Situation Report Newsletter Q3
Written by Alita Miller
Vol. 4 : Issue 3 : 2024 Q3
From the Admiral’s Desk
Military service members make the sacrifice of leaving the family and home they love to protect our country. Recently, that sacrifice means our service members are saying goodbye to their families as they deploy to areas of conflict.
Deployment is challenging not only for those serving but for their families, who must adjust to life with one less family member. Through the Armed Services YMCA’s unique programs, we support junior-enlisted families by helping families cope with the emotional, financial, legal, and logistical challenges of military deployment, offering essential support, and connecting families to resources. This allows service members to focus on their mission, without worrying about their loved ones back home.
In today’s world, where mission readiness is more crucial than ever, this support is essential. It’s supporters like you who, through the ASYMCA, are ensuring the families our service members must leave are never left behind.
Thank you for ensuring military families are always able to find care, compassion, and a community when they need it most.
Sincerely,
William D. French
Vice Admiral, USN, Ret.
President & CEO, Armed Services YMCA
Program Spotlight
Addressing the Child Care Needs of Fort Campbell’s Military Families
ASYMCA Fort Campbell is expanding their child care capacity over the course of three years and stepping up to serve temporary program gaps for installation partners.
Fort Campbell’s Children and Youth Services (CYS) have shut down their Hourly Care program while they remodel their facilities. While the installation is unable to provide this service, we have stepped up to meet the needs of the Army by providing our families with this valued resource. So far this year, we have served 167 children in this program with reservations until the end of December.
In conjunction with Hourly Care, we have seen a staggering 2,344 appointments for our Children’s Waiting Room at our main facility, with an additional 210 children at our Steven A. Cohen clinic site. We are currently working with installation leadership to explore expanding to address additional needs at our off-post military treatment facility location, Screaming Eagle.
Our need for part-day preschool has also grown. To meet the demand, we have expanded our program for three-year-olds from two days a week to three days a week. Our program for four-year-olds, which prepares students for kindergarten, has gone from three days a week to four.
Affordable and accessible high-quality child care is foundational to addressing many of the challenges experienced by military families, improving spousal employment prospects, relieving financial stressors, and reducing food insecurity. It remains one of the ASYMCA’s core areas of focus.
Reports From the Field
Hurricane Helene Relief Efforts
In the early hours of September 27th, Hurricane Helene made its way along the southern Appalachian region, devastating Western North Carolina communities with its category-four high winds and overwhelming flooding. With its proximity to the impacted areas, Fort Liberty leadership activated components of its 18th Airborne Corps including the 82nd Airborne Division to support recovery efforts in these hard-hit regions.
ASYMCA Fort Liberty also supported relief efforts. It currently serves as a centralized donation center where members of the military community and surrounding area can drop off much-needed items. Items donated so far have been distributed to the impacted areas like the Black Mountain region by our partners from the 319th Military Intelligence Battalion, Liberty Church and 82nd Airborne Division Association. Our Food Pantry and Thrift Shop contributed much-needed items like ready-to-eat Meals of Hope, hygiene items and household necessities including bedding and kitchenware. We also supported Womack Army Medical Center’s emergency response efforts with the donation of Baby Bundles packed with diapers, wipes, clothing, blankets and other infant necessities.
We are so grateful to the Fort Liberty community and its immediate response to its Western North Carolina neighbors during their time of need. ASYMCA Fort Liberty will continue its aid and assistance during the long recovery for this devastated region. If you would like to support our hurricane relief efforts, please consider a donation using the QR Code.
Ready for Military Deployment: A Family Preparedness Guide
By Chelsea Guigma, Military Spouse
Deployment preparation often marks the start of an emotional journey for military families. As a military spouse, you and your service member should aim to emerge from the deployment in a better place than before. This time apart offers a unique opportunity for personal, professional, spiritual, financial, and physical growth. While both of you may be busy preparing, it’s important to mentally brace yourself for how slowly time can sometimes feel — when days stretch into weeks and weeks into months. With specific goals in mind, you and your service member can navigate military deployment successfully.
Donor Impact
Lockheed Martin
The ASYMCA provided nearly 33,000 military children with high quality, affordable and accessible child care in 2023. Because of that, military children are more likely to reach developmental milestones, build social and emotional skills, and be better prepared for their educational journey. Equally as important: ASYMCA’s child care enables military spouses to attain or retain employment and educational opportunities, bringing financial stability to their family and reducing their risk of food insecurity. It is because of valued partners like Lockheed Martin, who share our mission of “Strengthening Our Military Families,” that we were able to increase the number of child care services we provided by 48% over 2022—making more military families resilient.
Angels of the Battlefield
Established in 2006, the Armed Services YMCA hosts the only
awards program of its kind – honoring military medical personnel – representing all five branches of the U.S. Armed Services.
The Angels of the Battlefield Award pays tribute to military medical personnel and first responders for their life-saving medical treatment and trauma care of service members, partner forces, and civilians at home and abroad. The Armed Services YMCA works with the military services to select an honoree from each branch. These Angels of the Battlefield are courageous and compassionate men and women who risk everything and are often the reason many of our nation’s heroes wounded in battle or civilians in distress make it home to their families
