{"id":176113,"date":"2024-05-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=176113"},"modified":"2024-05-15T11:36:39","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T11:36:39","slug":"national-guard-expands-pilot-child-care-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=176113","title":{"rendered":"National Guard expands pilot child care program"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief, National Guard Bureau, joins Cara Calvin-McFerren, mayor pro tem, West Liberty, Iowa, and Jessica Chang, chief executive officer, Upwards, to sign a pilot child care intergovernmental support agreement at the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia, May 13, 2024. The initiative helps Army National Guard Soldiers with community-based child care on drill weekends.
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WASHINGTON \u2013 Army Guardsmen in 20 states now can access drill weekend child care after the National Guard\u2019s most senior leader signed an agreement with public partners expanding a pilot program at a Pentagon ceremony May 13, 2024.<\/p>\n

Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief, National Guard Bureau, joined Cara Calvin-McFerren, mayor pro tem of West Liberty, Iowa, and Jessica Chang, chief executive officer of Upwards, for the signing, celebrating the expansion of a program to address an essential need for drilling Guardsmen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our people, our Soldiers and Airmen, who serve on the front lines, preserving peace and security throughout the world,\u201d Hokanson said. \u201cIt is our people who respond to disasters in our communities, saving lives and restoring hope in the face of devastation. And it is our people who uphold our American values \u2014 democracy, opportunity and the rule of law \u2014 and model those values for our allies and partners around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut no one who serves in uniform serves alone. Our service is only possible with the support of our beloved families, who know both the pride and sacrifice of serving our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Army National Guard Weekend Drill Child Care program enhances unit readiness, supports retention, alleviates financial burdens and harmonizes military commitments with parental responsibilities.<\/p>\n

The program provides child care to the dependent children of married Soldiers with spouses working on drill weekends, Families with both parents serving in the Guard and single Soldiers. The initiative helps balance service obligations and family life and removes a potential barrier to enlistment and continuing service.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur National Guard families maintain an intricate balance: a civilian life, a civilian career and military service,\u201d Hokanson said. \u201cComplicating this balancing act is the community-based nature of our National Guard: While our Guardsmen live in nearly every ZIP code, they aren\u2019t like active-duty military families who live on or near a base with a built-in support network. In fact, they might be the only family in their community who serves.\u201d<\/p>\n

This pilot program teams the Army National Guard with West Liberty, Iowa, and the Upwards child care network to help Guard families attain stability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe partnership with the U.S. Army, the National Guard, the Department of Defense and Upwards is a valuable resource to help our military men and women,\u201d Calvin-McFerren said. \u201cI would like to thank all for choosing West Liberty, Iowa, to join in this innovative program and support the most vital of our country\u2019s military families.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pilot encompasses 20 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

The National Guard is the primary combat reserve of the Army and the Air Force, delivering 20% of the Joint Force manning structure.<\/p>\n

About 430,000 Citizen-Soldiers and Airmen comprise the National Guard. On any given day, about 25,000 are on duty across every overseas combatant command, with another 20,000 typically supporting domestic and steady-state operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we support our National Guard families, we support the missions they make possible,\u201d Hokanson said. \u201cIn taking care of our people \u2014 and taking care of their families \u2014 we help them keep our National Guard\u2019s promise to the nation \u2014 a promise to be Always Ready, Always There.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more National Guard news<\/a><\/p>\n

National Guard Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

National Guard X<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief, National Guard Bureau, joins Cara Calvin-McFerren, mayor pro tem, West Liberty, Iowa, and Jessica Chang, chief executive officer, Upwards, to sign a pilot child care intergovernmental support agreement at the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia, May 13, 2024. The initiative helps Army National Guard Soldiers with community-based child care on drill weekends. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176115,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=176113"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176116,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176113\/revisions\/176116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/176115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=176113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=176113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=176113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}