FORT HOOD, Texas -- It is often during times of uncertainty and distress that those who are truly dedicated really stand out. With the Fort Hood Child and Youth Services program, hard work and commitment have always been forefront, and Installation Management Command has decided to award the program.
Eight senior members of the Fort Hood CYS team received the CYS Award of Excellence on Jan. 12, presented to them by Col. Jason Wesbrock, commander of U.S. Army Garrison – Fort Hood. The awardees were Sheila Curtis, CYS chief; Tonia Zimmer, program operations specialist; Kim Bleakley-Sias, program operations specialist; Ashley Hill, Youth and School Age Care administrator; Regina Martinez, Parent and Outreach Services administrator; Sadie Collins, Child Development Services administrator; Bianca Hill, lead training specialist; Scott McNay, functional technology specialist; and Tonya Webster, functional technology specialist.
“These tremendous accomplishments and events directly correlate with the CYS vision statement: one team, one vision, one goal,” Martinez said. “The vision is the driving force for excellence in school support, youth programs and childcare for the Army family. It also personifies the CYS mission statement: reduce the conflict between the parental responsibilities and the unit mission requirements.”
The awards were presented for outstanding achievement in six different programs.
• Fort Hood Education Summit – The Education Summit provides opportunities for local schools and the military community to work together; and to ensure that Fort Hood families and leadership are informed and prepared to make important decisions for military-connected students. This was a program initiated by Fort Hood CYS and has been adopted at other posts throughout the Army.
• Fort Hood JROTC Skills Meet: The JROTC Skills Meet is another Fort Hood CYS initiated program, and is part of the Adopt-A-School program in which military units adopt and represent a local school. The skills meet offers friendly competition for area schools and builds camaraderie between community JROTC programs and Fort Hood.
• Council on Accreditation – Fort Hood School Age programs at Walker, Venable, Kouma and Montague all received expedited accreditation through the COA for 2019, which recognizes high performance standards and the highest quality of service being implemented through the School Age programs. Expedited accreditation was a result of having received no out-of-compliance ratings in any of the required standards.
• Army Higher Headquarters Inspection – The AHHI was conducted in 2019 by the Installation Management Command, G-9 CYS AHHI team, and complied with an inspection grand total score of 99.62%.
• National Association for the Education of Children and Youth Accreditation – the NAEYC re-accredited both the Clear Creek and Meadows Child Development Centers in 2019 with extremely high scores.
• Garrison best practices – Fort Hood CYS is being looked at as the “go-to garrison” for best practices and execution of new initiatives and pilot programs. Some of these initiatives include those mentioned above as well as the CYS Sensations, a triannual CYS publication; the annual Youth Sports & Fitness brochure; Military Youth of the Year program; total family income calculator; Boys & Girls Club of America cluster training site; online hourly care parent orientation; standardized child medication bags; and many others.
“This is really something that each and every team member here is willing to help each other out with,” Martinez said. “We are all devoted to our mission, which is taking care of military families and taking care of their children, and ensuring that Soldiers are able to go and complete their mission with the peace of mind that their kids are in great hands and are well taken care of by people that love and nurture them and truly care about their growth and development.”
For more information about the Fort Hood CYS and what services they offer, visit https://hood.armymwr.com/programs/cys-services.
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