Since 02-12-06
'America Support You' Links Troops to Public, Corporate, Private Help
Since 02-12-06
From:
Waspscpo@aol.com [mailto:Waspscpo@aol.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2006 7:37 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: America Support You' Links Troops to Public, Corporate, Private Help
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2006/20060209_4158.html
'America Support You' Links Troops to Public, Corporate, Private Help
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
9 February 2006
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2006 – If you or another servicemember or military family
you know needs help, the support you're seeking might be just a few clicks away
on the "America
Supports You" Web site.
The green button on the
www.AmericaSupportsYou.mil site takes military members to a long list
resources and America Supports You partners, all standing by and ready to help,
Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, told
the American Forces Press Service.
They include traditional military and government programs, but also corporate,
grassroots and individual efforts that help meet needs the Defense Department
simply can't, said Barber, who came up with the America Supports You program
concept and oversees its operations. For example, one link on the page takes
visitors to organizations that donate frequent-flier miles so family members and
friends can visit wounded troops recovering from combat injuries.
Another links to groups that renovate homes and build ramps to accommodate
returning troops' wheelchairs, all at no charge, Barber said. While many groups
on the site focus specifically on wounded troops, many support all
servicemembers and their families in need. Some offer free phone cards for
deployed troops so they can call home without stressing their budgets.
Others send care packages and letters of encouragement to deployed members.
Still others help families keep the home fires burning during their loved one's
deployment. Recognizing that family finances often get tight during deployment,
some groups pitch in to cover emergency expenses or pick up the tab on niceties
that too often go by the wayside during a deployment, Barber said.
One America Supports You team member, for example, cut a check directly to a
mechanic to pay for a military family's desperately needed car repairs, she
said. Another pays for camps for deployed National Guard members' kids. "I don't
want a second grader to not go to basketball camp because their mom or dad is
deployed - especially when we have people who are ready to pay for that camp,"
Barber said.
Barber acknowledged that the America Supports You program represents a culture
change for servicemembers, who traditionally have depended on the military
community for the support they need. But it's an important shift that ultimately
means better, more complete support for troops and their families, she said.
While recognizing the tremendous value of initiatives conducted at the service
and Department of Defense levels, Barber said the America Supports You program
provides a conduit to services and programs beyond DoD's scope. "These are not
programs that the Department of Defense is equipped to run," she said. "There
are certain things that our grassroots groups and corporate team members can do
for the military community that the military is not necessarily equipped to
handle in the same way," she said.
Since its inception in November 2004, the America Supports You program has
provided a direct link that never existed before between the American public and
the country's men and women in uniform. "It's a connector campaign for military
members and their families," she said. "What America Support You has done is
connect America's passion for the troops to the troops," Barber said.
"We are doing it on a national scale and we just can't do enough." The program
has gained steady momentum during the past year, expanding to a vast network
that includes 25 corporate and 188 grassroots organizations. Barber urged
military members and families in need, or who know someone who is, to visit the
America Supports You page to tap into the resources available to them.
"America Supports You might not have all the answers for everyone, but it sure
will have a lot of answers and a lot of solutions for people," Barber said. "We
want to make sure that people add the America Supports You program to their
toolbox when they need help or when they're helping someone."
Related Site:
America Supports You
http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/americasupportsyou/index.aspx
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)