Extension Communications Extension 4-H Youth Building Ames, Iowa 50011-3630 (515) 294-9915

6/17/04

Contacts:
Carol Ouverson, Continuing Education and Communication Services, (515) 294-9640, couverso@iastate.edu
Chris Gleason, 4-H State Military Liaison, (515) 294-1557, cgleason@iastate.edu

Iowa 4-H Examines the Effects of War on Community and Family

AMES, Iowa - The Iowa 4-H Youth Program recently sponsored a day-long conference as part of Operation: Military Kids (OMK) to learn about the impact of deployment on kids, families, and communities. The conference brought together ISU Extension, education professionals, families of deployed soldiers, 4-H members, the Iowa National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve representatives, and representatives of other community organizations.

OMK is a program designed to educate and create awareness of the issues facing children and families of deployed soldiers and to build an infrastructure of support for them. In addition, the program is aiming at developing direct programs to help these new "suddenly military" kids.

"I'm astounded at the fact that all of these groups and people came," said Chris Gleason, 4-H Military Liaison for ISU Extension, "They [the groups] didn't just come to listen, but developed action plans to support the kids and families, they really jumped right in."

Gleason added that all of the cooperation by the different organizations is an example of the quality of commitment and care that people of Iowa have for kids and their communities.

One direct program in development is "Speak Out for Military Kids," (SOMK). Some goals of this program are found in a recent booklet published by Child and Youth Services and the U.S. Army, entitled Operation: Military Kids: 4-H Serving Military Families in Our Own Backyard.

The goals of Speak Out for Military Kids are to raise awareness of issues facing military families, provide youth participants the opportunity to practice service and gain leadership, research, organization, technology, and public speaking skills. In addition, the participants will develop a speaker's bureau and public service announcements so they can share what they have learned with the public.

During the Ames conference, teams from each ISU Extension area assembled planning sheets with four categories which included actions needed, groups involved, person(s) responsible, completion dates and success indicators of actions developed.

Iowa is one of 15 states piloting Operation: Military Kids. It is the first state to hold a working conference where area teams learned about the issues facing the kids of deployed soldiers, developed action plans to educate others about the issues, and built an infrastructure of supporting organizations to help our military kids and their families.

For more information on Operation Military Kids, contact Chris Gleason, 4-H state military liaison at 515-294-1557.

To hear audio from the meeting, visit the ISU Extension Web site at http://www.extension.iastate.edu/newsrel/2004/jun/04/audio/omk.m3u.

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Editors: Three color photos, suitable for publication, are available at right. Click on each thumbnail photo to go to the fullsized photo. The top picture's fullsize photo is 220K; the middle picture's fullsize photo is 308K; and the bottom picture's fullsize photo is 304K. Caption: Iowa OMK Youth Representative Michael Cooley, explains ways 4-H members can work with families and the community to raise awareness of kids in military families.
Caption: Erika Eiten tells 4-H staff what it's like suddenly becoming a military kid.
Caption: Dan Eiten of Denison, relates challenges that deployment creates for military personnel and their families.

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