 So up next we have two fantastic women here ready to talk to you about some great information. First up we have the Miss Lee Kelly she is the director military community support programs. As director Miss Kelly is responsible for the leadership management and oversight of three centrally funded Department of Defense multi-million dollar programs military one-source military and family life counseling and the spouse education and career opportunities program. Prior to assignment as director Miss Kelly served as senior program analyst in the office of military family readiness within the office of the deputy assistant secretary defense for military community and family policy. Also with her is Miss Erica Slayton and Miss Slayton serves as the program deputy for the military community support programs director within the office of deputy assistant secretary defense for military and community family policy. Miss Slayton has worked with the military community for over 10 years. Prior to joining the office of secretary defense she worked as family program communication specialist at the National Guard Bureau and family readiness officer for US Marine Corps forces reserve and wounded warrior regiment. Miss Slayton also brings a wealth of knowledge on the challenges of military life as a spouse of a retired Marine for over 20 years. Please give us a warm welcome for Miss Lee Kelly and Erica Slayton. This military life will ask much of you and the best that is inside you will bring it every day. Your best will make each of us better and stronger. Your mastery of the task at hand will be in your hands. Those around you will depend on you as you depend on them and there is one source that stands ready to assist to answer your questions and to care about your quality of life your readiness and resilience one source one voice steady and true as a member of our military community with military one source you and your family at home need never be alone with military one source along with the resources on your installation you have a team on your side to answer questions or give information in support of you and your family's well-being with military one source you have this promise to be the one source that stands ready to assist as you master military life to give you expert support and information that is proven and practical to be there day and night wherever you are when you need a trusted voice private and confidential to have answers you can depend on in pursuit of your best mill life to be one dedicated community whose sole mission is you military one source is your resource for living your best mill life from deployment to money questions to your next PCS health and wellness to parenting career opportunities non-medical counseling and more all to help you and your family reach your goals help maintain our lethal force and thrive in this military life standing by to serve 24-7 military one source connecting you to your best mill life good afternoon everyone that was our two-minute theatrical trailer for military one source the movie I hope you all enjoyed it my name is Lee Kelly I hope I'm allowed to be here today I'm an enlisted army veteran so I know I'm in the wrong branch but I am very grateful to have the invitation to be here with you today I'm also a social worker and director of military community support programs as was shared in the introduction my office overseas military one source the military and family life counseling program and spouse education and career opportunities program before we jump in and get started today I want to ask anyone in the audience was anyone in the audience on the Delta 730 flight out of Atlanta to Montgomery last night raise your hand 730 Delta Atlanta to Montgomery okay I see I see a hand I just want to thank anyone on that flight for being here today and not accepting the $1,000 American Express gift card to give up your seat very much very much appreciated thank you anyone at the Atlanta airport did anyone receive a chill Jill from me yesterday at the Atlanta airport one of the little mp3 players okay great what about one of our research research booklets that talks about non-medical counseling from the plane I was giving those out on the plane anyone okay well those were just precursors to today's briefing so I'll be delving in and connecting the dots on some of those materials that I was sharing last night speaking of those materials and I know we just watched the video and the phone number was actually up there but I don't know if anyone out there has a photographic memory does anyone in the audience know the phone number for military one source anyone off the top of their heads I hear murmurings but maybe no number does anyone have the what is it go go yes okay well even better though does anyone have the military one source phone number in their phones does anyone in this room have a phone on them right now if you have a phone will you hold it in the air yeah there we go I see some phones going up can you keep them up anyone have a phone with them today if you do I know it'll be like a concert can you turn it on and it's just like a light you know we'll make the video play the music in the background okay if you have a phone I ask that you hold it up I'm seeing some phones and seeing some folks who don't want to raise it up raise it up okay here is my request to you now can you open up a new contact right now as we're sitting here together for the next hour can you open up a new contact for military one source and put in I see people doing it thank you put in one eight hundred three four two nine six four seven so it's a new contact for military one source one eight hundred three four two nine six four seven and if over the course of the next hour either Erica nor myself shares share anything that would be of use you can go ahead and delete the contact but we hope that you're going to find the contact number beneficial for yourself but especially for the airmen that you're leading so that's the challenge to us is to share something with you over the next hour that you're not aware of about military one source so to get started our objective here today is to share with you what we can do for you we want to also share our program fundamentals share the tools that you can use and answer any questions that you have I'm going to go ahead and jump in with an answer to the first question what can we do for you well first and foremost we can reduce stress and anxiety in your units we can also support military spouse employment we can provide one-on-one financial counseling and we can be a twenty four seven one stop resource for information and referrals on every aspect of military life I want to zero in on that first point first and that's that we can reduce stress and anxiety in your units I think it's really important to start with this one because we see declining utilization from our junior airmen and actually across our junior enlisted branches we're seeing declining utilization of military one source and the reason I think that this is important is we're also seeing increases in some of our survey data on stress and anxiety in our junior enlisted forces too so I think the fact that some of these non-medical counseling programs have been proven to reduce stress and anxiety is important so I want to talk to you about the research now that showcases that reduction in stress and anxiety in October 2017 ran corporation published a report on DoD non-medical counseling programs they did an evaluation it took them about two years they did an evaluation of military one source and the military and family life counseling program we were really excited about the results we saw that participants who participated in non-medical counseling saw a reduction in problem severity not just in the short term but in the long term we saw that they reported a reduction in the interference of problems in their daily life which meant that they were able to get back to the job faster we also saw and this was really important to us that they felt comfortable going back to non-medical counseling but even more importantly that they felt comfortable referring a friend to non-medical counseling that more than 90% of participants who participated in non-medical counseling with military one source or the military and family life counseling program would refer a friend to those resources so what exactly is confidential non-medical counseling confidential non-medical counseling speaks to those day-to-day stressors of military life everything under the threshold of a mental health diagnosis so you're talking about stress at work anger challenges in communication grief loss these are all appropriate reasons to seek non-medical counseling does anyone have an idea about the top reason in the military that people seek non-medical counseling any idea what would that be as I heard marriage to hear marriage that relationships is the top reason across all branches of service that people seek non-medical counseling any thoughts about the second top reason people seek non-medical counseling but definitely money could be related to it because number two is stress and that could definitely be financial stress and Erica will be talking about some of the financial resources here shortly what about the third reason anyone have kids so the third reason is parent-child communications so I shared a little bit about non-medical counseling being under that threshold of a mental health diagnosis that being said it's short-term and solution focused in nature we offer non-medical counseling 12 sessions per person per issue which means that any airman out there who maybe have some challenges in their relationship can participate in couples counseling and then let's say they have some stress about failing a PT test that could be 12 additional sessions focused on that separate issue they could also obtain health and wellness coaching which will come up later as well today so it's 12 sessions per issue per person military one source provides non-medical counseling globally if your conus you can get a face-to-face appointment pretty much within 30 minutes 15 miles and three business days there are some exceptions to that especially for our guard and reserve families depending on the the geographic isolation of their location but for the most part three business days 15 miles 30 minutes of their location face-to-face in their community you can also do it telephonically or via video we have couples who participate in couples counseling when a when one party is deployed and the other is state side and they can participate in video counseling so those are some real force multipliers offered through the military one source program but on the next slide I'm going to talk specifically about the military and family life counseling program does anyone have m-flacks yeah I see some hands going up so I think probably everyone's aware of what an m-flack is m-flack is a military and family life counselor there are more than 2,000 m-flacks worldwide m-flacks rotate depending on the location and they rotate up to to somewhat maintain some anonymity for the service members and families that they're serving so that that m-flack doesn't become sort of a permanent party member they serve in all kinds of locations they're kind of a non-traditional counseling resource in that you're not going to walk into you know an office and schedule an appointment with the front desk they're going to be walking around they're embedded in units they're at family centers child development centers schools one really exciting part of the Rand research that I mentioned earlier is that some forms of m-flacks are have been deemed more effective than others so if you're are to encounter an m-flack embedded in a unit it's actually more effective than when you encounter them at a family center which makes a lot of sense when you think about it m-flack embedded in a unit is a resource that airmen may be seeing every single day versus a family center that maybe if they happen to drop in they might see them once in a while but our embedded m-flacks have been shown to be even more effective does anyone know how we assign m-flacks do you think OSD just decides let's put 20 here let's put 20 there let's put 20 there so it's entirely responsive to you so leaders in the field go and request m-flacks you can do it online Erica will show you the link here this afternoon that you could go to if say your unit is experiencing higher stress related to an upcoming deployment your unit is experiencing higher levels of suicidal ideations stressors you can request an additional counseling asset for 30 60 90 days or permanent for 12 months with the ability to have it extended for an additional 12 months again just based on the needs that are happening on the ground m-flacks are also responsive to crises so after the collisions of the USS McCain and USS Fitzgerald we deployed m-flacks to respond to the service members and families on the ground in japan after hurricanes we have m-flacks who go in and support it's a deployable flexible resource that's available to every branch of service at no cost to the branch of service we can support military spouse employment anyone have an idea of what the military spouse unemployment rate is any guess 27 good guess what was that 62 27 the good guesses 63 go go okay it's actually it's it's somewhat going up it's at 24 percent right now it's been over 20 percent for quite some time and military spouse employment really matters to the Department of Defense it really matters to us we know that that military spouse satisfaction contributes to whether or not a service member stays in the military survey after survey research project after research project shows us that this remains true is that military spouse satisfaction tied to military spouse employment is tied to service member retention and so we feel like it's really vital that we share this information with leaders such as yourselves across the branches of service so you can share it with your airmen and families so it's really important to know that the Department of Defense provides no cost master's level certified career coaches they provide them to military spouses five days a week from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. as well as all day on Saturday via military one source just by calling in federal resume review job search strategies negotiating salaries mock interviews these career coaches can do all of these type of activities with military spouses it's also important from an actual job obtaining a job perspective because our career coaches can link military spouses up with the military spouse employment partnership the military spouse employment partnership is a group of more than 390 companies and organizations committed to military spouse hiring they're committed to recruiting hiring promoting and retaining military spouses and portable job opportunities our military spouse employment partnership companies have hired more than 130,000 military spouses since the partnership launched in 2011 these companies also specialize in offering portable job opportunities those that can travel with a military spouse additionally through the my seaco website which is where you can find these jobs the my seaco website is a kind of a sub-site of military one source military spouses can also search for scholarship opportunities they can build their resume and they can they can work with free career assessment tools that you might pay for in the civilian world like the Myers-Briggs I want to talk briefly about the my career advancement account scholarship has anyone ever heard of it if you just raise your hand the my career advancement account scholarship so one hand go up so this is a it's a scholarship $4,000 scholarship for junior military spouses we just had research come out in the fall again it was conducted by ran and what the research showed us was that military spouses who use the my career advancement account scholarship earned higher wages after using the scholarship and their service member was more likely to stay in the service so this was exciting news for the Department of Defense again related to service member retention as well as higher wages for military spouses so if you're not familiar with the my career advancement account scholarship it's a $4,000 scholarship for military spouses married to service members and pay grades e1 through e5 o1 through o2 and w1 through w2 it can be used towards associate degrees licenses certifications all in pursuit of a portable job opportunity we consider it a workforce development program and with that I want to turn it over to Erica thank you so much Lee and we're so happy to have this opportunity as was read in my bio am the spouse of a retired Marine for over 20 years I know don't feel sorry for me I did petition the Marine Corps for hazardous duty pay they denied it for some reason I don't know why but I really love the fact that we provide these resources through the Department of Defense because as a spouse one who's had to resign from jobs and not know where the next job was going to come from just you know that's just military life now these now these resources are available through the Department of Defense such as financial counseling so how many of you know that military one source offers financial counseling services perfect I'm so glad that you know that so when you think about financial counseling financial finances is one of the stressors as some of you mentioned why why there are challenges in our military community and so through military one source there are credited financial counselors that are available year round to support our service members and families and so they can help airmen and their families with basic budgeting maybe it's money management maybe it's saving for retirement especially with the blender retirement system airmen and families may not know how to maximize that that retirement savings account and so they can call military one source and what these accredited financial financial counselors would do will provide information and education so that airmen and families can make the best decisions for them have to share just a little a little story for you for you we with you we often get numbers of comments come through military one source and so we heard from a service member who calls military one source seeking financial counseling and this service member had a credit score in the low 500s after speaking with a financial counselor and setting some goals that the credit score jumped up to 700 also through the working with a financial counselor they were able to serve to save over $20,000 and reduce credit card debt it is so powerful when you are able to have someone like a financial counselor who's skilled understands military life and can provide some resources to support service members and their families I like to also talk to you about military one source tax services we call it mill tax how many of you have used military one source tax services awesome a few hands a few hands now lots of companies out there they're offering free tax services but here's how military one source is different again we call it mill tax mill tax is really to prompt first beginning January 22nd we offer the filing of a federal and up to three state tax returns for free through the military one source website again three state tax returns as the spouse of a retired Marine who moved quite often that is a huge cost savings one year I had to file in Mississippi Virginia and Pennsylvania again a huge cost savings for our service members and families very easy to access you go to the military one source website you create an account and you're in the second part of mill tax is that we offer tax consultants again that are available year-round they are available through the tax season until 11 p.m. and outside of the tax season until 10 p.m. and that's Eastern time these tax consultants are enrolled agents their certified public accountants and they have other certifications through the IRS and because our tax consultants understand military life they're able to understand those nuances with military life they under they understand combat pay they understand what happens when you have to file them in multiple states they understand the tax laws and especially with the tax cuts and jobs act they understand how those new tax laws affect our military members in their families again a great resource for our service members and families and for you what else can we do for you military one source can be the one stop shop for information and referrals for every aspect of military life starting with our youngest service members to those who are separating or retiring from military service this is what we call our zen slide and we call it our zen slide because we hear from service members and families that it gives them peace of mind knowing that they can reach out to military one source 24 7 so if you look at the logo in the middle that's the entry way to military one source it starts with the master's level consultant who has that education in a social science field who answers that phone call there are no automated phone menus or voice recordings when you call military one source so often when someone calls they are very very surprised if they get to speak to a live person and so they're able to find the resource quickly to meet their needs what would you say is the top reason people reach out to military one source for support so you see all the services on the zen slide from you'll see financial counseling you'll see adoption you'll see language services what do you think is the top reason people reach out to military one source confidential non-medical counseling what else finances actually the top reason is for the spouse education and career opportunities program that is the number one reason the second is confidential non-medical counseling as Lee talked about third financial and tax services but did you know the military one source offers support with adoptions very great resource to have and military one source can help military families navigate the adoption process not only for domestic adoptions but for international adoptions as well another resource that military one source offers health and wellness coaching and now oftentimes people say oh you know I have a life coach you often hear that well out in if you had to pay for a life coach it could cost anywhere from 100 to 300 dollars an hour we offer that for free through military one source this is a health and wellness coach that can help airmen and families around stress management passing the physical fitness test maybe it's nutrition maybe it's physical fitness goals that's where a health and wellness coach can come into play they offer their services by telephone by video and online again a fantastic resource other other resources that we offer through military one source language interpretation services 24-7 if there is a family member who needs support in another language they can call military one source to receive support that is 24 set 24-7 we will get on the line with and conduct a three-way call with an interpreter so that family member can get support the other service that we offer that deals with language is document translation services both of these are offered in more than 150 languages what would you say is the top document that military one source translates official document marriage licenses what else wills birth certificate ding ding ding birth certificates that is the number one document school transcripts also marriage licenses all of those are official documents that we can translate the only thing that we would not be able to translate would be medical records however what we would do is we will provide a warm handoff maybe it's to a resource that's available in the local community so when we talk about military one source providing that one stop shop what the consultant will do when they answer the phone will find the best resource to meet that airmen and family airmen and families needs whether that resource is provided through military one source or maybe it's through the airmen and family readiness center or maybe it's out in the local community military one source will help airmen and families connect those dots I'd like to talk to you about some new offerings through military one source in May of last year our office worked with the office of special needs within military community and family policy to introduce the exceptional family member program resources options and consultations I know it's long EFMP rock but we what we really wanted to do was to demonstrate what we can offer to service members in their families through EFMP rock service members and families can be connected with a master's level consultant who has expertise in working with children and adults with disabilities and what military one source or with disabilities or with special needs and what what military one source will do is they will outline an action plan they will ask okay what have you tried what are some things that you have not tried and we'll build an action plan around that family members needs those consultants the consultations are unlimited and they are also available not only by phone but by videos we've enhanced those services the other way that we've enhanced support for families with special needs is that we have on staff a try care point of contact oftentimes military military families with special needs have challenges and navigating the try care system well the consultant through military one source will connect that family member to try care so that they can get their needs and their needs met one of the other offerings we introduced with building healthy relationships and what we've heard from military families is that well you know I'm not really interested in non-medical counseling but I'm looking for some resources just to enhance my relationship looking for some tools to enhance my relationship so we offered building healthy relationships these consultations are education-based so think of going to a relationship class where you have a consultant who is right there give you homework assignments and is able to support you along the way we have curriculum focused on being staying connected while away we also have curriculum for parents who need to connect with their children again these are fantastic offerings through military one source that could be helpful to airmen and their families one of the other resources we want to make sure that you know about is the boots on the ground support that military one source offers Lee and I've been talking about the call center support but military one source offers state consultants these are consultants that are that are assigned in every state there are 53 of them there are two that are in California and two who support Texas their job is to go out and talk to service members and families talk to them about military one source share all the different resources that are available in that local community and Lee mentioned the link that is right there on the slide you can go on and request military one source to come out to an event to talk about military one source through a briefing like we're giving today or to set up a resource table and bring a bring various information various information that can be put on the table so we want to make sure that you know about the military one source state consultant that can support you where you live where you serve and speaking of serve who do we serve well all active duty National Guard and Reserve regardless of activation status there are media families and survivors and we have that fifth bullet highlighted in bold because we want to make sure that you know that with the president's signing of the NDA in August is actually August 13th of last year military one source was extended to those who are separating or retiring up to one year past separation that is huge for transitioning service member we know that oftentimes that that six month mark where we initially had our eligibility just wasn't enough I was still trying to figure out what we're going to do with the transition mark but having that full year of support allows service members and families to still access the resources many of the resources that we just talked about and will be able to help them help support their transition whether that's non-medical counseling or it's financial counseling so please we know that for those who are transitioning or separating we want to make sure that they know that they're still eligible for military one source up to one year so please help us spread the word I'd love to talk about the military one source website absolutely loves talk about it who's been to the military one source website all right that's fantastic I'm glad you have done you've done that one of the things that we hear through military wants is just the feedback is wow military wants that you've got a great website but there's so much information there I don't know what I'm looking for I can't find what I'm looking for well we have answered that call because what we did is we optimize our search engine to make it easier for you to find the information that you're looking for there are also international calling options so that you don't have to pay to call military one source on the website no matter if you're in Germany or you're in Mississippi you can contact military one source for free also through military one source there are tons of products we want to make sure that you are armed with those products and you can pass those products out to airmen and families to support their needs like chill drills like Lee talked about before have you heard of a chill drill chill drill raise your hand if you've heard of a chill drill a few okay so you want to arm yourself with a chill drill chill drills are a set of deep breathing relaxation exercises these are available through military one source via download and you can get this nifty play away in order through the military one source website these were originally created by a licensed therapist who is seeing service members coming back from combat and experiencing stress well based on with the using after using these tilt drills they saw decreased signs of stress lower blood pressure by by large by enlarge these are the most popular resources that's available through the military one source website we see this the number one item ordered through military one source we want to make sure that you know about the chill drills the other resource I like to talk to you about is the mwr library the digital library now on installations there are certainly there's a library that's available but we also want we also made a digital library available through military one source through this library we offer mango languages where you can learn over seventy foreign languages we also offer consumer reports if you're looking for maybe your washer broke down your dryer broke down and you're looking for another product to replace that through military one source you can access you can access that library and learn and actually download the consumer report there are also a number of other databases if you have children maybe the science project is coming up then there are resources to help children there's SAT ACT prep courses and just tons of other resources for adults and children through the mwr library if you're learning to you're learning or you're looking to learn about your family history through military one source we have and the ancestry library that's powered by ancestry dot com again fantastic resources that we want airmen and families to know about in addition to some of the other services like non-medical counseling and financial counseling I always like to talk about the other resilience tools I mentioned some people call military one source and maybe they're not looking for non-medical counseling but they're just looking for some tools and resources to support them so we find these resilience tools as an extension of military one source first we offer what's called mood hacker and mood hacker allows service members and their families to track their mood and so every day they were going to this and to mood hacker and identify what their mood is on a scale from one to ten maybe I'm a one because my marine didn't take out the trash maybe I'm a 10 because my marine came home from the deployment so over time you're able to see what are the activities that are that boost your mood and what are the activities that lower your mood seems very simple but a picture is a thousand words and this is again one of one of the most popular resources through military one source you can open up your mood hacker profile to a coach through coach hub and be able to connect with a coach that will be able to offer their services online and you can get support around stress management physical fitness and again weight loss goals and then third one of the most popular tools again up through military one source is called love every day who doesn't want love every day right so through through military one source we have this tagline that says do you text often but say very little I know I have so what this is how love every day works I would go into a website I would put my mobile number my significant other would put their mobile number and every day for 21 days we will receive an interesting text and maybe that text would read something like what's the best relationship advice you've ever received well once I answer once my significant other answers there were bait we're able to both see each other's answers on the same mobile device now I did this with my marine and it was a very interesting exercise so you know I'm I can be very verbose sometimes and so when I got the question what's the best relationship advice you ever received I went on and on and on he came back with like one word two word answers but it was okay because what I like about love every day is that especially for service members and families it's about talking more than about a to-do list right our conversation often gets centered around a to-do list love every day is is proven to enhance the quality of relationships again if you have a significant other I encourage you you want to score brownie points ask your significant other to sign up and you sign up for love every day you it will take you far we always like to include some quotes of what we hear airmen and families say and service members in general but we pulled a few quotes here and these quotes really emphasize the fact that it's leaders leaders who are sharing information about military one source with their airmen with their airmen and with families I like the last quote here and it was from an airman who said you know I never really use military one source before but now that I have used military one source I'm just I'm so grateful for but I'm going to continue to share this resource with others it's like you know when you try a product out for yourself that's when you're able to share with other people because there's that personal testimony there so what we'd like to do is there is a card called keep this card and it is what it says so we want you to keep this card we designed this car to be a card that is very succinct that tells tells airmen and families exactly what they can expect through military one source from confidential non-medical counseling to free tax filing services what we'd like for you to do is first if you've never used military one source check out the digital library any of the resources that we've talked about check out love every day explore the services for yourself second share your feedback we are here to listen to your needs military one source continues to evolve to meet the needs of our military community way back in the day when we began and when military one source began as a pilot program in 2002 we only offered non-medical counseling face-to-face near military installations and now we have grown and that's based on a changing dynamics of our military community so please share your feedback try the service let us know what you think and lastly leverage our support whether it's through military and family the military family life counseling program where you where you leverage the support of an inflect or a military one-source state consultant these are tools that you can add to your toolbox so that airmen and their families can thrive you'll see that this card is being passed around again we want to put this in this card in every airmen and families hands because we believe that it provides a great service for our for our military community we have a shared goal and we want to make sure that we're meeting your needs as well well before we move into questions I wanted to ask if anyone heard anything so far that they didn't know about the program resources did you hear anything that you didn't know already okay I'm seeing some hands go up okay is anyone willing to keep the contact number in their phone anyone who put it in willing to keep it that's terrific thank you very much I want to just take a moment to footstomp something that Erica said about she brought up starting with a subscription to the MWR library and we know the pivotal role that leaders play in helping to normalize help seeking behavior so by you having that phone number in your phone when you work with an airmen and you can make it as easy as let's just step into this office we can make the call together ask the question or just show that you have that number in your phone to help normalize that process that can be such a tremendous influencer on our young airmen and across our service members and families and when Erica talked about the subscription to MWR we see that as such a such a first step if we could normalize the process of reaching out to military one source by using an ancestry comm subscription at no cost then maybe that next time that airmen or that family member needs support they think about military one source because chances are if you use a resource then you're going to learn about another resource and that's because those triage consultants that Erica talked about are trained to listen to the stated and unstated needs so maybe I am calling for financial counseling but maybe I really need some communication support as well with my significant other so just by making that call for something like a subscription to a magazine it can really open the door and help facilitate that help seeking behavior for airmen and families so thank you very much for being willing to keep that contact number in your phone and we hope you use it I did want to open it up for any questions you have about the military and family life counseling program about military one source about military spouse employment any questions from the yes sorry sir all right hi this count price I'm offering language support to some of the countries here and I guess the question they have is what initiated military one source what drove that how you're funded I believe it's through DoD and if they were because these are the senior enlisted of their countries and they see a huge benefit in this especially because of the confidentiality behind a lot of the programs you have and the resources you have so you can tell us a little bit about that so I know they would want to go back and maybe start something like this or at least begin that dialogue thank you for that question that's a great question we work a lot with our international colleagues we recently hosted in 2018 the Australian Defense Force at the military one source call center there's three call centers we do we do a significant number of tours at our Arlington Virginia call center because it is right near the Pentagon and it's accessible to so many people so we have hosted international defense forces at the call center before to talk about that topic in particular and really the impetus for military one source came post 9 11 and with the ramp up of more frequent deployments and a need for virtual offerings particularly for our garden reserve families military one source became the 24 7 call center so we know brick and mortar family centers may have limited hours eight to four may be on base this was a great complimentary partnership with installation installation services knowing that you could reach out to to a live human being 24 7 and again garden reservists from maybe geographically isolated locations could reach out ask questions so it really it really stood up up and took off after 9 11 2004 the Department of Defense expanded it to cover all the services I believe it started out just with a pilot with the Marine Corps and then expanded across the services it's funded through the Office of Military Community and Family Policy which is under the Under Secretary of Defense for personnel and readiness so our office and military community and family policy funds the program these are contracted services all the military and family life counseling program military one source spouse education career opportunities program these are all funded contracts through the Department of Defense any other other questions I can't tell if folks are going to the mic or just walking away other questions I do have a number of questions for this group because it's a rare opportunity to have more than 500 chiefs in a room so if you don't have questions for me I do have questions for you that's not a threat any questions what are the top stressors impacting your airmen and families today manning an ops tempo relationships for something like relationships where do you point airmen and families and flak and flaks the most the most kind of popular provision of services from the m flak is for our often for young enlisted married couples usually newly married our m flaks stay very busy with couples counseling financial services help young airmen did you hear anything in the financial services realm that you thought might be useful in addition to base services today maybe maybe not I think the the piece about military one source that can be helpful is that if you don't have it on base or you're working with a family who maybe doesn't live on base or can't get to base these can be complimentary services so it's always a nice piece to have in your back pocket if there's not a personal financial counselor on base but sometimes there is and if you're just not sure how to find them that's another way that military one source can help let's say you don't know if there's an m flak at your base I sometimes think about the m flak program as the witness protection program because it's hard to kind of find them sometimes and are they there are they not there do we have m flaks military one source has a directory of m flaks so if you're ever wondering does my base have m flaks military one source can tell you and give you the phone numbers for the m flaks in your location any other any other stressors impacting airmen and families today ops tempo relationships finance adjusting to military life that's a good one I'll tell you that from a military one source perspective because we have seen declining utilization in our junior enlisted we've made a concerted effort in recent years to engage at basic training graduations so I think we're at Lackland we're at Lackland now for the Air Force and we're there with a table to talk with families about the services that we offer to airmen the other new ad that we had in 2018 was to provide a continual touch point for new military spouses so if you contact military one source as a military spouse during your first year as a part of the military community we ask you if we can call you back in a couple months so we try to reach out to new military spouses four times a year but adjusting to military life is such a huge can be such a huge hurdle not only for the service members but the family member as well and so that's definitely an area that we we aim to support from what you heard today what could we do better what programs didn't you hear that you wish you did what need didn't you hear being addressed we kind of we kind of look at ourselves as an employee assistance program in a lot of ways so at anything that you can that you recognize as being a need that the Department of Defense could do a better job of meeting through resources like those that might be available through an employee assistance program knowing that we can't do anything about ops temple when assignments and things but from a employee assistance perspective did anyone hear something that they develop an app an app to do what and okay just to just to bring forward this information the website was created mobile first so it's mobile friendly and you can live chat on the mobile app which we discovered a little earlier today but no I think the point about an app is well taken live chat I know Erica mentioned is something that's growing in popularity it's on it's something that month after month we see growing numbers of individuals using live chat and we think it's because airmen any across any branch of service really any service member if they're at work maybe more comfortable live chatting a question on the website then stepping away from the desk to make a phone call so it kind of lets you discreetly take care of your question or make a counseling appointment frankly you can do that from your desktop as well but I think a mobile app is a point well taken about obtaining some of these resources and connections anything else that you see as a need that could potentially be met through a program whether it's the mflac program military one source or a spouse employment ma'am this is senior master sergeant Ford from Stuttgart Germany do you all offer assistance with child care for personnel maybe single parents who are deployed and maybe are new to an area and don't have family or friends that can watch their children that is such a great question if if you have takeaways from today I hope that this is one of them if you didn't know this already and I don't most people don't know this you can really outsource your to-do list to military one source if you're a single parent and you're about to move to a new area and you need child care options you need a list of verified licensed child care facilities with openings you can call military one source in place that research request with them and they will take depending on how emergent that request is if it's an emergency like I'm a reservist and I'm about to lose my home we would consider that an emergent request or if it's something like I'm moving in two months we might take several days to do that research but we have research consultants who will find those child care facilities for that single parent find the ones that have openings find the ones that have availability on the weekends and they'll make those calls and do all of that legwork for a service member or family member it's just part of our offerings and I think it's a huge value add because really it is trying to outsource your to-do list give it to somebody else have them come back and with the research findings for you so that's how we contribute in the kind of the child care space as far as I'm trying to do that legwork hello ma'am my name is senior mass sergeant Gloria Wilson I work at the Pentagon so as I heard a lot of the presentation my sister unfortunately about two years ago lost her active duty husband so it says this is helpful to survivors she's lucky that she has me to bring back this information to her but how do we get up that information to someone who might not have a direct connection to know these resources are available so we rely we rely significantly on our partnerships so every year we'll be supporting every year over the past years that I can remember we've supported the tragedy assistance program for survivors good grief camp over Memorial Day weekend so we do a lot of work with taps to reach our survivor population who remain eligible for military one source as well as their dependent children and and that really is how we get the word out to survivors is through mainly our non non-profit partners we we have a group within the military spouse employment partnership called the spouse ambassador network and that spouse ambassador network is made up of more than 25 mainly non-profit organizations like national military family association military officers Association of America taps and these groups will help channel our information and resources to their networks which we've found to be a tremendous value add we can't we can try our darndest but getting the word out to our global force is a constant challenge given information overload but what we can tap into networks that already exist maybe through Air Force Association or Association of the United States Army those volunteer networks or networking networks can be such a benefit to us when we're trying to raise awareness about expanded benefits or just benefits period that was a really good question thank you for that any other questions no other questions all right well my contact information is on the slide if at any point anyone has a question about resources a concern did a resource not work as you thought it was going to for one of your airman or family members we really want to hear about it that's our job if you have a need in the field that's not being met again that's our job Erica mentioned some of the new resources that we developed in 2018 those are responsive to requests in the field so so I really just to implore you to share your feedback this is such a great opportunity for us to be here with you we're very appreciative of it we hope you have a great rest of your week thank you