Photo By Staci-Jill Burnley | Military families at Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, got an up-close look at the...... read more read more
Rock Island Arsenal, Ill. – While senior Army leadership continues their drive for more Soldier diversity initiatives from the top down, a program office on a little island in the middle of the Mississippi River is starting at the grassroots and from the ground up, with the very smallest of military family members – kids.
Rock Island Arsenal’s Army Community Services office began a program 20 years ago called the Fatherhood Program. It was developed to foster the special relationship between military dads and their children and has been a popular monthly event, with outings combined with dinner to local recreation facilities, parks, and installation support elements, such as the fire station.
It was at the RIA Fire Station, Feb. 22 that ACS bid farewell to the moniker “Fatherhood Program” and ushered in a new and fresh program name and concept to reflect the ever-changing face of service member parents: Camo and Kids.
Jenny Kerr, RIA’s Family Advocacy Program manager at ACS, said the name change has been something they’ve been considering for a while, as more female service members, same-sex couples, single parents and non-parental custodial caregivers began comprising the makeup of military families.
“The numbers of female service members have increased and the definition of a ‘family’ has evolved,” Kerr said. “The old idea of ‘dad’ as the service member and ‘mom’ as the spouse does not accurately portray many of our families. We wanted to update the name to reflect the changes we have made in eligibility criteria of the program over the past several years.”
While not a large installation, RIA is unique in who serves in the commands and tenant activities located on the island. There are active duty service members and activated guard and reserve members serving across a number of mission areas and assigned to headquarters elements like Army Sustainment Command, Joint Munitions Command, and First Army.
Kerr said that mission set diversity naturally flows over into shaping programs supporting diverse families, and the “small town” atmosphere gives ACS the ability to tailor needs by getting to really know the military families.
“I love working on a small installation which allows me, and the rest of ACS, to really get to know our families,” she said. “There is no cookie cutter military family. Whether it is a single parent, dual military, same-sex couple, grandparents raising grandchildren, or anything else, we want to provide the support and care all families deserve during their time here at RIA.”
It was actually a service member who participates in the program who came up with the new name “Camo and Kids.”
Lt. Col. Jason O’Neal, the cybersecurity branch chief at the U.S. Army Sustainment Command, was in the program office picking up a space activity package for his four kids when he was brought into a conversation about potential name changes that was happening while he was there.
“I was speaking with Chassity Morse, the ACS relocation program manager, and it came up that they were looking for a name change,” he said. “They’d gone through a list of names, but were not inspired by the options they had,” he said. “I didn’t have anything meaningful right then to offer, but I like the program and wanted to help.”
O’Neal started to think about what he’d observed since he and his family arrived at RIA and began participating in the program, and that started shaping his creativity and his understanding that while supporting “fatherhood” is important, fatherhood isn’t reflective in all military families.
“As we have attended the activities, I had seen families from different services, sizes, and structures,” O’Neal said. There was one specific family I remembered seeing at some of them, and it was a mother and her children. As a father, I appreciated the name ‘Fatherhood’ because I truly feel relationships between fathers and their children can be very difficult because of military culture, training, deployments, etc., but I fully recognize that the Armed Services aren’t just composed of men or fathers.”
O’Neal said the concepts behind the Fatherhood Program are important, but the name was restrictive and, as social and family dynamics have evolved, was possibly unintentionally offensive for some. So he began thinking about how to encompass the idea of the military parent bonding with their kids.
“Something that came to mind was that each service has/had their own distinctive camouflage pattern or uniform,” he said. “So by focusing on the uniform, you could encompass all branches of service without even focusing on whether it was a father or mother, just a military parent.”
And that is where the idea of “Camo and Kids” came from, according to O’Neal.
Each service camouflage pattern is contained within the new logo (to include Coast Guard blue), as well as some fun, primary colors to represent the diversity and vibrancy of childhood.
Kerr and the rest of the ACS staff were excited about the new name and logo which O’Neal delivered.
“He really knocked it out of the park for us,” she said.
The inaugural event for Camo and Kids will occur March 24 at Michael’s Fun World in Davenport, Iowa, an area amusement destination. O’Neal thinks the name change will encourage families who have been hesitant to participate to come out and join in the fun.
“I think it will help draw in new families who may have felt like the program, under the previous title, didn’t apply to them,” he said. “The new logo seems more representative of the diversity of our military families. I encourage any and all families to come to these activities.”
“The ACS leaders and volunteers do a great job putting together fun activities that are time well spent with your children. Any opportunities to get kids off of their devices and engaging in these activities as a family will be time well spent,” O’Neal said.
For more information about Camo and Kids, or other ACS programs available on RIA, please contact Jenny Kerr at (309) 782-3049 or jennifer.a.kerr10.civ@army.mil.
| Date Taken: | 03.03.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 03.03.2022 12:44 |
| Story ID: | 415699 |
| Location: | ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, IL, US |
| Web Views: | 42 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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