Soldiers, Families Build Resilience Through Yellow Ribbon Events

Photo By Zachary Mott | Sergeant 1st Class Jolaina Falkenstein, from the 88th Readiness Division, presents a class about homecoming and reintegration to more than 300 Soldiers and family members during the Yellow Ribbon event in Minneapolis December 2.  

MINNEAPOLIS, MN, UNITED STATES

12.03.2017

Story by Zachary Mott 

88th Readiness Division

MINNEAPOLIS – The 88th Readiness Division hosted Soldiers and their family members during three-day Yellow Ribbon event at a hotel in suburban Minneapolis, December 1 to 3.
The event, which focused on only redeploying Soldiers and their families, allowed the Yellow Ribbon staff as well as other community partners to provide for the specific needs caused during redeployment.

“Yellow Ribbon is critical to building resilience in the Army Reserve,” said Maj. Gen. Patrick J. Reinert, the commanding general for the 88th Readiness Division. “It builds resilience for the Soldiers and for their family members. If we don’t have a resilient family we will never have a resilient Army Reserve.”

There were more than 375 Soldiers and family members from eight separate U.S. Army Reserve units in attendance during the weekend. While there, the Soldiers and their family members were provided with presentations dealing with post-deployment topics such as Line of Duty requirements, homecoming and reintegration, financial counseling and others.

“It helps to identify a lot of the blind spots that I may have that I don’t see and also to put into words the feelings that I’ve had as things change and the environments have changed,” said Master Sgt. Stephen Person, from the 13th Quartermaster Battalion, who recently completed his fifth deployment and was attending his third Yellow Ribbon event.

The Yellow Ribbon Program allows Soldiers and the families to attend a one-stop location that provides access to resources ranging from military education to civilian employment and home buying. Soldiers and families are also provided classes on finances, family reintegration, relationship building and many other topics all with the main goal of building stronger Army families.

“We’ve got to be ready to do the nation’s bidding at a moment’s notice and the resilience is critical to that,” Reinert said.

• Date Taken: 12.03.2017
• Date Posted: 12.04.2017 15:27
• Story ID: 257375
• Location: MINNEAPOLIS, MN, US