Tools for Communities

1. Broniarczyk, K., & Marn, M. (April 2011). Community Tool Kit. Workshop presented at DoD/USDA Family Resilience Conference, Chicago, IL.

2. Tools for Communities By Kathy Broniarczyk, M. Ed. Director of Outreach Michael Marn, Director of Communication

3. Presentation Objectives • Demonstrate programs aimed at supporting families and communities in responding to the challenges of military service • Involve participants in activities that demonstrate key processes for facilitating resilience • Engage in discussion of transplanting and sustaining programs in home communities

4. Information Dissemination Training Community Tool Kit Strategic Plans and Actions Skill Building Awareness Raising

5. What is MFRI doing? • Training • Communities of affiliation

6. What is MFRI doing? • Skill Building • Passport for Military Youth • Youth Leadership Camp

7. What is MFRI doing? • Awareness Raising • Our Heroes Tree

8. What is MFRI doing? • Strategic Plans and Actions • Community Report Cards

9. What is MFRI doing? • Information Dissemination • How to Help

10. Let’s start with…

11. A fun introduction…. • What can you do with 6 Styrofoam cups, a rubber band and 4 pieces of string?

12. Build Resiliency!

14. Overview of Passport Program • Passport • Serves Indiana National Guard families/children • Currently three age groups (5-8, 9-12, 13-17 years) • Rotate through Three Islands (activity stations): • Feelings (self disclosure, talking about feelings) • Relaxation (coping with stress, social support) • Communication (active listening/problem solving) • Trained facilitators, volunteers on each island • Each island has opening, primary activities, debriefing

15. “Passport toward Success” Structure When: • Children participate in activities while parents are engaged in post deployment briefings. • Following the child program, parents reunite with children and are given support materials designed to assist with discussion and extended learning. How: • Children are given a “passport” and are divided into age groups: 5-8, 9-12, and 13+. • The groups rotate through different “Islands” engaging in activities. • Children receive a stamp for their passport after each activity is completed. • Families receive “Take Home Suitcase” with materials to foster additional skill building in the home.

16. Purpose • A collection of activities to help military youth reconnect with parents following separation. • Curriculum is compiled from a variety of resources, research and interventions • foster trust in others • increase sense of belonging • build resiliency skills to help our military youth better cope with parental separation as a result of military deployment.

17. Design Parameters • Deliberate in program design • Theory-based • Flexible • Key Features

18. Passport toward Success: Research Background • Content of activities based on family resilience model • Resilience = “the ability to withstand and rebound from disruptive life challenges” (Walsh, 2003, p. 1). • Family Resilience Model assumes: • The entire family is affected by challenges/stressors • Key family processes (e.g., connection, problem solving) mediate the adaptation of all family members • Strengthening key processes/skills aids families in being resilient • Format of activities based on cognitive-social learning model for social skills • 3 key steps (Choi & Kim, 2003) • Define/provide examples of social skill • Promote rehearsal of skill in enjoyable (game-like) contexts • Lead discussion on generalizing skill (e.g., to situations at home) Family Resiliency Cognitive-social model of skills training

19. Passport toward Success: “Islands”

20. Overview: The Passport toward Success Evaluation Study

21. Positive/Negative Experiences Questionnaire • Before participating in the Passport program, children 9-17 years complete a newly developed measure assessing • Deployment difficulties (13 items; α = .79) • Reunion difficulties (5 items; α = .56; additional reunion difficulty items have been added to the newest version to improve reliability) • Potentially positive experiences (4 items; these items are analyzed individually) • Each item rated 0 = not true/not really, 1 = kind of true/sometimes, 2 = really true • ½ to ¾ of adolescents said “really true” or “kind of true” for many deployment-related difficulties • ¼ to ½ of adolescents said “really true” or “kind of true” for many reunion-related difficulties • Each adolescent receives an overall score (average) for both deployment and reunion • Items based on focus-group research with adolescents (e.g., Huebner et al., 2007)

22. Evaluation of Program: Got New Ideas • Totals range from 0-12 • M = 8.19, Mdn = 9, Mode = 10, SD = 3.09 (ratings by N = 101 adolescents) • 75% of the sample were above the scale midpoint (i.e., 7 or higher) on this total score

23. Program Impact: Reported difficulties and Got New Ideas • Children/adolescents who reported the highest level of difficulties in terms of their military parent’s deployment (rated before the program) also were those most likely to say they learned new ideas (rated after the program) • r(91) = .32, p = .02 • This finding occurred even though adolescents, as a group, rated the Passport program positively • Other factors (child age, sex, self esteem) were not significant predictors of “Got New Ideas” • Ex: boys and girls both evaluated the Passport program favorably (and did not differ in terms of their ratings)

24. Evaluation Study Manuscript • A more detailed report of findings from the evaluation research has been accepted for publication in a peer-review journal (due out in Fall 2011) Wilson, S. R., Wilkum, K., Chernichky, S. M., MacDermid Wadsworth, S. M., & Broniarczyk, K. M. (in press).  Passport Toward Success:  Description and evaluation of a program designed to help children and families reconnect after a military deployment. Journal of Applied Communication Research

25. Next comes…..

26. Community Report Card

27. What is it? • Anonymous assessment tool • Opportunity for key stakeholders to rate their community • Scored on scale of 1 to 3 • Mean score is color coded (red, yellow, green)

28. What is it? • Anonymous assessment tool • Opportunity for key stakeholders to rate their community • Scored on scale of 1 to 3 • Mean score is color coded (red, yellow, green) • 7 different domains • Mental health • Employment • Community Awareness • Financial Management and Education • School System • Community Support Systems • Military Families

29. Based on the ratings…. • Community mobilization groups work on strategic plans to address areas where they can potentially make an impact….

30. St. Joseph County area: Lacks close proximity to VA hospital or Vet Center Preparing for Marine Reserve 2010 deployment Armory fluctuations with unit disbands, etc. Lack of communication between the service branches or with the community. Ft. Wayne area Working on promoting military family issues Identifying ways to create a community spirit to support military families Creating triage questions for 211 to channel military families to services specifically for military members and families Lake County area Lack of employment No cohesive support system No community-based information Similar to the Clark/Floyd County area except with Chicago Muncie area Lack of community information on how to help military families Would like assistance working with employers and community boards to help with the transitioning of military service members back to civilian employment Lafayette area Great Veteran Service Officer, however there are pockets of support throughout the community but lacks community cohesive focus. Working on writing personal letters to the local school systems to prepare them for the upcoming local deployment. Will include resources State, National and local resources. Columbus area Preparing for a large influx of active duty, from all branches, in to the rural Indiana area over the next 6 months. Due to last falls floods, there is no housing Lack of community childcare Lack of employment for the spouses, however with the changes at Camp Atterbury and Muscatatuck there may be an increase in civilian jobs over the next 5 years Local schools not prepared for a large influx of DOD students Terre Haute area Extreme need for 24 hour, weekend childcare due to Air Guard 24 hour weekend drills. Lack of community information on how to help military families Need assistance working with employers and community boards to help military service members transition to civilian employment Evansville area Marketing of services for military families Establishing support systems in schools Clark/Floyd County area Close proximity to Louisville-calls themselves the step-sister Many resources are attached to Louisville, but many of the helping agencies in this area are state and or local Creates conflict when trying to assist service members or families, because they will be pulled temporarily to Louisville and then have to restart the process again when they come back because they have crossed state lines.-Lapse of services

31. Some Early Strategic Planning Tippecanoe County Strategic Planning Vigo County Strategic Planning 1: Community awareness Put together a resource listing and put in community locations to get the information to Veterans and military families. 2: Childcare facility for 24/7 care A home care community program –off the base property would be necessary. The day care center must be State certified, and the need is for 24/7 and weekend child care Perhaps a great entrepreneurial opportunity for someone in the area Open letter to schools identifying strategies to assist military children (There is a local deployment this month) • Group member has several years experience with local school boards, has agreed to open communications up with local schools. Phone call-member is going to call • Follow-up letter to local school leaders • Ways MFRI can help: • Ways schools can assist military children • Resources available to school personnel to assist military children

32. Put Plans into Action and then Compare

33. Now, you get to try… • With your group • Use report card information in your box • Identify 2 items with which you will create a short strategic plan with specific actions to take • Write down items and action on flip charts • Report to group on plan

34. Finally…..

35. Information Dissemination • All this great work done… • All these great insights gained… • All to no avail unless the right people HEAR about it. • The NUMBER ONE question we, at MFRI, get from the people we meet as we conduct our research and outreach activities is…

36. “How can I help?”

37. The answer? Many ways, depending upon who you are. • Many different communities of affiliation • Geographic (neighbors, towns) • Professional (medical, legal, financial) • Retail and service providers • Religious • Education-based • An almost unlimited number of clubs, teams, you name it!

38. But how do you reach those groups? • One way: Our Heroes Tree • The thought: Libraries are a great place to raise awareness of the military families in a community • The opportunity: Tables placed near the Heroes Tree could help get information into the right hands to help. • The vehicle? “How to Help.”

39. The “How to Help” Series • Informational flyers, each targeting one “community of affiliation” • Approachable, reader-friendly, but evidence-based suggestions about how members of that community can better serve and understand military families they encounter • We started with several key groups; these “How to Helps” were available near “Our Heroes Tree” and on our web site.

40. Let’s look at one

48. Results? • Series has been very well-received; we get frequent requests for them • Kentucky has adapted the series for use in that state; others have expressed interest. • We are currently developing new versions that will bring the total to more than a dozen.

49. YOUR turn! • YOU are a member of many different “communities of affiliation.” • Think of the groups and professions we encounter professionally, socially, and in just living our daily lives. • Let’s identify some “communities” and (in small groups) list ways their members could better work with military families.

50. THANK YOU! • Your input and participation has helped US help military families. (Maybe we should create a “How to Help” for conference attendees – because you just DID!) • We hope today’s session has helped you better appreciate the importance of understanding and helping military families, and given you a few tools with which to do it!