Family readiness enables spouses to help unit families

Photo By Sgt. Michael Iams | Attendees at the Family Readiness Volunteer Training class take notes to help them be an effective family readiness volunteer at the Marine Corps Family Team Building on Camp Pendleton, May 24. The attendees learned how to communicate with service members and their families and by what means as well as understand the roles and responsibilities of each member in the command unit in regards to the Family Readiness Program.  

CAMP PENDLETON, CA, UNITED STATES

05.24.2012

Story by Cpl. Michael Iams 

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — Camp Pendleton’s Marine Corps Family Team Building hosted a Family Readiness Volunteer Training class at the MCFTB Headquarters May 24.

The Family Readiness Program is designed to offer services to assist commands in developing effective readiness programs while helping and supporting unit families become prepared for mission, life and career events.

“This class is designed for family members of service members who want to volunteer,” said Elizabeth Carty, a family readiness program trainer with MCTFB. “It is held every three years to train volunteers and retrain those in the Family Readiness Program.”

The structure of the program, roles and responsibilities, communication within the program and resources were explained during the class.

“As a family readiness advisor, assistant or volunteer you need to be able to give knowledge of benefits and entitlements, have the ability to use resources for self-help and self-referral, and understand the role of the (family readiness officer),” said Carty. “We need to be able to help or find a resource that can help service members and their families with deployments, promotions, (permanent change of station), (end of active service), births, deaths, demotions and other things that may occur to a family within the military.”

Along with knowledge of the military life, volunteers in the family readiness program must know who and what are available to service members and their families.

“In my 18 years of working here, I am still learning new things,” said Jeremy Hinkhouse, deputy FRO for Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity. “There are new programs and resources that have been implemented that I have never heard of in my 18 years here.”

The class taught about the roles and responsibilities of each member in the command unit in regards to the FRP.

“I like how the class breaks down the lesson into scenarios to help us learn all the roles of the command,” said Krissi Clymer, a family readiness assistant with 9th Communication Battalion. “It helped me learn about things I didn’t know like (operational security)."

Attendees of the class also learned how to communicate with service members and their families and by what means.

“Emails, unit websites and toll-free numbers are some of the communication methods used to help service members and their families stay informed with the unit,” said Tabitha Perez, a readiness and deployment support trainer with MCFTB.

Throughout the class, attendees participated in activities that utilized their family readiness skills.

“Teaching this class is one of the best parts of the job,” said Carty. “It feels great to be able to help volunteers make a connection and support the service member.”

• Date Taken: 05.24.2012
• Date Posted: 06.04.2012 12:35
• Story ID: 89395
• Location: CAMP PENDLETON, CA, US