American Legion Reaches Out to Help Families During Deployments

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2003 (DeploymentLINK) - Increased reliance on members of the National Guard and Reserves to support many of the recent operations and exercises overseas has, in some cases, caused a burden on family members left at home. For military family members needing an extra hand to help with everyday household chores - mowing the lawn, doing car and home repairs, cooking and caring for children - assistance may be as close as their nearest American Legion Post.

"The American Legion created the Family Support Network to help those families who are juggling finances, need the family car fixed or other home repairs or who needs someone to help with the grocery shopping," said Jason Kees, program coordinator for the American Legion's Family Support Network. "The men and women [serving in the military] are making a great sacrifice for our country and so are their families. The American Legion stands committed in our efforts to ensure that these families don't have shoulder this burden alone.

"The Family Support Network was not created to replace existing Department of Defense support programs, but rather to augment them and ensure that no family falls through the cracks. With 15,000 [American Legion] Posts, we have a lot of resources available at the local level ready to help our military family members in need."

In 1990, the unprecedented mobilization of thousands of National Guard and Reserve units to support Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm caught many of these military families unaware and unprepared to deal with shrinking income and juggling everyday responsibilities. Sometimes paychecks were lost or not forwarded to the family; this was especially true for National Guard and Reserve families. To meet the needs of these military families, the American Legion created the Family Support Network. Over the past 12 years, the Family Support Network has been providing assistance to thousands families of deployed servicemembers. This year alone, the Family Support Network has responded to more than 1,000 calls for assistance and information from military family members.

"The calls we receive range from simple requests for information to mowing the lawn to transportation assistance," said Kees. "It's just another way that we can support the troops and to show that we care."

How the program works: Servicemembers and their families who need assistance can call the Family Support Network's 24-hour national toll-free hotline at (800) 504 - 4098. Information such as the name, address and telephone number of the caller and the reason for the call is collected. The call is then referred to the American Legion department or state in which the call originated. The departments relay the collected information to a local American Legion Post. The local Post contacts the family to see how they can provide any available assistance or refers the family to the appropriate agency. Additionally, families can submit an electronic request the Legion's Web site at http://www.legion.org send an e-mail message to familysupport@legion.org to request assistance. E-mail messages should include the name, address and a telephone number where the family member can be reached and the type of assistance needed.

"Some of our posts are large while others are small, but [each] can offer help in some form or another," said Kees. "Sometimes it's just knowing where to call. Posts that don't have the resources often act as a starting point for families to get the assistance they need."

The response to the Family Support Network has been overwhelming, said Kees. Since Sept. 11, 2001, there has been a tremendous outpouring of people wanting to know how and what they can do to support the troops.

"It seems few truly understand how precious this type of support is to our men and women in uniform," said Ronald F. Conley, the American Legion National Commander.

Another program, said Kees, which goes hand-in-hand with the Family Support Network is the Temporary Financial Assistance.

"For families of eligible veterans with minor children, the American Legion can help meet the basic needs of shelter and food," said Kees.

The Family Support Network and Temporary Financial Assistance programs are just two examples of support the American Legion offers families of military personnel. The American Legion established the September 11th Memorial Scholarship program to ensure children of active duty personnel killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks or while serving in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom have the opportunity for higher education.

To learn more about the Family Support Network, the Temporary Financial Assistance program, the September 11th Memorial Scholarship and other programs, go to the American Legion's Web site, http://www.legion.org.

In response to the overwhelming requests from the public about how to support the troops, the American Legion launched a new section on their Web site to answer that question. The new section called "Support Our Troops" offers several suggestions of ways to reach out to U.S. servicemembers and their families.

The American Legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic, mutual-help, war-time veterans organization. It has nearly three million members in some 15,000 American posts worldwide. These posts are organized into 55 Departments - one each for the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, France, Mexico and the Philippines.