Community Support

 

As I was scrolling through Twitter for local current events pertaining to Veterans Day, this tweet caught my eye:

@FtMeadeAlliance We're excited to announce @wbaltv11 is airing a feature Thursday at 11pm about the anticipated Education and Resiliency Center at Kuhn Hall. Below are some behind the scenes moments! @FtMeadeMD #resiliency #FortMeade #VeteransDay

What’s an education and resiliency center? From the Fort Meade Alliance website:

The new Fort Meade Education and Resiliency Center will be designed to “support soldiers at all stages of their careers, from junior enlisted to veterans” as well as families and DoD civilians, Viergutz said. Designed around the concept of an education and resiliency campus, the center will provide onsite classes, counselling and events, but also serve as a hub to connect individuals with services elsewhere on post, within the military and out through surrounding communities.

The piece about the Education and Resiliency Center, which I found on the Fort Meade Alliance website, offers a forthright description of the challenges facing those currently serving in the military at Fort Meade as well as veterans. It’s definitely worth the read. It brought into focus for me how difficult it must be for service members who work in cyber security to refrain from discussing any aspect of their work with their families. How exhausting and stressful that must be.

Also highlighted: the fact that many in the military don’t feel comfortable asking for help when they truly need it, thus compounding their struggles.  Many of our veterans are carrying that weight. The new center in Kuhn Hall will seek to address that.

The new Education and Resiliency Center will focus on education and the five pillars of resiliency: physical, emotional, social, family and spiritual. The services will range from guidance counseling and transition efforts to mental health counseling, wellness programs and financial planning. A premier benefit of this space will be new programming for educational programs needed for successful career placement and continuing education, and expansion of existing programs to broader audiences, including spouses.

The Fort Meade Alliance is an independent community organization which came together around ten years ago as a response to upcoming changes by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. (Remember BRAC?)  Their website describes it as a humble start:

It started with a half-dozen military veterans and intelligence retirees huddled in the children’s room of the Odenton library.

(As an aside: wow libraries at the center of everything, aren’t they?)

They now describe the Alliance as folllows:

The Fort Meade Alliance is dedicated to fulfilling a mission to support the work and people of Fort George G. Meade, and help Fort Meade drive economic growth in Maryland. Our efforts on behalf of that mission generate real impact for our region through education and workforce development initiatives, transportation solutions, business connections and DoD community support.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Education and Resiliency center, WBAL tv will be running a piece tonight in the eleven o’clock news. 

Many thanks today for all of our veterans who have worked to protect us and to keep so many people safe around the world.