A new concept was introduced Thursday at the quarterly training for family readiness groups.
Redstone will begin an Arsenal community-wide Family Readiness Group because of its diverse population of deployed people - including civilians and contractors as well as Soldiers and Marines.
"We are going to be putting together an FRG based on the uniqueness of this post," Kathleen Riester, mobilization/deployment and financial readiness program manager at Army Community Service, said.
She pointed out to family readiness group representatives from throughout Redstone that this community-wide effort won't take away from their individual organizations. "We just want to bring you under the umbrella with all the other folks," she told them.
In a traditional family readiness group, the unit has a military commander, a military FRG liaison and a military spouse who leads the FRG.
"So what we're going to do is we're going to create a Redstone Arsenal Community FRG which could include a civilian and a contractor," Riester said. "That makes it non-traditional because we have a large population of civilians. In other words, we are going to design our Redstone Arsenal Community FRG to reflect the demographics of this post. This is forward thinking, out of the box."
An advisory council, with senior adviser Alice Myles, is to meet in January. The advisory council is still being organized. Interested persons are welcome to call Riester at 876-5397.
"This concept came from her experience," said Myles, wife of Redstone commander Maj. Gen. Jim Myles. "She just saw the need."
Maj. Gen. Myles expressed his support for family readiness during his remarks at Thursday's meeting, held at Army Community Service.
"Thank you for helping us get started on this journey," he said.
The next FRG quarterly training meeting is scheduled March 5.
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