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Military Family ProgramFor additional information, help or questions,

please contact the MFP Office.717-245-4787

46 AshburnAnne Ely Hall Room 208(Above the Post Office)

OrVisit the MFP website

https://www.armywarcollege.edu/orgs/mfp/usarmy.carlisle.imcom-fmwrc.mbx.mfp@mail.mil

facebook.com/militaryfamilyprogram

The U.S. Army War Collegepresents the

Military Family Programfor

Academic Year 2019

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What is theMilitary Family Program?

The Military Family Program at the U.S. Army War College (US-AWC) is a graduate level complementary program that both sup-ports and supplements the academic curriculum and provides for the needs and interests of students, as well as their spouses and children. The MFP is committed to building a partnership with Army Families that enhances their strength and resilience. Strong support for military families is more important than ever. During more than a decade of war and increasing global tensions our military and their families have stood firm in support of our great nation, and our nation is united in honoring the sacrifices made by all military families.

The MFP’s objective is to support USAWC students and their spouses to prepare for their future roles as senior leaders respon-sible for developing and implementing personal, unit and com-munity family programs around the world. To accomplish these objectives, the MFP will present a series of lectures, seminars and workshops throughout the academic year.

All of these activities are open to all resident and non-resident USAWC students and spouses. We will also stream videos of these events to support geographically separated spouses, USAWC Fellows and our Distance Education Program.

Notes

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What are theMFP Activities?

Nowhere does the military mission so closely integrate a range of opportunities to enhance personal interests, professional devel-opment, fitness, resiliency, and social networking as it does here at the U.S. Army War College. We encourage you to use these of-ferings to build your Individual Development Plan for the year.The vision of the Military Family Program is to provide educa-tional opportunities and experiences to strengthen resiliency and effectiveness of senior leaders, their spouses and families. This graduate-level program:

• Complements and enriches USAWC educational opportunities

• Prepares leaders, their spouses and families for future endeavors

• Strengthens family connections and resiliency

The activities of the Military Family Program are structured into four Categories:

• Leadership and Readiness• Personal Growth and Well-being• Personal Financial Management• Family Growth and Resilience

Each category offers a series of lectures and/or skill-building class-es for spouses and students that are designed to better prepare them for their roles as senior leaders. Many of the workshops tar-get personal growth and well-being and are designed to develop student and spouses now and for their future endeavors.

Spouse Project

Student spouses from each year’s class contribute to the Mili-tary Family Program through a combined class project. Previous projects include the Company Commander’s Battle Book, Basics from the Barracks, “At Ease: We’re All in This Together.” and the AY16 spouses project created, Barrack and Beyond: the unofficial guide to Carlisle Barracks and Communities. AY18 spouses project created a DVD called the “The Mighty Military Spouse.” What will the AY19 Spouse Project look like? It’s up to you!

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Leadership and Readiness

Facilitating Leadership and Group Skills (FLAGS) Facilitator Training

FLAGS Facilitator Training is a specialized volunteer-based training. The participant will apply lessons they have learned from FLAGS training and devel-op new skills or enhance skills to facilitate the FLAGS Work-shop at the USAWC. A combina-tion of classroom experience, self-assessment instruments

and small group activities lead to an enhanced ability to develop skills in effective facilitating styles, group management skills, and enhanced communication skills, emphasizing growth in interper-sonal skills and the understanding of small group development. Specific requirements: Complete application and interview pro-cess to be considered for the FLAGS facilitator.

Facilitating Leadership and Group Skills (FLAGS) Workshop

FLAGS workshop participants will have the opportunity to de-velop new skills or enhance skills through a combination of classroom experi-ence, self-assessment instruments and small group activities.

Participants will engage in activities structured to increase

Seminar Spouse Representative (SSR)

The Seminar Spouse Representative position is an integral part of the USAWC academic pro-gram. The primary responsibility of an SSR is to represent, inform and coor-dinate activities with the spouses of their seminar group, along with dozens of peer leaders and key personnel of the academic institution. The SSR also serves as a liaison between their seminar’s families and various commands and community leaders in order to fast-track the enhancement of the student family experience. Monthly Community Leader Information Forum (CLIF) meetings are required.If you are interested in being an SSR, let your student-spouse know so that they may nominate you for this position.

Leadership Opportunities

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self-awareness and improve group leadership skills to assist senior leader spouses to become advanced thinkers and problem solvers, the goal of the workshop is to promote effective team and leader-ship skills through the exploration of communication, leadership styles, conflict and stress management and decision-making as well as preferences for learning and inclusion.

Senior Spouse Leadership Seminar

The Senior Spouse Leadership Seminar provides you, as senior spouses, an opportunity to discuss your “inherent” and “implied” roles as program advisors, mentors, and advocates. You will have an opportunity to explore and refresh skills that can help make those roles more successful regardless of your

component affiliation. It is also imperative to the many Family Programs that we have your support as you serve in leadership positions in your communities. This three-day seminar will con-centrate on topics such as Working with Volunteer Organizations; Coaching, Mentoring, and Advising; Taking Care of Yourself: Fos-tering Resiliency; and Protocol for Senior Spouses.

Protocol Workshop

This series will highlight three areas: expectations while at the USAWC, international awareness, and transitioning your experi-ence to the next level in the family’s military journey.

Public Speaking Workshop

Get insights about speech planning, anxiety management, and what to say and how to say it, in order to be polished and profes-sional.

Requirements:• Registration• Course feedback participation required• Complete FLAGS Facilitator Training or FLAGS Training• Attend Protocol and Public Speaking Workshops• Attend any com Course bination of 6 additional electives from

the four MFP categories.

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Negotiations Workshop

This workshop is designed to improve the student’s negotiation skills in the public sector environment, be it interagency, interof-fice, or international. The course offers the student a strategic approach to conceptualizing and successfully effecting complex negotiations.

The focus of the ESLD Course is to provide Student spouses gradu-ate level training in various specialized leadership areas including: interpersonal, social and group dynamics, military protocol, ethics, finance, public speaking, resiliency, and negotiation skills. The goal is to increase the participants’ understanding of these issues and enhance their effectiveness as partners with the senior officer spouse.

The ESLD Certificate Program is to provide USAWC student spous-es with graduate-level education and training in various senior leadership and family-care areas.

AY 18 ESLD Class Graduates

Course Objectives:• Increase awareness and understanding of groups and group

dynamics.• Increase awareness and understanding of military family policy

and challenges.• Provide education on health and communications. • Develop a network of senior officer spouses

Executive Spouse Leadership Development Course

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Dress for Success

The way you dress has a re-markable impact on the people you meet professionally or socially, and greatly (sometimes crucially) affects how they treat you. The way you dress speaks volumes about who you are as a person and as a professional. When you enter a room, it takes only a few seconds for people you’ve never met to form percep-tions about you. You don’t have to utter a word because, regard-less of who you are, your clothes and body language always speak first.Unfortunately, many AWC students “dress for failure” for the fol-lowing reasons: • They let their spouse choose their clothing• They let their favorite sales clerk choose their clothing • They let their military backgrounds “choose” their clothing To assist future senior leadership in “dressing for success”, the US-AWC Military Family Program provides a series of informative (and always entertaining) lectures providing sartorial advice for both students and their spouses.

Spouse Employment Transition Workshop

The Spouse Employment Transition Workshop is a 2 day workshop offered by Army Community Service in partner-ship with the USAWC Military Family Program office, Hiring Our Heroes, and

Personal Growth and Well-beingfamily’s ability to use physical, psychological, social and spiritual resources to prepare for, adapt to and grow from military life-style demands. By helping family members feel more secure and connected in daily life, families can build resilience to cope with common military stressors like deployment, permanent change of station, combat injury and operational stress. This resilience also helps protect the psychological health of children who may struggle with change, fears or missing a parent. What’s more, the more fit military families are, the better able they are to support their service member.

Marriage Seminar

The evening event is the collaborative efforts of the Army Community Service and the Military Family Program. The environment is fun, non-threatening, and sometimes hilarious. And it’s a wonderful time for couples to refresh good marriages or heal trou-bled ones. The Seminar will provide practical insights to help with everyday issues.

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the Local Chamber of Commerce. The goal is to assist spouses in developing their career seeking skills, networking, resume cri-tiques, salary negotiations, and LINKEDIN profiles.The workshop will also offer an employer panel discussion and extensive information on various career portals and assistance to aid our military spouses as they transition from a military to civil-ian lifestyle and beyond. The workshop is facilitated by our Hiring Our Heroes, Employment Readiness Program Manager and local subject matter experts from the Carlisle community.

Mindfulness Training

Over the past several years, mindfulness has gone from an obscure Buddhist spiritual prac-tice to a mainstream, secular training that has been embraced by psychologists, doctors, teach-ers and school districts, Fortune 500 corporations, Olympic, col-

lege, and professional athletes, the military, and popular media. Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) involves training in meditation and being in the present and has proven useful in the treatment of stress. Relaxation Training

Relaxation techniques are often employed as one ele-ment of a wider stress man-agement program and can decrease muscle tension, lower the blood pressure and slow heart and breathe rates, among other health benefits. This training includes teach-ing participants the benefits of deep breathing as well as other techniques that can help us relax.

Solving the Eldercare Puzzle

Caring for elderly parents, even in the best of situa-tions, can be difficult for anyone. But it can be even more of a challenge for senior military service members. Trying to make long-term care and emer-gency decisions for elderly parents while simultane-ously carrying a great deal of responsibility at work can cause a lot of worry. War College students are also often deployed overseas, far away from their aging parents, which makes it more difficult to monitor their parents’ well-being. As parents age, they may need assistance with daily activities such as home maintenance, person-al hygiene, and meals. And if a medical emergency occurs without a contingency plan in place, it adds to the burden of guilt and anxi-ety over what could happen in the service member’s absence. • Communicating with Elderly Parents• When a Lifestyle Change May Be Necessary• Elder Care Options• Aging in Place• Paying for Long-Term Care• Medicare/Medicaid• Recognizing Danger Signals• Legal Aspects of Elder Care

Resiliency Lecture

Just as senior leaders can build resilience, their families can also take steps to boost their resilience or “family fitness.” Family fitness is every military

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Beating the Winter Blues

Winter has a large effect on our body. The Pennsylvania Winters are cold. Your skin desiccates and often cracks, especially on the fingers, making it difficult to use a computer. You bundle up against the cold until you feel like the kid in the “Christmas Story” movie.

We eat differently in the winter as well, as the cold weather trig-gers an unconscious desire to store fat against some prehistoric seasonal famine.

Even our exercise routines become more challenging in the winter, and often surrendered. Gain insight on how to beat the winter blues and join us and learn.

Overeating Awareness

Rather than controlling cravings and overeating - which doesn’t work. During this presentation, you will learn steps to integrate mindfulness into your eating behaviors as well as other aspects of your life. You will walk away from this session knowing how to derive greater satisfaction from your food and more awareness of the sources of problematic behavior patterns.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) for Families

When you understand personality preferences, you can more readily appreciate differences between you and people closest to you in your life such as partners, children, and friends. In most areas of life, when differences between yourself and another person bother you too much, you can avoid the other person in some way. But when that person is a family mem-ber or close friend, you have a lot to lose by walking away.Knowledge of MBTI® type allows you to see those differences as just those—different ways of seeing things. Instead of labeling a person and putting value judgments on his or her behavior, you can learn to see your partner’s behavior as reflecting personality type, not something designed to offend you.

Military family lifestyles require the harmonious melding of all members of the family. Understanding of MBTI type can lead the way. When family members understand type, they are less likely to assume they are “right” and others are “wrong.” This is true across many issues including management of time, schoolwork, decision making, family recreational activities and vacations, or rules of the household. You can request a copy of the instrument by stopping by the Military Family Program office, Room B10 Root Hall (between the library and Barber Shop), or by contacting the Military Family Program Director

Family Growth and Resilience

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Financial Planning:

These presentations will cover specific factors and benefits ap-plicable to military per-sonnel and their Families that should be considered in developing a financial program. Information will be provided on invest-ments, insurance, tax requirements, and how each works together to provide a financially se-cure future. Specific investment and insurance plans and programs will not be covered. The informal setting of the presentations, and the experience of the presenter, is intended to facilitate the shar-ing of ideas and answers many of your questions.

College Financial Planning

There are many places to find general information about paying for college, But does all this information and misinforma-tion - really help your family with one of the most expen-sive and complex decisions you’ll ever make, each family’s situation is different when it comes to paying for a col-lege education. Financial aid opportunities vary from state to state but the information provided in this presenta-tion will lead you in the right direction. The Pennsylvania Higher

Personal Financial ManagementEducation Assistance Agency (PHEAA), Subject Matter Expert will provide you with valuable information on tools and how to access them to assist in the decision about colleges and universities your child is interested in.

Post 9/11 GI Bill

The Post-9/11 GI Bill provides education benefits for Servicemem-bers who have served on active duty for 90 or more days since Sept. 10, 2001. There is so much more to know. The Education Center Specialist for the Army Continuing Education System on Carlisle Barracks will provide an in depth presentation on how to understand the benefit and the eligibility requirements.