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NATIONAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
HOTLINE
The National
Domestic Violence Hotline, http://www.ndvh.org/,
answers nearly 10,000 calls each month from those experiencing domestic
violence, as well as their family and friends. We provide callers with
crisis intervention, information about domestic violence and referrals to
local programs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in many languages. If you need help, call right now
at 1-800-799-7233 or 1-800-787-3224 (TTY).
CHILDHELP®
USA
Childhelp® USA is a
non-profit agency that can provide reporting numbers, and has Hotline
counselors who can provide referrals. Toll free numbers, listed by state, to
call to report suspected abuse can be found at:
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cb/publications/rpt_abu.htm. Childhelp® USA National Child
Abuse Hotline is 1-800-4-A-CHILD or 1-800-422-4453. TTD:
1-800-2-A-CHILD.
AMERICAN RED CROSS
If you need to contact a military member for emergency
purposes, please call your local Red Cross chapter. Use operator
assistance if necessary, or you may also find your local Red Cross chapter
telephone number by visiting http://www.redcross.org, and entering
your zip code at “Find Your Local Red Cross.” Today’s American Red Cross http://www.redcross.org is keeping
pace with the changing military.
Featuring the latest in
computer and telecommunications technology, the American Red Cross
Emergency Service Center delivers around-the-clock emergency communication
services to active duty military personnel, and to their families. While serving 1.4 million active
duty personnel, the Red Cross Get To Know Us Before You Need Us campaign
reaches out to an additional 1.5 million members of the National Guard and
the Reserves living in almost every neighborhood in America. American Red Cross Emergency Services are available to all members
of the armed services, and to their families. Both active duty and
community-based military can count on the Red Cross to provide emergency
communications, emergency financial assistance, counseling, veterans
assistance and aid in the field where Red Cross workers are deployed to
serve with America’s military.
The American Red Cross emergency messages provide military
personnel and commanders with fast, reliable information helping them make
important decisions such as emergency leave for family matters.
If you have a family emergency, the Red Cross will ask you for
specific information about your deployed Guardsman. Your will need a copy of the
Guardsman’s order which will have the individual’s name, rank, unit,
social security number and duty location.
If you need to report the loss of a family member, you will
need to provide the following information to the Red Cross:
·
The name of the deceased
·
The name of the funeral home and the
telephone number
·
The attending physician’s name and
telephone number
If you need to report a severe illness of a family member, you
will need to provide the following information to the Red
Cross:
·
The name of the
individual
·
The name of the
hospital/hospice
·
The attending physician’s name and
telephone number
·
It will be helpful to the Red Cross
if you inform medical personnel that a Red Cross representative may be
contacting them and will identify themselves as such
If you need to report the birth of a new family member, you
will need to provide the following information to the Red
Cross:
·
Name of person giving
birth
·
Date and time of birth
·
Name of hospital/birthing
center
·
Attending physician and telephone
number
Even if you do not have all of the
above information, contact the Red Cross and they will work with you to
get verified information to the military command.
ARMY EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND
The Army Emergency Relief
Fund, http://www.aerhq.org/, is available to
soldiers and retirees, their families (if loan is approved by sponsor),
spouses and orphans of deceased soldiers, and Reserve Component soldiers
on active duty for 31 days or more.
Eligible clients not stationed near an Army installation or Air
Force Base may apply for assistance from AER through the Navy-Marine Corps
Relief Society, the Air Force Aid Society, and Coast Guard Mutual
Assistance. If you aren’t stationed near any military installations, you
may apply through the American Red Cross. (If your local Red Cross staff
doesn’t know how to process your application, contact your Unit Services
Coordinator for instruction.)
AER is a private nonprofit
organization incorporated in 1942 by the Secretary of War and the Army
Chief of Staff. AER’s sole mission is to help soldiers and their
dependents.
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AER is the Army’s own emergency financial
assistance organization and is dedicated to
“
Helping the Army Take Care of Its
Own
“. AER provides commanders a valuable
asset in accomplishing their basic command responsibility for the morale
and welfare of soldiers.
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AER funds are made
available to commanders having AER Sections to provide emergency financial
assistance to soldiers – active & retired – and their dependents when
there is a valid need.
-
AER funds made
available to commanders are not limited and are constrained only by the
requirement of valid need.
For
these reasons, the AER assistance program is conducted within the Army
structure by major commanders and their installation/organization
commanders through AER sections and other related
organizations.
AIR FORCE AID SOCIETY
The Air Force
Aid Society (AFAS), http://www.afas.org/, is the official
charity of the U.S. Air Force.
It promotes the Air Force mission by helping “to relieve distress
of Air Force members and their families and assisting them to finance
their education”. It is
rooted in the original Army Air Corps and the World War II Army Air
Forces, whose members wanted to “take care of their
own.”
Through the years, AFAS has
become increasingly effective in helping individuals with personal emergencies
– as well as extremely useful when used by commanders to help
solve personnel problems in their units.
The AFAS, since its
creation in 1942 as a non-profit organization, has helped countless
members of the Air Force community. Strong support for AFAS programs and
objectives is reinforced each year by the substantial personal
contributions made by the active force, all of which are used solely for
Emergency Assistance. Although AFAS receives no appropriated or
non-appropriated funds, close ties are maintained between the Society and
Air Force officials.
Emergency
Assistance for Air National Guard & Air Force Reserve
Personnel
Air
National Guard or Air Force Reserve personnel away from home station on
extended active duty 15 days or more under Title 10 USC are eligible for
emergency assistance when the emergency is incident to, or resulting from
applicant’s active duty tour.
This includes funeral expenses incidental to the burial of a
dependent spouse or child, within the limits of the Society’s funeral
grant program. AFAS will
respond to genuine emergency situations and offer stabilizing assists, but
not long-standing needs caused by other factors such as previous
employment, poor home maintenance, or a serious mortgage delinquency.
Air National Guard
Active Guard Reserve (AGR) personnel serving
under Title 32 USC are eligible for emergency assistance in the categories
of emergency travel due to illness (when a doctor is requesting member’s
presence) or death of an immediate family member (mother, father, brother,
sister) and funeral expenses incidental to the burial of a dependent
spouse or child, within limits of the Society’s funeral grant
program.
Personnel
on active duty for training ADT and away from home station will be
considered eligible for emergency assistance as if they were Title 32
AGR. Requests for
car repairs essential to return to home station will be considered on a
case-by-case basis.
FAMILY
READINESS GROUPS
Families are the backbone of the National Guard. We deeply believe in the family as
an integral part of the National Guard in its 365 years of existence. This website is dedicated to all
families.
What is a Family Readiness Group (FRG)?
The idea behind a Family Readiness Group (FRG) is that Guard
members and Guard families benefit from helping one another cope with the
rigors of Army and Air National Guard life, particularly the challenges
families deal with in everyday life while Guard members are
deployed.
During the
Revolutionary War, mutual help was quite obvious. Family members functioned as
support troops by cooking, mending, nursing, and carrying the wartime
equipment in exchange for getting half-rations for each adult and
quarter-rations for each child.
Family members helping one another was also evident in the frontier
West, where the families and soldiers shared the hardships of establishing
and maintaining Army communities as isolated posts in the middle of an
often-hostile environment.
There is a rather touching story of Mrs. Elizabeth (George) Custer,
who, after the defeat at Little Big Horn, went from one unit wife to
another (each now a widow), offering what comfort she could, even though
she had just lost her own husband and, because of the policies then in
effect, was no longer eligible for any Army benefits to help her restart
her life.
Today an FRG is
a company or battalion-level organization of officers, enlisted soldiers
or airmen, civilians, and family member volunteers who provide mutual
social and emotional support, outreach services, and information to their
fellow Guard and family members, specifically those who belong to the
unit, have a significant relationship with a Guard member in the unit, or
the FRG “adopts.” In other
words, there is a spirit of inclusion that does not stop with just the
spouses of Guard members.
FRGs welcome those who have an interest in the unit (employers,
retirees, parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, brothers, sisters,
cousins, and significant others of single soldiers), need its services,
and/or are willing to help the FRG meet its goals. This
collection of individuals who belong to the FRG is the unit
“family.”
The National
Guard recognizes that helping families is its moral obligation and in its
best interest. Families that
can cope with (and in many instances actually enjoy) Guard life are more
likely to contribute to the community, allow their Guard members to do
their jobs well, and encourage their Guard members to remain in the
Guard. The best help for
families comes from peers as they learn how to handle various aspects of
Guard life. Hence, the Guard
mandates that each unit commander establish and support an FRG. To help FRGs grow and prosper, the
Guard provides training and materials. The FRG is not the only resource
for helping families. FRGs are part
of a larger Guard effort to help families adapt to the challenges of Guard
life.
The assistance that FRGs provide is the kind of help we all
need and try to get every day:
·
good information to help us
plan;
·
an opportunity to make
friends;
·
help with Guard issues;
and
·
a chance to have some fun and talk
through whatever may be on our minds.
Good
information and friends who provide each other needed emotional support
and shared labor to meet daily tasks can and should be what FRGs are. These are the very things that
Guard families need to cope successfully with all of the phases of Guard
life. So if you need
information about plumbers, carpentry, automotive, childcare, budgeting
and financial planning, bookkeeping, taxes, teenagers, pay issues, elder
care, and many other life issues, your Family Readiness Group is a good
people resource.
How is the FRG connected to the
unit?
The FRG is a command
program. FORSCOM Regulation 500-3-3, the Reserve Component Unit
Commander’s
Handbook, directs unit
commanders to establish a Family Readiness Group. This includes:
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Appointing an
officer or senior noncommissioned officer as the unit’s Family
Assistance Coordinator
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Supporting
preparation of a telephone tree for FRG members. In today’s electronic age, telephone trees are evolving into
e-mail trees.
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Conducting
annual briefings to family members
Upon activation and mobilization of a Guard unit, the FRG
works with the unit’s Rear Detachment and the unit’s Recruiting and
Retention Noncommissioned Officer who has the mobilization mission to
operate a Family Assistance Center.
STATE FAMILY
PROGRAM COORDINATORS
Each state
is authorized one State Family Program Coordinator (SFPC). You can contact your state’s
Family Program Coordinator at:
AIR NATIONAL GUARD WING FAMILY PROGRAM COORDINATORS
Each Air Wing is authorized a full-time, dedicated Family
Readiness and Support Service Coordinator to develop a Family Readiness
and Support Program along with operating and managing a Family Assistance
Center (FAC) with a Volunteer Support Team where the members, their
families and retirees can obtain family readiness and support services
which are comparable to Air Force and Air Force Reserve Centers. You can contact your Wing’s Family
Readiness and Support Service Coordinator at:
FAMILY ASSISTANCE
CENTERS
The
Recruiting and Retention Managers coordinate with the State Family Program
Coordinator (SFPC) to establish and execute FAC operations. In addition
to military support staff, family member volunteers and military retirees
can volunteer to support the FAC operation during a
mobilization.
The FAC provides a variety
of support to families from discussion groups, to food pantries, to video
teleconferencing. During the
mobilization, your FAC is your point of contact for help with any type of
problem. A telephone call to
the FAC’s trained staff and volunteers will either help solve your problem
or direct you to the appropriate program or agency. Your FAC can provide information
on and referral to essential services, including: Financial Management
Assistance; Information, Referral and Follow-up; Identification Cards and
DEERS Enrollment;
Medical
Care; Legal Assistance and Social Services
.
As units are mobilized and
de-mobilized, the number of FACs will change. Check with your State Family
Program Coordinator for the Family Assistance Center nearest you. Family Assistance Centers (FAC)
are in many different locations in each state. Some states have one FAC while
others may have several.
Hours of operation vary.
Call to make sure the FAC is open before you make a long trip. The FAC is a focal point to
coordinate available resources, such as chaplain services, Red Cross,
Veterans Administration, and a host of other agencies with direct and
indirect interests in assisting and supporting military family. The six essential services that a FAC provides
are:
-
ID
cards and DEERS enrollment
-
TRICARE Medical Health Insurance
-
Financial Service
-
Legal
Service
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Information and referralFamily
Readiness Groups
FAC and Army Community Service
Centers http://www.goacs.org are located on most active military
installations. National Guard
members and their families are eligible for many services throughout the
year. During periods of
extended active duty, deployment and mobilization, members and their
families are eligible to use the full range of services.
Check with your Family Readiness Center or Army Community Service
Center for a full list of programs and services for which you may be
eligible. A copy of the FAC Active and Reserve Component Handbook can be
found here: http://trol.redstone.army.mil/acslink/opready/fam_asst.pdf.
CHAPLAINS
Military chaplains provide a variety of religious services for
many faiths and can be found at http://www.chapnet.army.mil/default.htm
or USAAAF Chaplain Office http://www.usafhc.af.mil. Additional information can be
found at the Military Ordinate at http://www.milarch.org.
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