Presidential Initiative Supports Military Families
President Barack Obama, First
Lady Michelle Obama, and Dr. Jill
Biden recently put forward nearly 50
commitments by Federal agencies
responding to the President’s directive
to establish a coordinated and
comprehensive Federal approach to
supporting military families.
The result of an effort to find
better ways to provide our Nation’s
military families with the support they
deserve, the new campaign is called “Strengthening Our Military Families:
Meeting America’s Commitment.”
The result will be a unified Federal
Government approach to help ensure:
- The U.S. military recruits and retains
America’s best, allowing it to maintain
the high standards that are a hallmark
of our armed forces.
- Service members can have strong family lives while maintaining the highest state of readiness.
- Family members can live fulfilling lives
while supporting their service member(s).
- The United States better understands and appreciates the experience, strength, and commitment to service of our military families.
This report identifies four strategic
priorities that address the primary
challenges facing our military families.
- Enhance the overall well-being and psychological health of the military family.
- Ensure excellence in military children’s
education and their development.
- Develop career and educational
opportunities for military spouses.
- Increase child care availability and quality within the Armed Forces.
These four priorities were identified
with special attention to the feedback
that the First Lady, Dr. Biden, and
Administration officials received from the
many service members and their families
they encountered over the past 2 years.
The priorities address the concerns and challenges of the families of Active Duty
and Reserve Component Army, Navy, Air
Force, Marines, and Coast Guard members;
veterans; and those who have fallen.
This report elevates the need for
more awareness of the challenges facing
military families and in turn generates
more effective use of Government
resources. HHS is aggressively promoting
awareness across its service provider
networks, the media industry, and
professional medical organizations on
military culture and psychological health
of our service members, their spouses, and
their children.
This report demonstrates how
innovation and sharing best practices can
generate resources and reduce barriers.
It also serves as a springboard
to highlight the military families’
contributions as a national and community
resource and identifies opportunities to
leverage more of the skills, experience, and
capacity of military family members.
Additionally, this overall effort
endeavors to strengthen existing feedback
mechanisms for military families to voice
their concerns and opinions, their unique
challenges, the effectiveness of existing
programs, and their input on the future
direction of related Federal programs
and policies.
Read the transcript of the presentation.