Blue Star Families' Welcome Week Part 2: Operation

Kathy Roth-Douquet — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 14:09:23 -0400

Our goal with Blue Star Welcome Week is to empower communities to create a moment of welcome for local military-connected families in order to help cultivate a sense of belonging after a military move or transition. If you haven’t yet, take a moment to read our overview of the Blue Star Welcome Week initiative (https://rly.pt/BSFwelcomeweek) then come back here to learn more about the specifics!

Blue Star Welcome Week is an evidence-based national activation that will improve mental health, military family resilience, and overall readiness. Our efforts will address the interconnected military, transitioning, and veteran life issues and aim to improve the quality of life for military families throughout the nation. Blue Star Welcome Week will accomplish this goal in several different ways, including focusing on the link between employment and belonging, schools and childcare and resiliency.

In the 2018 Military Family Lifestyle survey, both military spouses and active-duty service members reported their top recommendation for improving military spouses’ sense of belonging to the local civilian community was increasing the jobs available for military spouses. Blue Star Families found that unemployed military spouses who want to or need to work have the lowest sense of belonging. To combat this problem, we’re developing a Blue Star Welcome Week webinar series which will provide information and resources to help spouses find a job after a PCS, introduce portable career options, and emphasize the importance of remote and flexible work with employers.

In addition to the workplace, schools and child care centers are the gateway to a new community for many military families. When schools and child care centers are welcoming, the entire family benefits. Military family respondents with children in grades K-12 reported a higher sense of belonging to the local community than those families who don’t have school-age kids. Schools that actively practice welcoming military children help children achieve a sense of belonging to their school and their local community. Other great resources for embracing new military children are developing friendships, participating in activities, and having supportive teachers and caregivers. Blue Star Welcome Week, in partnership with Child Care Aware of America, aims to create welcoming toolkits for child care centers to ensure that every child feels like they belong and are supported.

Time and time again our research has shown that a sense of belonging is critical to healthy and resilient families. Blue Star Families works to bolster belonging by hosting events nationwide, and online, that improve social capital quantity and quality. These traits are significantly associated with belonging according to our 2021 Connected Communities Impact Study. Belonging is the strongest protective factor for military family resilience, and building a powerful sense of community helps support the mental health and well-being of our military famiies.Blue StarWelcome Week programming will reach local and national communities alike to provide opportunities to emphatically and publicly “welcome”as many of our military families as we can possibly reach.. Utilizing every avenue available, we will raise awareness and provide support through public service announcements, coverage from national media outlets, proclamations at every level of government, and community signage to let our families know that they are welcome here.

Blue Star Families is built upon the work and experiences of military families, just like yours. We are passionate about improving any aspect of the stressful moving process that you may be going through because we’ve been there. . With a a deep focus on the importance of belongingness, Blue Star Welcome Week will help bridge the divide between military and civilian communities, to form a bond that will prove beneficial for everyone. .

If you and your family are at any part of the moving process (pre-planning, starting to get settled, or even on the road now!) let us know in the comments what we can do to make the process easier for you! We are excited to launch this initiative and hear your thoughts.

Blue Star Families’ Welcome Week | RallyPoint

Military life, in any capacity, is challenging by nature - time apart, training, frequent moves, high operational tempo. These challenges can leave veterans, service members, and their families feeling alienated. Americans may have a broad understanding of what Military life entails, such as deployments and training, but unfortunately most are unaware of the daily sacrifices our military families make. Our research indicates 81% of military...

Response by Lt Col Charlie Brown made Aug 2 at 2021 7:02 PM

Lt Col Charlie Brown — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 19:02:08 -0400

Great organization!

Response by CPT Richard Trione made Oct 13 at 2022 4:01 PM

CPT Richard Trione — Thu, 13 Oct 2022 16:01:14 -0400

Very important and fabulous group!