Fort Belvoir, Va. (June 12, 2014) - The Family Readiness Group roundtable met June 6 to introduce its new "Got Balance?" resilience program.
The program will help Soldiers and their Families build resilience using 14 core Master Resilience Training skills. Carol Janer, Mobilization and Deployment Readiness Program manager and Laureen Dupree, Employee Readiness Program manager, presented the new program at the FRG Roundtable.
"There isn't anybody who can't use resiliency skills," Janer said.
The program will piggy back on already-established Army Community Services classes and training on post, with instructors working the resilience skills into their lessons. Janer said a good example was the Baby Bundles class that was held June 6. The MRT skills could be used in that class to teach parents resilience.
"There are a lot of programs out there that support these skills," Janer said.
Dupree presented one of the 14 skills, Putting it in Perspective, to the group to demonstrate what a lesson could look like.
"Putting it in Perspective is a skill which allows you to lower your anxiety about an activating event," she explained. "If we're depleted, we're tired, stressed, we're likely to get into catastrophic thinking."
Other skills include Problem Solving, Energy Management and Assertive Communication.
Janer said they will have some classes entirely based on the MRT skills, but they want to get participants moving and working creatively.
"We don't just sit and have a slide-by-slide PowerPoint show," she said.
The program is set to launch later this month. Janer said Soldiers and Families will start seeing marketing on post, and they will be reaching out to the community to garner interest.
There will be one class with a firm date each month, and one that changes to accommodate those that can't attend.
"We're going to try different times to see what the Families like," Janer said.
Janer and Dupree encouraged the roundtable attendees to start thinking about resilience and positive thinking now.
"All the skills need practice to be successful," Dupree said.
Janer suggested each participant write down three positive things that happen each day, and reflect back.
"Don't just write those three things down -- really think about them," she said. "You can't change what happened in the day, but you can change how you react to them."
The FRG roundtable meets the first Thursday of the month at ACS. The July edition will be July 10, due to the 4th of July holiday, 10:30 a.m. to noon. For more information on the group, or on how to access ACS services, contact Janer at (703) 805-5683, or email her at carol.r.janer.civ@mail.mil.
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