duty and their family members.

Contact: The Employee Assistance Program Management office may be contacted at www.uscg.mil/worklife/employee_assistance.asp or call 800-872-4957.

Family Assistance

Each of the services has its own family support programs, including those for reservists. As deployments become more frequent in support of military operations worldwide, more effort is being made to:

• Include briefings for families as part of selected mobilization exercises.

• Brief families regularly about benefits and entitlements and how to obtain them.

• Make reservists more aware of their responsibility to prepare their families for contingencies.

When a unit deploys, most reserve units organize a family readiness group that can be active during annual training or any time unit members are away.

Groups usually are made up of spouses, parents and siblings of reserve unit members. They operate according to each unit’s needs. Often, the companionship and sympathetic ears they provide are sufficient. Common activities include meetings, parties, newsletters and telephone trees or calling lists that help disseminate information about the unit quickly. Group leaders also serve as a link between families and the member’s chain of command.

Contact: Information on programs is available through the following resources:

• Air Force, www.afrc.af.mil/library/family.asp.

• Army, Army Well-Being:

www.armywell-being.org.

• Coast Guard Reserve, see the National Military Family Association, www.nmfa.org.

• Navy, www.nffsp.org, www.lifelines.navy.mil.

• Marine Forces Reserve, www.marforres.usmc.mil.

• National Guard Family Program, www.guardfamily.org.

Family Centers

The services run family programs, with centers as one-stop places for members and their families to find information, education and assistance to help them manage the challenges and enjoy the benefits of military life.

Outreach is available for those in remote areas. The centers also serve mobilized National Guard and reserve members, Defense Department civilians and military retirees.

Centers typically provide services at no charge.

As needed, the National Guard sets up family assistance centers to help families of all components; about 400 are currently operating. The National Guard also has permanent family assistance coordinators.

Each service calls its family centers something different: Army Community Service Centers; Marine and Family Service Centers; Fleet and Family Support Centers; Airmen and Family Readiness Centers; and Coast Guard Work-Life Centers.

Types of assistance include:

• Counseling by licensed therapists for coping with the stresses of military life.

• Crisis assistance for immediate, short-term help in a critical situation.

• Deployment and mobilization support services.

• Financial management education — investing, debt, budgeting, saving and retirement planning — via classes and individual consultations.

• Employment assistance to help service members and families find jobs and map out career strategies.

• Information and referrals on services and resources in the community.

• Outreach programs for families that are isolated, new to the military or geographically separated.

• Life skills education in parenting, stress management and other issues.

• Relocation assistance to help families move and adapt to a new location.

Depending on the service, the following programs may be provided at family centers:

• Family advocacy programs aimed at preventing incidents of abuse and treating victims.

• New-parent support programs that offer home visits by nurses or other health experts who can answer questions about infant care.

• Special-needs family member assistance programs that offer information and support to family members who have requirements for medical, educational or mental health services.

Contact: The Defense Department’s Web site, www.militaryhomefront.dod.mil, is a gateway to information on quality-of-life programs and services.

The individual services’ family support Web sites are:

Army: www.myarmyonesource.com.

Navy: www.nffsp.org, www.lifelines.navy.mil.

Air Force: http://ask.afpc.randolph.af.mil/famops and www.afcrossroads.com.

Marine Corps: www.usmc-mccs.org.

For information on spouse employment, education and relocation, see www.milspouse.org.

Families with special needs can find information and resources, including a community bulletin board, at www.militaryhomefront.dod.mil/efm.

USA4MilitaryFamilies.org, at www.usa4militaryfamilies.dod.mil, is a continuing effort to engage and educate state policymakers, business leaders, nonprofit organizations and other leaders about the needs of the military community. Examples of priority issues include in-state tuition, payday lending, military children in transition, spouse employment and issues affecting the Guard and reserve, such as child care.

The Defense Department’s America Supports You program links deployed troops and their families to private organizations offering a variety of support services. Find it at www.ourmilitary.mil.

Separating service members can view a range of transition services to help ease their move back into the civilian sector. See www.transitionassistanceprogram.com for jobs, VA benefits and other information.

Financial

Defense officials have embarked on a financial readiness campaign in an effort to educate service members and family members about making wise financial decisions that can help them build wealth by paying off debt and saving money. Part of that is the Military Saves Web site, at www.militarysaves.org, which features tips on getting out of debt, saving for emergencies, saving for a car, and other milestones.

In late 2008, officials began taking their show on the road with “financial readiness challenge campaign” events at military installations around the country. Topics include credit management and debt elimination, savings and investments, housing loans and foreclosures, and financial, estate and retirement planning. For locations of upcoming events, visit www.militaryhomefront.dod.mil, click on “Service Providers” on the top bar, then “Conferences and Workshops” on the left side.

The NASD Investor Education Foundation also has a military education campaign, aimed at helping service members make wise investment decisions. Among its offerings is a Web site, www.saveandinvest.org, which offers information and tips. The Web site lists the foundation’s upcoming free financial education forums, held throughout the year at military installations, with information about how to register. Some programs are specifically tailored to military spouses and injured or wounded service members.

Injured Service Member Support

The Defense Department’s Wounded Warrior Resource Center provides a call center, with trained specialists available 24 hours a day, to answer questions or concerns during the recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration phases. It’s a central point of contact for wounded warriors and their family members.

The resource center’s Web site, www.woundedwarriorresourcecenter.com, provides links to medical facilities, connections to peers, and links to a variety of resources dealing with issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

The specialists will directly connect the wounded warrior, family member or caregiver to the person who can help. They work closely with the military services’ specialized support programs for the wounded: the Army Wounded Warrior Program, the Marine4Life-Severely Injured Program, the Navy’s Safe Harbor Program and the Air Force Palace HART Program.

These programs and the Defense Department’s Wounded Warrior Resource Center, can help with issues such as financial assistance; employment and training; nonmedical personal, couples and family counseling; child care; government assistance; transportation; and personal or equipment needs. Services are free.

Contact: 800-342-9647 or 888-774-1361. E-mail: wwrc@militaryonesource.com; www.woundedwarriorresourcecenter.com.

Inspector General

An installation’s inspector general investigates service members’ complaints that come from outside the immediate chain of command. Most major National Guard state commands and reserve commands have inspectors general.

If a complaint cannot be resolved at the local level, it is referred to the next higher command. Ultimately, it may be referred to the inspector general of the appropriate service or the Defense Department.

Contact: For complaints related to fraud, waste and abuse: www.dodig.mil or e-mail: hotline@dodig.mil, or call the hot line at 800-424-9098, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

Legal Assistance

Service members can get free legal advice on a variety of problems, from writing wills and understanding rental contracts to dealing with creditors. This includes reservists ordered to active duty. Legal clinics often are set up as part of the mobilization process to take care of wills and powers of attorney before a member deploys.

Families of activated and deployed reservists can use legal offices at nearby installations.

Legal assistance attorneys don’t represent clients facing military or civilian criminal charges or assist clients on matters relating to private business ventures. Attorneys are governed by a strict code of professional ethics that, among other things, obligates them to keep client information confidential.

Legal assistance links can be found through each service’s family assistance Web sites.

Military Onesource

The Defense Department has a toll-free phone number and Web site to augment installation family support programs.

Military OneSource provides immediate help to service members and their families for managing the everyday issues of military life, such as child care, relocating to new communities or finding an English-speaking plumber in a foreign country. It also has access to licensed counselors for marital issues, deployment stress management and parent-child communication.

Military OneSource phones are staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Translation services are available in more than 130 languages. Referrals and customized information are available for each service or family member.

Contact: www.militaryonesource.com or 800-342-9647. Overseas: 800-342-9647; overseas collect: 484-530-5908.

Most reserve units have an ombudsman, key volunteer or other trained volunteer, usually the spouse of a unit member, who can help families and individuals during activation and deployment. These individuals may be introduced at predeployment briefings, but ideally are known to the unit families before deployment.

Contact your work-life office, reserve center or local National Guard armory to find out who your ombudsman is and how to contact a volunteer.

Private Services: Armed Services YMCA

The Armed Services YMCA is a social services agency with branches and affiliates at many major installations in the U.S. Most services are offered free or for a nominal fee with a valid military ID card.

Recreational, educational, social and religious programs include child care, mentoring, computer learning centers for children, single service members’ centers, hospital assistance, transportation, adult classes, aerobics and classes in English as a second language.

Contact: www.asymca.org.

National Military Family Association

In addition to providing a wealth of information about benefits and services for military families, this organization has scholarship programs for military spouses, and free “Operation Purple” camps for children of deployed service members.

Contact: www.nmfa.org.

Operation Homefront

Operation Homefront provides emergency assistance and support to reservists and their families, and also to those who need assistance during and after deployment. There are 31 chapters in 34 states, with more than 2,500 volunteers. The network offers help with the following:

• Emergency aid such as food needs, vehicle, home and appliance repairs.

• Computer programs for families to stay in touch with their loved ones.

• Financial assistance for bill paying and other purposes during crises, illness or death.

• Furniture programs.

• Special military discount and shopping programs.

• Wounded Warrior Wives Program, which provides comprehensive support to caregivers, including emergency transportation and accommodations, bill-pay assistance and help with home remodeling for families facing the need to accommodate for physical disabilities.

Contact: Links and phone numbers for local chapters are at www.operationhomefront.net.

Red Cross

Armed Forces Emergency Services of the American Red Cross provides a vital link to home for those serving in remote areas. Emergency messages can be sent by service members or their families for quick relay by the Red Cross to almost any community or military installation, even ships at sea.

Some local Red Cross chapters may be able to provide links to assistance for families, including parents of service members, and others who may not live near a military installation.

Contact: 877-272-7337; or www.redcross.org and type in your ZIP code for your local chapter.

Relief Societies

Private relief societies help service members solve short-term, emergency financial problems. There are four private, nonprofit societies: Air Force Aid Society, Army Emergency Relief, Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society and Coast Guard Mutual Assistance.

Each has local representatives on military installations, usually in family centers. All share a common goal of helping relieve financial distress, but they have slightly different policies and procedures. Anyone seeking aid should bring a military ID card, leave papers, leave-and-earnings statements and other information or documents showing emergency financial need. The societies rely on voluntary donations and receive no government funds.

There is no charge for services. Some aid does not need to be repaid, and loans are interest-free. Checks are distributed by local representatives.

Contact:

• Air Force Aid Society, www.afas.org.

• Army Emergency Relief, www.aerhq.org.

• Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, www.nmcrs.org.

• Coast Guard Mutual Assistance, www.cgmahq.org.

This civilian group, formed in 2003, helps families with various problems that arise during deployments and mobilizations, with a focus on helping families through short-term financial crunches. For example, it has a program that can help families avoid losing their homes because of financial difficulties related to deployments.

Contact: 800-773-0387, www.usacares.us.

USO Centers

The United Service Organizations operates about 130 centers worldwide that offer hospitality in airports and Navy fleet centers. It offers maps, bus routes and help with lodging, currency exchange and language. The USO has five mobile canteens and nine information centers on or near installations.

It also provides tours, dances, free movies, socials and discount tickets for sports and cultural events. Information is available from the nearest USO or the base family support center.

Contact: USO, 888-484-3876; www.uso.org.