SEMBACH, Germany – As a member of the Installation Management Command Europe’s Family and MWR Child and Youth Services team the past two years, Ami Sansone shares how her experience has helped her focus on future goals.
As the program operations specialist, Sansone works closely with all IMCOM-Europe’s garrisons and offers support with the resources provided. She is able to answer questions about background checks and financial budgets for CYS-based negotiations.
“It’s important for the spaces and facilities to be filled because that’s how they get funded. The more children in the facility and the more space being executed, the better the chances of receiving the funding.” Sansone explained.
Sansone played an important role in pushing for recruitment and retention for CYS in the past two years and was named the IMCOM-Europe Hero of the Month for December.
In March 2021 CYS headquarters started a staffing Operations Planning Team to fill the personnel gap that occurred during COVID. The program began at the Kaiserslautern and Grafenwöhr facilities but has since then branched out to all garrisons.
A Europe wide hiring event took place in March 2022 and another in September. The results were positive, as there was an increase in application submissions, especially after the event in September.
“People are finally ready to get back to work. There’s been some other incentives such as offering recruitment retention bonus, which increase with satisfactory employment.”
Sansone played a vital role implementing the minimum wage increase during the multiple phases. Catching inaccuracies regarding salaries for the different pay grades during the first two phases, she took a deep dive to straighten the wages of supervisor and staff positions.
“The first two phases were prepared at headquarters, though phase three took place locally. We went through the pay for all the employees to get things realigned.”
A major ongoing project for the CYS team is the playground contract. The project includes installing and renovating playgrounds throughout the IMCOM-Europe garrisons – the two most recent in Vicenza and Grafenwöhr.
“We just broke ground in Landstuhl. I make sure the playgrounds are built within the budget. We received money from headquarters for these particular grounds that allowed us to task renovations and coordinate how to execute the money.”
Annual playground inspections tend to be paid for by the garrisons themselves, though special projects such as building new play areas, have their budgets allocated through Sansone.
When asked what Sansone enjoys most about her position, she said, “I love providing support and being somebody that the garrisons can reach out to and get information or clarification.”
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