Monday, September 17, 2007
While hundreds of families are welcoming home soldiers who recently returned from Iraq, there are others who still wait anxiously for loved ones to come home. There is a group is offering free child care for families with a parent in the military. The Surge Support Child Care Project allows providers to find families in need and offer their services.
There are 12,000 Minnesota children with a parent in the National Guard. The idea for the program came after news of an extension was announced in January for the National Guard, Program Manager Marcia Schlattman said. The project's goal is to allow parents to attend support group meetings, to get some time alone or simply to run errands.
Nearly 500 child care providers are participating.
Free ongoing, full-time child care for deployed military families is already offered through Operation Child Care. But the support program is meant to complement it with off-hour, occasional and Saturday care. The project is an initiative of the Minnesota Child Care Resource and Referral Network, the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, Minnesota National Guard and Army Reserve.
For information, call Child Care Choices at 251-5081 or visit its Web site at www.mnchildcare.org.
In addition, the Surge Program offers training for caregivers who are working with military families and is based on the Military Child Education Coalition Curriculum: Supporting teh Childrne of the Guard and Reserve. Information on the MCEC can be found at www.militarychild.org.
Did you know...
Child Abuse Rises When a Military Parent Is Deployed... A new study shows that child abuse rises, particularly by mothers, when military spouses are deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. And I think I understand why. The Pentagon-funded study found that cases of neglect, abandonment, physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse rose by about 40 percent when a parent was deployed in families with previously confirmed cases of abuse.
I am a SURGE trainer. To find out more information, check my website at http://tkwconsulting.com/projects.htm.
