'Give Parents a Break' program offered to Gunfighters

  • Published
  • 366th Services Squadron
MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho --  While Gunfighter's are deployed to various locations around the world, their spouses are the mainstay for keeping families healthy and strong. It's the spouse who juggles children's schedules, home upkeep, finances and errands. With the high operations tempo spouses keep, the need for a break becomes paramount.

The Air Force Aid Society through the Airman and Family Readiness Center and the 366th Services Squadron Family Member Programs Flight offers a child care program called Give Parents a Break, which gives eligible parents a few hours away from the stresses of parenting.

"The Give Parents a Break program is not a free child care service, but a program for commanders, first sergeants and other officials to use to provide help for families who really need a break from the day-to-day stress," said Blaine Miller, 366th Services Squadron deputy director.

Eligibility for Give Parents a Break is based on an Airman's deployment, temporary duty or emergency situation. Children must be 6 months to12 years old.

Families can be referred to the Give Parents a Break program through the Family Advocacy or other medical personnel, chapel, Airman and Family Readiness Center, Child Development Center, Youth Programs, commanders and first sergeants.

When the requirements are met, the spouse is issued an original signed certificate which allows them to sign up at the respective center. To make logistics easier, 366th SVS allows parents to keep the certificate with a copy of the sponsor's deployed orders on file. This alleviates the need to constantly request the certificate each month. To complete the signup, the spouse must bring in an up-to-date shot record and identify any possible concerns the child may have while in care. In addition, the parents must provide an emergency contact number that is capable of being reached if the parent is unreachable.

"We've tried to make the process for care as easy as possible," Mr. Miller said.

Once the maximum number of children is reached, a waiting list is established. When cancellations occur, the patrons on the list are contacted and offered the space.

"The program runs from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and allows enough time for parents to get out and have some quality decompression time," Mr. Miller said. "We even build in a half hour grace period after 8:30 a.m. before the space is given to another patron on the waiting list."

While five hours per month is what is currently offered, 366th SVS constantly evaluates the capability to add more hours.

"We'd love to be able to offer this program for eight hours every month, but we are limited right now with the amount of providers we have and the fact that many of their spouses are deployed also," Mr. Miller said. "We looked at ways to flex around that and even use volunteers, but law mandates that our providers have the background clearances and requirements just as the normal CDC staff have. Most importantly, while the care givers are paid for their overtime efforts in the Give Parents a Break Program, these employees are the same ones providing care to children for 10 hours a day during the week and finding a balance for them to be able to decompress as well is absolutely vital."

Because customer service is paramount to the squadron's success, 366th SVS leadership provides customer feedback to learn how to better serve the Gunfighters.

"With another major Air Expeditionary Force cycle upcoming, we need to know what works best for our parents," said Mr. Miller, "to that end, we've created a customer survey especially for the Give Parents A Break, which we will be sending out to all Gunfighter's via our Interactive Customer Evaluation (ICE) program."

The survey will be available after April 1 at , under the ICE icon. Select the Child Development Center option to provide your comments and ideas. Services leadership will collect data in mid-May to revise the program.