Military and Family Support Initiative

The United States faces a welcomed challenge to assist returning Troops as well as Veterans transitioning out of the military as they return home to their families and communities from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These brave men and women have faced many challenges, and in turning their hearts toward home, deserve the gratitude and help of our nation in return. They have faced many obstacles in combat and now return to us to heal and move on with their families and lives whether at their home bases or transitioning out of the military as civilians.

Social workers are well prepared to assist with this challenge and give back to those who have served us so heroically. As part of this effort the Center for Children and Families (CCF) and Dr. Katherine Selber have worked on a number of initiatives both inside and outside the University. A few of these are described below.

At Texas State University, we have worked to help identify Student Veteran needs and organize program efforts to address those needs. Dr. Selber is part of a Student Veteran Advisory Group out of the Student Affairs and Veteran’s Certification Office that meets monthly with many people across campus to work towards a seamless coordinated approach for helping our Student Veterans transition into, through, and out of the university environment.

We have also helped implement focus groups with our Student Veterans to gather their input for ideas on how to help Texas State University better individualize services for them. We have written the attached article for the Campus Guide during the spring 2009 semester to raise awareness on campus for supporting our Veterans.

We also take part in organizing and implementing monthly Student Veteran events such as luncheons and breakfasts that provide a way of honoring their service and giving them another avenue to get together. Dr. Selber is a co-sponsor of the newly created Student Veteran Alliance, which helps them move their goals forward, develop their group, and give back to the Texas State University community.
The Texas State University School of Social Work we are also teaching the SOWK 5339/ 3339 Troops and Family elective course for the first time this spring. With 32 students in class, it has been a great opportunity to begin an interdisciplinary training effort for working with this population. There are mainly social workers both at the graduate and undergraduate level in the class, but some students are from other programs including Criminal Justice and International Relations as well. The class has as a goal to provide an overview of practice, community, and policy issues for serving our returning troops and veterans and their families.

Dr. Selber has brought in many guest speakers from the community in an effort to get the experts in front of our students. We will be offering SOWK 5339/ 3339 Troops and Family elective in the fall 2009, and this gives us a chance to fine tune the class and continue to reach and train more students. One student provided a comment to be used on the flyer for the fall class,

" I love going to Troops and Families class and reading literature, listening to guest speakers, and being taught and shown insight into a population of people that I will encounter in any professional avenue I choose to pursue. I cannot think of any position in Social Work where I will not come in contact with someone who has been touched by the military in today's time. Every class my knowledge, personally and professionally, continues to grow," said Lori Griffin, an '09 MSW student .

Helping this population has also been a part of another class the SOWK 3425 undergraduate Practice II class where students teamed up with community organizations serving Troops and Families to do their community projects in the fall 2008.

In terms of outside efforts, Dr. Nancy Chavkin and Dr. Selber have worked hard on several grant proposals to expand efforts and develop further capacity to serve the needs of this population. Stay tuned for more on these efforts. As well Dr. Selber is involved in many troops support groups such as Partners Across Texas (PAT) a statewide partnership of organizations serving Texas’ Troops, Veterans and families.PAT has quarterly meetings and we will be the host of their December 2009 meeting here on campus. We have also helped provide research and capacity building assistance to a number of organizations serving troops and families in Austin, San Antonio, and along the trans-Texas corridor. Speaking at conferences and workshops in the community, Dr. Selber has presented on a number of topics such as mental health and health needs of our Veterans, things communities can do to prepare, and training health and human service workers in this practice area.

There is much work to be done and this will remain an ongoing effort in the future. Our Military personnel and Veterans and their families deserve our very best.

Please contact Dr. Katherine Selber at ks15@txstate.edu with your questions.