Prioritize the List: What Are Your Needs?

Have you heard of the Army Family Covenant? It was signed a few days ago by General Casey.

"It was immediately clear to us that the Families were the most stretched, and as a result, the most stressed, part of the force, and that what we were asking those families was a quantum different than anything I expected we would ask," Gen. Casey said.

"It struck me that the best wasn't good enough. We have not, until this point, treated Families as the readiness issue that they are," he said last week when he announced the covenant during the Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting.

Gen. Casey said the Army wants to provide Soldiers and their Families with a level of support commensurate with their level of service, and the covenant is in direct response to concerns from Army Families. They are concerned about funding and support for Family programs, physical and mental healthcare, housing, education and childcare and employment opportunities for spouses.

In 2008, approximately 1.4 billion dollars has been pledged to help support those of us on the homefront. How will this money to be spent?

Well, in the case of Ft. Benning, dollars will fund the following:

At Benning, the money will be used to improve the Army quality of life by increasing the number of free child care hours for spouses of deployed Soldiers, waiving registration fees for youth sports programs, building new on-post child care centers, building new soldier barracks, and much more.

And at Ft. Polk:

Fort Polk will provide 16 yours of free respite child care per child per month for custodial parent/ guardian of children of deployed soldiers to allow for medical appointments, personal business, etc. Current full time patrons will receive 20 percent off of child care during deployment.

Families of deployed soldiers will also receive a 20 percent discount for all expanded youth programs.

These will include the youth services, sports fees and instructional classes for children as well as free bowling skills clinics and multiple aquatic programs.

The $1.4 billion, among other factors, will help those of you stationed in Germany, too:

After a couple of lean years, the fiscal picture for U.S. garrisons in Europe is much brighter this fiscal year, officials say.

“You’re going to see more people in Army Community Services and with child care and youth programs,” said Russell Hall, director of Installation Management Command-Europe.

“We’ll have the opportunity to reduce rates and costs. You’ll start seeing a lot of scaffolding with new (construction) projects.”

Can you guess what the number one concern among the military spouses I deal with daily seems to be? Two guesses, and the first doesn't count. Yes - it's childcare. When you're mommy and daddy, you don't get down time, and that's a problem for military spouses with children who are dealing with frequent deployments. And it's not just about down time or preserving your sanity, it's also about how impractical it is for you to take your children with you everywhere you go; shopping, doctor's appointments, etc..

On our radio segment about SpouseBUZZ LIVE, TripleE said she hadn't had a break from her kids in a while, and the childcare offering prompted her to register for the event.

According to the Army Family Covenant, the $1.4 billion will be spent in a variety of ways:

Standardizing and funding existing Family programs and services

Increasing accessibility and quality of health care

Improving Soldier and Family housing

Ensuring excellence in schools, youth services, and child care

Expanding education and employment opportunities for Family members

Do you know how funds will be distributed and spent at your post?

I would love to hear from military spouses -- not just Army spouses -- on how you would prioritize the list above. What would you like to see more of, or less of? What do you need that you don't have? What can the military do, within reason, to make your lives easier?

Comments

[Non-Essential Equipment]

I'm skeptical. Once I see monies really being spent, I'll be more gung ho. Lord knows, we really really need more childcard over here in Germany. But honestly, the biggest problem hasn't been $$$ but finding childcare workers and facilities big enough to handle 16 free hours/month offers.

It's a lot of money but it's going to take some serious time for any visible changes to take place.

[dizzylizzie]

we've recieved notice of these perks in the past month or so. however regarding the childcare issue, i have two comments: 1. there's still a 1+ year waiting list to use the CDC so whats the point of offering free care they cant provide?
2.
i brought my baby girl there for hourly care for a few weeks. not only did they keep shuffling her from room to room trying to find a 'spot' for her, one day i picked her up and the bottle the girl was trying to give her was scalding hot. so hot it burned my wrist leaving a dark pink/red splotch when i dumped it into the sink to show the girl just how hot it was. never brought my baby there again. i spoke with the manager on duty who informed me to fill out a stack of forms but 'oh wait! we dont use those anymore, now we have a new form system but uh...dont seem to have any...how about you come back on monday?" not a word asking if my baby was ok. just fill out this stack of forms that we cant seem to locate and come back on monday. yeah NOT!

[dizzylizzie]

on the plus side, the one free month of Tae Kwon Do for our 8 year old was nice. he was already enrolled in TKD for a year so they just credited the account for the next month. so that was nice.

[Andi]

From what many Army wives have told me, this statement by General Casey seems to be dead-on:

"(They) don't want fancy new programs," Casey told a crowd of officers, cadets and children gathered at a youth center at the United States Military Academy yesterday. "(They) want us to fund what we've got."

Link below:

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071031/NEWS/710310330/-1/NEWS

[Melanie]

We've never used daycare facilities (not even during long TDY's) and we have no use for many of the family services (we can amuse ourselves without the military's help) so I'd have to say I'm most interested in improving housing and health care. The quarters we lived in for the past two years were appalling and it's very difficult to secure an on-base appointment at our clinic, which doesn't even offer emergency services.

[AR]

I too would prioritize housing and health care. I recently helped a friend move in to a different house at our base. She'd tried to move for months do to the mold in her house and housing couldn't find one for her. It wasn't until her son stopped breathing during an asthma attack that housing finally found a house. Her husband is the commander of a squadron and they stuck his family in house that had been scheduled to be condemned 3 days after they moved in. It's disgusting.

My own home was nothing to be proud about either and it wasn't until my friend got them to look at my housing maintainence log that they finally moved us.

Getting an appointment on base is also a joke and yet getting one off base isn't much easier either.

[dizzylizzie]

i absolutely agree! getting an appointment on post is insane. and the housing is sub-SUB-standard. these are the issues they need to be addressing. free tae kwon do for a month is great. but housing without headache inducing mold would be better. i just had to bleach my walls because i recently turned on the heat due to the onset of chilly nights and mornings. the warm air combined with cynder block walls apparently makes for mold.

a friend of mine moved off post a year ago because the mold was causing health issues with her four kids. everything from headaches and vertigo to asthma attacks, bronchitis and eye infections

[AR]

Ah yes, the headaches. Funny, but none of my family has them any more. My children aren't on 3 medications a day, one of my sons no longer needs an inhaler that he only ever used at home. We're not making constant doctor visits. We were told that half the base has allergies and I promptly replied that half the base lives in old shitty substandard housing that is poorly maintained. I could write a book on the topic (complete with the photos i took at my last house and my petri dish test results) but I won't. I'd rather pay out the nose for my kids to learn Tae Kwon do then have to pay out the nose for medications that are treating illnesses directly caused by my poor housing.

We've moved and now all health issues are gone. Pretty sad imo

[MO]

Housing and Healthcare here too. I have never used any child services on post and now that my children are older I see no need. I know many would like to see the childcare situation be a lot better than it is, but I would like to see Army (or any other) housing not be listed as sub-standard and other branches getting more money for having to live in it. Why does the Army thinks it is good enough for their soldier's families?

I would like to see health care ran like a nice civilian health care office. Not like I walked into a methadone clinic for clean needles and a fix.

Anything ran on post feels like I am at some sort of government assistance office. I have never understood why we are not treated with more respect. - oh well different rant... x-posting to my own blog, I'm fired up now... LOL :P

[wendy]

The huge Army post we live on has LESS childcare than the small Air Force base we moved from. That is craziness. The wait for preschool for my son is about 2 years long. Hello - we'll be done with preschool by then!

I don't love daycare facilities, but even when you don't work full time, sometimes you need good reliable, and (most importantly) accessable childcare!

I can see that childcare is a real need on this Army Post. I hope some of that money trickles over here...

[Barbie]

Sorry to be such a downer but I think it's all a joke. We are over here in Germany and if they want to help with the cost of Childcare Great! But... What job can we get so we an enroll our children. It will still be the same Aafes jobs that pay just a little over min wage or jobs that can only be held by someone with 80 different degrees and I don't know about you girl but I married my husband for love and not money (Thank God cause he's a Solder so he has not money) but we can't even afford for me to go back to school to have a fighting chance at one of those jobs.
Now I could go on and on but it won't change anything. My personal opinion is they should take that money and use it to train us spouses so we can have the GS10 - 15 Jobs. Why hire outside of the Army. Wouldn't that improve our quality of life if they paid our spouses and a huge part of the reason the Solders stay in is because the Spouse is happy with where they are at?
Just wish there was a little more common sense out there.

[billie elias]

I hope I can help you all with award-winning toys for the kids on these bases.
Please go to www.toysofdiscovery.com and see the developmental, age-appropriate toys for your child (birth to age 10) or your childcare provider.