Welcome to Military Life: Support Resources for Military Families

If you’ve recently married into the military, or you or your spouse have just joined, you may feel both nervous and excited about the future. During the adjustment period, spouses take on new roles, adapt to new schedules and learn new ways of handling many of life’s obstacles. The following resources can help ease your transition.

Military and Family Support Center

Your installation Military and Family Support Center is a good place to start, for anything from local parent classes, to an introduction to installation services including spouse career and employment opportunities, personal financial management classes, deployment and more.

Deployment

You can ease some of the stress of deployment by preparing for separations. These resources can teach you strategies to help your family adjust during deployment:

For spouses:

• These Boots: A Spouse’s Guide to Stepping Up and Standing Tall During Deployment is a transcript that offers spouses suggestions and strategies on how to cope before, during and after deployment.

For young children:

• Sesame Street’s Talk, Listen, Connect: Deployments, Homecomings, Changes is a multimedia program that helps children between the ages of 2 and 5 communicate feelings and concerns that they may have during different phases of deployment.

Relocation

Military families may move every two to three years. These resources can help you manage the move:

• Spouse Relocation and Transition Consultations
• The Moving & PCS topic center on Military OneSouce is packed with information and resources to help you master your move.
• The Relocation Assistance Program can help you prepare for your PCS, connect you with resources at your new duty station and more.
• MilitaryINSTALLATIONS provides you with information about services and programs available to you on your new installation.
• Plan My Move is a web-based relocation tool that provides information, resources and checklists to help plan your move.
• HOMES.mil is a service designed to connect service members and their families with community housing rental listings located near U.S. military bases.
• Militarychildcare.com helps you explore different child care options and locate Defense Department-approved providers around the world.
• TRICARE can help you find options for care at your new location. Be sure to notify TRICARE of your move.
• The DOD provides allowances for certain moving expenses, including a dislocation allowance, and reimbursement for mileage, and for meals and lodging during CONUS moves and OCONUS moves.
• The Exceptional Family Member Program can help if you have a family member with special needs. EFMP Family Support can help make sure your family member’s needs are met during the move, especially if they will transfer to a new school.
• The Military and Family Life Counseling Program and Military OneSource provide non-medical counseling if you need to talk with someone about managing the stress of moving.

For young children:

• PCS moves and other realities of military life can sometimes lead to feelings of loneliness. Building Community With Sesame Street and Military OneSource Resources can help you and your young children navigate these and other challenges of military life.

For youth and teens:

• Making the Move Easier for Military Children offers children tips and advice on adapting to life on the move.

Changing careers

Family members may have to place their careers on hold or change careers completely when they relocate to a new area. These resources can help you manage career change challenges:

• The Spouse Education and Career Opportunity Program provides expert education and career guidance to military spouses worldwide.
• The Defense-State Liaison Office, or DSLO, works with state legislators to modify licensure requirements for military spouses who want to maintain their licenses as they move from state to state.
• The Military Spouse Employment Partnership connects spouses with more than 700 employers who pledge to recruit, hire, promote and retain military spouses in portable careers.

Use the resources and tools that your installation and Military OneSource offer to ease your family’s transition into military life and to help everyone feel like a welcome member of the military community. Call Military OneSource at 800-342-9647 if you have questions about resources. We are here for you 24/7. OCONUS/International? View calling options.