Program to support soldiers' families

As increasing numbers of National Guardsmen and reservists are deployed, families and soldiers are finding themselves in unfamiliar territory — both at home and abroad.

But with the support of a new government program, spearheaded in part by UNC-Chapel Hill officials, the transitions from deployment to home will soon become easier for soldiers and their families.

The Citizen-Soldier Support program aims to build community involvement to strengthen support for these families.

The program is moving from the planning stage and soon will be implemented in five communities throughout North Carolina, including Asheville, Greensboro, Charlotte, Rocky Mount and Wilmington.

The Department of Defense appropriation bill, which was finalized in July, includes $1.8 million in funding for the National Demonstration Program for Citizen-Soldier Support — a collaborative effort involving many universities, including UNC-CH as well as Duke, N.C. State and East Carolina universities.

Last week, the program held a three-day training session for community liaisons and a group called “Subject Matter Specialists.”

The liaisons will work in their own geographic areas to raise awareness among community members about the soldiers and begin developing new support services for troops and their families. The specialists will serve as backup resources to the community liaisons.

Retired Maj. Gen. Doug Robertson, director of UNC-CH’s Highway Safety Research Center and a member of the core team involved in bringing the initiative together, said he is looking forward to the program becoming a model for the rest of the nation.

He said he hopes all soldiers will have information available to them, as well as community support.

“Every county in North Carolina has people being deployed,” said Dennis Orthner, a core team member of the support initiative and a UNC-CH professor of social work. “In many cases they’re surprised because they didn’t anticipate the separation.”

The first plan of action for the liaisons is to create community contacts and find out what support services are already in place, Orthner said.

“We’re looking to mobilize the community to help soldiers (and their families), particularly while they’re deployed,” he said.

Heather Hill, a resident of Mecklenburg County for 28 years, said she knows the difficulties associated with having a loved one in the service. Her husband is now enlisted, and she served in the National Guard for two years.

She will be the community liaison for Charlotte.

“(Citizen-Soldier families) sometimes feel lost and alone and the community would love to help but doesn’t know how,” she said. “If we can let them know that the needs are there … then we’ve done our job.”

Other community liaisons include: Crystal Moore in Wilmington, Roman Bowles in Greensboro, Rebekah Murray in Rocky Mount and Deborah Reed in Asheville.

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.