Tim Rolfe is looking sharp in a blue suit as he stands in front of the room and welcomes students from all over the world to the first day of class at Redstone Arsenal.
The students weren’t packed into Rolfe’s Army Community Service office next to the Java Cafe; these students were on Army installations all over the world.
“We are coming to you live from Huntsville, Alabama at Redstone Arsenal,” Rolfe, Redstone Arsenal family advocacy program manager, said.
The class, offered on Teams, will be on the first Wednesday of the month for seven months. It will address family violence in the Army.
“I see Pine Bluff, I see Wiesbaden, Fort Liberty and people from all over the place,” Rolfe said during his introduction of the Thriving Family Series, a series helping Army families navigate the stresses of their personal and professional lives.
“It’s designed to provide installation–wide prevention of family violence,” he said in a prior to the presentation. The program provides an evidence-based curriculum,” according to Rolfe.
“If we haven’t been directly affected by family violence,” he said, “then we probably know someone who has.”
Rolfe said he hopes the content and curriculum reaches families that may be trying to navigate their personal and professional lives.
Rolfe didn’t just create the Thriving Families Workshop to help military personnel on Redstone Arsenal, he wanted to reach out to Army communities which might not have the resources of an installation like Redstone Arsenal.
“We’ve spread this far and wide, and they have sent it out to the entire Army footprint,” he said. “These are universal topics we are talking about.”
“Also, a lot of Army installations just don’t have the resources to provide a robust prevention curriculum,” Rolfe said recalling an Army post he had worked at previously which just didn’t have resources to deal with family violence issues.
“They may have one person within Army Community Service as a whole covering down on multiple programs. They just don’t have the capacity to provide these types of services.
“My intent is to help those smaller installations specifically who may not have the resources to provide such robust curriculum,” Rolfe said. “But the community can still benefit from this type of curriculum.”
During the program, Rolfe will have help from Carolyn White, an employee assistance program coordinator and counselor who works with Rolfe at the Redstone office.
Technoference was the first Wednesday class, and the other class topics are Cooperative Parenting: controlling the Controllables; Creating Healthy Connections; Recognition of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Building Healthy Relationships; Five Love Languages; The Art of Managing Anger Well; Scream-Free Parenting; Elephants, Couples and Finance.
The classes are free and open to the Redstone Arsenal community on MS Teams at tinyurl.com/ystb54b8.
“No preregistration, no cost, just show up,” Rolfe said.
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