U.S. Army photo by Cpl. Aaron Troutman
Our Guard and Reserve forces include nearly one million family members, 300,000 military spouses, and nearly 700,000 Reserve-connected children. Too often, resources for families are clustered on military installations, like childcare centers, school liaisons, and Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) activities.
ROA’s ReserveConnect system now includes over 100 partners, with many actively working to help Reserve families get the most out of their service, and continued support as Reserve Veterans and retirees. For school-age children, we have resources like Our Military Kids (providing funding for activities while Guard and Reserve members are on active duty), the School Liaison Program (who can help with any K-12 issue for Guard and Reserve families), and free summer camps for teens of Guard and Reserve members and veterans through the Military Teen Adventure Camps program.
We’ve also assembled resources with our partners on military spouse employment. Reserve-connected spouses have an unemployment rate between 8-13 percent, double or triple the national average. Military Spouse Jobs has decades of experience helping to upskill Guard and Reserve spouses, and the Pentagon’s SpouseWorks Fellowship offers an incredible PAID 12-week program, open to spouses of Guard and Reserve service members. Finally, we have resources for Guard and Reserve business owners, from training and loans through the Small Business Administration to the incredible networks of the Military Spouse Chamber of Commerce and Syracuse University’s D’Aniello Institute for Veterans & Military Families’ Military Founders Lab.
Explore more resources for military families in our ReserveFamilies platform.