Courtesy Photo | Joy Barnes, director of Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, assists a customer June 15,...... read more read more
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Story by Ensign Abbie L. Purdy, NAS Pensacola Public Affairs Office
PENSACOLA, Fla. (June 18, 2020) – The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (NMCRS) onboard Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola provides financial, disaster and Covid-19 relief to active duty Sailors and Marines, retirees and their families.
The NMCRS was created on January 23, 1904, to provide financial relief to widows and families of enlisted men. Since its institution, it has progressed into a non-profit volunteer service organization that uses both financial and non-financial resources to identify solutions to meet emerging needs. With 52 full services worldwide, the NMCRS mission is to provide financial, educational, and other assistance to naval service members and their families.
“We provide emergency financial assistance for Marines, Sailors, retirees and their families,” said Joy Barnes, the director of NMCRS onboard NAS Pensacola. “All financial assistance is no-interest loans and grants. We are primarily run by volunteers; total we have 78 volunteers that help in the main office and the Corry Station Thrift Shop.”
The NMCRS offers a range of services to Sailors and Marines. In addition to loans and grants, the office offers financial counseling to help plan for better financial stability. NMCRS also provides the Visiting Nurse Program that provides in-home health education to service members and their families. This normally consists of a free home visit from a registered nurse who provides health education, baby wellness checkups and can help with other health issues.
“I see a lot of new moms and babies and I do baby weight checks and breastfeeding support,” said Arbutus Mullins, NAS Pensacola’s NMCRS visiting nurse. “I do medication management and see people with chronic illness. Under the current Covid-19 conditions, I am limited to phone calls only, but anyone can call me. If I cannot personally help, I will do my best to find someone who can.”
As hurricanes are a major concern at NAS Pensacola, the NMCRS offers unique services to assist service members. They offer services for both pre-and-post natural disasters. Last year around the country the NMCRS assisted in 900,000 dollars in disaster relief funds.
“If the base orders an evacuation, we stand ready to give debit cards of $300 for a single service member or $600 for a family,” said Barnes. “These cards are meant for food, gas and lodging to get service members out of town quickly. After a hurricane, if someone has damage to their home or need help with things like their insurance deductible, an immediate place to stay, or any sort of damage we can help.”
Under the current Covid-19 conditions, NMCRS is taking precautions to protect their clientele and their volunteers. This is done through limiting time in the office and doing everything that can be done over the phone rather than meeting in person.
“Right now, we have the Covid-19 Rapid Response, which is a loan in between our traditional loan and our quick assist loan,” said Barnes. “A Sailor or Marine would still need to bring in verification, like estimates for car repairs, but we are waiving the requirement for a budget right now so they do not have to sit and do a budget with us face-to-face. We have caseworkers working from home who are able to do a lot of the initial casework so by the time the service member is coming to our office it is really just checking the ID and finalizing the check. I urge people to call the office first and if we are not here leave a message. Our staff is checking messages from home.”
For more information, visit www.nmcrs.org/helping or the local NAS Pensacola NMCRS can be contacted directly at (850) 452-2300
For more on NAS Pensacola, visit https://www.cnic.navy.mil/Pensacola.
| Date Taken: | 06.18.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 06.18.2020 09:25 |
| Story ID: | 372361 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 214 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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