Offutt Spouse Resilience Program making huge strides

  • Published
  • 55th Wing Public Affairs
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. --  Over the past few years the Air Force has presented their resilience program as a way for Airmen to deal with stress they face not only while wearing the uniform, but also when they're not.

Recently, another group of individuals has started using that same resilience program to help another part of the Air Force family - spouses.

Here at Offutt, this effort is being led by Joy Draper and Aimee Salter, who are co-chairs of the Offutt Spouse Resilience Program. These two came together over the past few months and have really started to make their mark on base.

"Ms. Draper and Ms. Salter are doing a tremendous job leading our Offutt Spouse Resilience Program. I know they have immediately helped our families, and I feel they are establishing a program that other bases across the Air Force will be able to use," said U.S. Air Force Col. Gregory Guillot, 55th Wing commander.

And others agree. In fact, Draper was invited to Washington D.C. in May to be a representative for the Military Spouse Advocacy Network, where she serves as the Deployment and Resilience coordinator. There she attended a spouse's summit and spoke with Tamre Newton, Airman & Family Readiness Policy chief for the U.S. Air Force.

"She was interested in our program and asked us to put together a 'playbook' of how we've gotten to where we are and so it could be reviewed by the curriculum development team at the Pentagon and with the Comprehensive Airman Fitness program," she said. "She discussed that she would like me to come back down to D.C. and meet with the curriculum development team to work towards using our model from here at Offutt to build an Air Force-wide Spouse Resilience Program."

The idea of a spouse's resilience program started after Draper and Salter had the opportunity to sit in on a resilience briefing by Jack Sweet, Offutt Community Support coordinator. They instantly knew the material used in the active duty resilience program could be applicable and helpful to spouses.

"Our program was born out of the idea that a spouse resilience program would be more effective if it was by spouses for spouses," Draper said.

Shortly thereafter, they met with Sweet to discuss the possibilities of creating a program that met the specific needs of military spouses but also remained true to the Air Force resilience initiative.

"I'm confident that we've done just that," Draper said. "The program has been modified - not changed - to better reach military spouses and the fact that it is military spouses who are now running the training, I think that it's much easier for spouses to learn and relate to our stories and experiences."

"We have been able to take the root message and intent of the resilience strategies and bring that to other spouses, as their peers," Salter said. "We modified the trainings to remove the acronyms and input real life examples, the two of us have experienced."

Sweet said he couldn't agree more.

"Ms. Draper and Ms. Salter have really taken the Airmen resilience program and modified it perfectly to assist spouses," he said. "What they're doing is really an example for the rest of the Air Force to follow."

Prior to initiating their program, both Draper and Salter attended a three-day resilience training assistant course and met with Sweet multiple times to develop their criteria.

"One of the reasons we have been able to successfully do this, is in large by the support we receive from Jack." Salter said. "He recognizes the value of information and expertise Joy and I bring and gives us ownership over it, while making sure we are keeping with Air Force standards and the resilience initiative."

Once the team felt they had developed a program that fit spouse's needs, they went on the offensive to spread the word on their new initiative. They held an introductory class within base housing, briefed wing leadership during a staff meeting, met with base first sergeants, chiefs and key spouses, got a regular time slot during Right Start, and visited individual units to talk with spouses among other things.

"We have also developed a formula for offering web-based training that is topic based instead of a traditional military briefing style," Salter said. "In these webinars, we focus on one specific topic or stressor that military families face, like deployments or moving. In these sessions, we are able to reach out to spouses across the country."

Draper said they've been able to teach spouses to use resilience techniques and modify their behavior to more quickly bounce back from tough times.

"We have been able to encourage spouses to think more carefully about their attitudes when handling the tough times," she added. "This is a positive behavior modification program. It's about teaching individuals to be intentional in their thought patterns to focus on the positive rather than the negative. It all sounds a little abstract and 'touchy feely,' but the techniques can truly help with the many stressors that military life places on families."

Moving ahead, the team's future goal is to continue the monthly webinars and market their initiatives to the entire base.

"We have recently added the training into the initial key spouse training offered quarterly by the Airman & Family Readiness Center for new key spouses," Salter said. "We hope to work out into the units and bring training modules to the spouses at a unit level."

Make no mistake, if there's a place where this group can share resilience techniques with other spouses, whether it's here or at other locations, they are happy to do it.

"It's exciting to see how the program has grown in just a few short months," Salter said. "When we started the program we had no idea that it would ever reach beyond the gates of Offutt. We have been able to reach out to our peers all across the states and connect with them on a different level."

"I can't thank them enough for what they're doing for our Airmen and their families," Guillot said. "It's a very important program and the work they're doing is crucial to making the 55th Wing family stronger, healthier and more capable."

For more information on the program, visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OffuttSpouseResilience or contact Sweet at 232-8481.