How Your 25 Minutes Could Help Military Families

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There is so much uncertainty facing military families. We are so busy with coping with daily changes – from moving, new jobs, new friends – that focusing on larger policy issues can almost be too overwhelming. And bits and pieces of news caught during the drive home from work or school runs might not give you whole the picture.

We hear that stuff  and think “Are they are talking about privatizing Tricare? Are they considering cuts to salary, military retirement, and BAH?  Wait – don’t they care how this will affect me and my family?” With Congress unable to find consensus, it can be tough to figure out how to make our military voices effectively heard on all these important issues.

Since 2009, the Blue Star Family Families Military Lifestyle Survey, conducted in partnership with the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University,  has taken in the key issues reported by active-duty, military families, veterans and their families and reflected your feedback back as a valuable concrete data and information resource about the prominent aspects of your military lifestyle.  Shared broadly with elected officials, military leadership, and public and private organizations, the survey results help generate creative solutions and dedicate important resources to support you and your family.

Key findings and priorities are reported to Congress, the media and other key policyholders, so they are better equipped to distinguish hype from what we really need and are worried about in the military community.

Participating in the survey is an effective and powerful way to make your voice heard. We can comment on Facebook till we're blue in the face, but it won’t really make a difference to decision makers. The Blue Star Families Military Lifestyle Survey has been quoted by Forbes, MSNBC, and the Council on Foreign Relations, and is used by Congress and Military Leadership to focus on important issues faced by service members, veterans, and military family members.

The 2015 Blue Star Families Military Lifestyle Survey takes about 25 minutes to complete -- and you can take it here.

Please also share this opportunity with your friends and family on social media. All survey participants will be entered in a chance to win one of ten $100 Visa Gift Cards.  Please help Blue Star Families identify what is really important, so that Blue Star Families may share key issues with policymakers and improve our quality of our military community now… and years to come.

Take the 2015 Blue Star Families Military Lifestyle Survey here!

 

Brittany Catton Kirk is a long-time Military Family Advocate. A native of San Diego, California, she graduated from the University of San Diego with a degree in Political Science and a Minor in Leadership.  Upon graduation, she went to work for the San Diego Armed Services YMCA as their Marketing, PR and Development Director where she created innovative programs like The Christmas You Missed® and developed the tagline Making Military Life Easier®. She was promoted to the National Armed Services YMCA as their Director of Marketing, PR and Social Media in 2012.  After meeting her now husband Brian doing community service through Rotary International, she became a Navy EOD wife in 2014. She relocated with her husband to Virginia and is now the Deputy Marketing and Communications Director for Blue Star Families where she helps strengthen and connect military families and our nation by building creative connections through a nonprofit network that serves 1.5 million military families annually with programs and resources with 50 chapters at home and overseas. For more information on the nonprofit Blue Star Families, visit bluestarfam.org.

 

This post was sponsored by Blue Star Families.

 

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