Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Tim Comerford | Susan Groseclose, a deployment specialist with the Fleet and Family Support Center,...... read more read more
Subscribe
This year, the Fleet and Family Support Centers of Hampton Roads turns 30. The first FFSC opened in Norfolk in 1979 in response to the Navy Family Awareness Conference's realization of the need to support Sailors' families.
The FFSCs offer Sailors, DoD card holders and their families classes and counseling for both financial and emotional needs. The same counseling, offered outside the military, can cost as much as $150 a class.
"Community providers came together because there was a need for Navy and Marine Corps families. In 1979 we had a small group of information and referral folks as well as clinicians that were able to help Sailors and Marines with resources and clinical care," said Shannon Sullivan-Hurst, FFSC regional program manager. Sullivan-Hurst has a deep background in the FFSC with more than a decade of experience.
The FFSC offers more than 100 classes, some weekly, monthly or yearly. The classes encompass financial situations such as managing credit to buying a home or even a car, emotional situations like deployment support, dealing with anger or growing up in an abusive house, to helpful advice to raise your kids healthy.
"It's everything and anything you may want in your benefit package as a Sailor or Marine," Sullivan-Hurst said.
She sees these benefits as just what the families need in a high-stress organization like the military.
"In order for Navy families, or any family for that matter, to be successful they must have financial health and wellness and emotional health and wellness."
The FFSC guides them to that wellness, Sullivan-Hurst said.
"Each customer that comes in has a unique need. Whether it is a single mom coming in looking for child care, or a couple coming in where the wife is looking for a job or a Sailor's spouse who needs some assistance, we can help them."
The fleet and family support center has grown exponentially since its inception.
"In 1994 the Fleet and Family Support Center merged with Family Advocacy Program and in 2007 the Mid-Atlantic region was merged with the northeast," Sullivan-Hurst said. "It was a small group of people it began with, now we have almost 400 employees in our region."
The FFSC has no cost free counterpart in the civilian community, Sullivan-Hurst said.
"When you try to compare some of the programs to what there is the community — it doesn't exist. We take care of Sailors and Marines like no one else."
She sees the next 30 years as one of growth as well. She doesn't know in which direction the FFSC will change but she knows they will continue to impact Sailors and Marines lives.
"We will continue to get smarter, the FFSC are a group of professionals that think outside the box" Sullivan-Hurst said. "We are a flexible organization, for example our mass care. We now actively participate in exercises in response to man made or terrorist events or natural events like hurricanes and tornadoes."
| Date Taken: | 06.19.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 06.19.2009 11:02 |
| Story ID: | 35334 |
| Location: |
| Web Views: | 312 |
| Downloads: | 255 |
This work, Navy celebrates 30 years of Fleet and Family, by PO1 Tim Comerford, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
