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As we all well know, COVID-19 forced the physical shutdown of many institutions, businesses and organizations across the country. This shutdown, unfortunately, included many essential services that were left to figure out how to navigate the new normal and continue to serve their customers.
Here, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, one of the organizations that worked hard to find creative and innovative avenues to remain accessible throughout this time is Army Community Service.
“Fort Bragg ACS provides a wealth of crucial services to help the service members and Families in and around Fort Bragg navigate the intricacies and challenges of military life through information, referral, direct support, workshops and trainings,’ said Barbara Trower-Simpkins, ACS Director. “We strive to stay relevant to the needs of our community by addressing a wide-range of dynamic life situations and engaging our families through a variety of in-person and virtual avenues to remain continuously accessible within our ever-changing environment.”
Due to their use of social media, ACS was able to continue their mission throughout the state-mandated Stay-At-Home order.
“ACS quickly transitioned portions of our regularly scheduled workshops into Facebook Live mini-sessions to continue to be able to offer resources and support to our Families,” said Audra Satterlee, ACS Specialist. “We produced numerous in-house informational videos; published quick clips of relevant tips and information, and continually posted links and resources to help keep our Families informed. It is our hope that Families continue to utilize the wide-range of services ACS has available - not only through this time, but throughout the rest of their military journeys!”
Some examples of the products ACS created include short videos and Facebook Live condensed relationship and parenting classes with tips to help Families, parents, and couples manage the various stressors of daily and military life. These sessions were specifically tailored for the heightened stressors and challenges of the quarantine. Family Advocacy Program also created video vignettes highlighting child abuse prevention and domestic violence awareness messages.
The Exceptional Family Member Program produced and posted a Sensory Break of the Day video campaign on their Facebook page. These daily videos offer quick and fun activities for parents to do with their children, using items typically already found in the home. “It was encouraging to see that these videos gained attention and viewership beyond the Families at Fort Bragg, to other military branches such as the U.S. Air Force and into the civilian sector,” said Satterlee.
Other videos that can be enjoyed on a regular basis are the weekly Book Buddies Virtual Story Time readings. In these videos, various Fort Bragg first responders and other key personnel from throughout the community read inspiring children’s stories.
Not to be forgotten and equally as important, the Employment Readiness Program provided information on North Carolina’s unemployment benefits, immediate COVID-related hiring, work from home opportunities, resume building and offered tips for job seekers. In concurrence with this, the Financial Readiness Program offered financial preparedness tips via social media and remained available to support customers with their financial needs on a one-on-one virtual basis.
"Along with continually offering financial counseling, Army Emergency Relief was also available and processed throughout the pandemic for clients in need of emergency financial assistance," said Lynn Olavarria, Financial Readiness Program Manager. “Knowing the impact that the pandemic was having on the employment opportunities and the financial stability of our military Families, we wanted to ensure that we helped reduce unnecessary stress as much as possible by keeping services easily accessible.”
Between March 23 and May 11, while ACS offices were physically closed, ACS was able to engage with four and a half times more individuals and families through social media as they had during the same time period in 2019. They also saw a 310% increase in the number of times people liked, reacted, commented or shared the content with their friends.
“Being able to provide information to an audience is important,” explained Satterlee, “but what your audience does with that information is invaluable. The increase in engagements we saw shows that our soldiers and Families not only saw our content, but did something with the information we provided them - they “liked” it, had something to say about it, and even better, many shared it with their friends to help keep them informed as well. That makes it all worthwhile!”
To learn more about ACS and the wide-variety of services they have to offer, both in-person and virtually, visit https://www.bragg.armymwr.com.
| Date Taken: | 06.23.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 06.23.2020 15:36 |
| Story ID: | 372677 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NC, US |
| Web Views: | 74 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Success Story: Meeting mission through social media despite COVID-19, by Jacqueline Hill, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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