By Scott Prater
Mountaineer staff
FORT CARSON, Colo. — Fort Carson’s Army Community Service (ACS) rolled out a new training program for individual company representatives recently and the program signifies a major change to the way the organization supports military units.
After Army leaders decided to reorganize traditional Family Readiness Groups from spouse-driven organizations to those led by military commanders back in April 2020, they took another step in November when they ordered Army divisions to designate Family readiness representatives at the company level.
Previously, readiness representatives were known as Family Readiness Liaisons. Now, they are known as Command Family Readiness Representatives (CFRR).
The conversion is much more significant than a simple name change, said Connie Roy, Family enrichment program manager at Fort Carson’s ACS.
“Previously, we had readiness liaisons at the battalion level, whereas now, every company has a CFRR,” Roy explained. “And the CFRRs have a much more expansive scope than their predecessors.”
With that expansive scope comes more in-depth training — training that’s provided by ACS staff.
“We went from holding a course quarterly with 10 attendees to now we’re holding courses every two weeks with 50 or 60 attendees,” Roy said. “So were getting all of the company-level CFRR trained up on everything from Soldier and Family readiness topics to the availability of resources.
Roy now has four ACS staff members to assist in developing and delivering course curriculum, something that’s also changed along with the new Army operational order.
“Really, the CFRR is charged with managing the Soldier and Family Readiness Group (SFRG) so Soldiers and Families have a liaison right there in the company who can help them understand what resources exist and someone who can also make referrals for them, kind of do a warm hand off and really plug them into services.”
The ACS training, Roy said, informs CFRRs about their roles and responsibilities, how they can build communication within their groups, how to manage the SRFG’s informal fund, recruiting volunteers and managing casualty response teams. The course also covers social media operational security (OPSEC), Family advocacy and other resources. Of course, in the current pandemic environment, these courses must be conducted virtually, which adds complexity and planning requirements simply because of the sheer number of attendees.
Each battalion and brigade also has a CFRR to manage the program at a higher level, and they all fall under Capt. Brian Hicks, Soldier and Family Readiness Program coordinator, 4th Infantry Division.
“This has been a point of emphasis for the commanding general,” Hicks said. “He wants to have strong SFRGs, as it’s consistent with the Army’s ‘People First’ initiative. “I think it’s a good thing because it helps communication. We now have two individuals (the CFRR and an assigned assistant) at the lowest unit level and that allows the brigade representatives to have greater fidelity and communication. Yes, every representative is going to be unique, but it’s a way for us to share information and push guidance so that everyone can get on the same page.”
Roy said ACS staff are continually updating the CFRR training course based on lessons learned from previous versions, and that unit representatives can and do continually seek clarification, guidance and information from ACS as they perform their CFRR roles.
| Date Taken: | 01.14.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 03.16.2021 12:06 |
| Story ID: | 391492 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 211 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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