Photo By Sgt. Joshua Young | Family readiness officers from I Marine Expeditionary Force meet for a professional...... read more read more
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CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - Family readiness officers from I Marine Expeditionary Force gathered for a professional development workshop, Jan. 26.
The family readiness officers came from Camp Pendleton, Marine Corps Air Stations Yuma, Ariz., and Miramar, Calif., to discuss ways they can improve their ability to help Marine Corps families and how to manage their own stressors in the work place.
Karen Gough, the I MEF family readiness officer, led the workshop and covered subjects such as budgets, events and preparing families for emergencies.
“I hope to walk away from this at the end of the day with a better sense of what a family readiness officer’s value is to his or her command,” said Wayne R. Bell, the I MEF Command Element family readiness officer. “It will make us more professional and help us understand what the families needs really are.”
The floor was open to family readiness officers with experience in the subject covered, enabling the attendants to learn from each other’s successes or mistakes.
“It’s really good for us to be able to share our experiences and lessons learned because every unit is unique and different,” Bell said. “The reason why we are getting together like this is to start a professional development or education for all of the family readiness officers throughout I MEF, not just here at Camp Pendleton.”
The attendants broke off into smaller classes to interact and engage in an exchange of ideas.
“I think the program is to learn more about each other and what we are doing so we can be more successful in the different commands that we represent,” said Steve Klauck, a family readiness officer from Marine Wing Support Squadron 371 in MCAS Yuma, Ariz. “One of the things I’ve found interesting is the crisis management and what other people do to relieve some of the stressors involved in servicing the families.”
Family readiness officers help families with needs that may arise and coordinate events and activities to encourage families to support each other during a deployment.
“It is also nice to learn the way other family readiness officers cope with those stressors and how they take care of themselves, which ultimately helps them better take care of their units, Marines and families,” Klauck said. “Sometimes it’s easy to get trapped in a bubble in our specific units as to how we do business and how we are supporting our unit.”
The attendants were instructed to take what they have learned at the workshop and implement it in their own work.
“It is important to meet and open our eyes to how everyone else is doing it,” Klauck said. “We can take that information back and improve our program and offer more to the Marines and families in our organization.”
| Date Taken: | 01.26.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 01.27.2012 13:43 |
| Story ID: | 82939 |
| Location: | CAMP PENDLETON, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 282 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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