Circle up

MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- Youth Center members gather in a circle to participate in the Family Resiliency Training Workshop held here Aug. 27. Nearly 30 children participated in the workshop and were taught the skills to face challenges and the stresses of military life. (U.S. Air Force photo/ Airman 1st Class Benjamin Wiseman)

Making a bracelet

MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- Children from the Youth Center create bracelets with different size beads while participating in the first-ever Air Combat Command-sponsored Family Resiliency Training Workshop held here Aug. 27. The beads were used as a training tool to show the youth how to distinguish problems in their lives between big issues and small annoyances. (U.S. Air Force photo/ Airman 1st Class Benjamin Wiseman)

Speaking

MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- Karen Petty, Texas University department of family services, leads the Family Resiliency Training Workshop held here Aug. 27. The workshop was a two-day, three-part workshop that taught family, community leaders and youth members how to cope with the stresses that come with military lifestyle. (U.S. Air Force photo/ Airman 1st Class Benjamin Wiseman)

Families learn to overcome challenges of military life

Published Aug. 30, 2010
By Airman 1st Class Nicholas Benroth
23rd Wing Public Affairs

MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- Moody recently hosted their first-ever, Air Combat Command-sponsored training workshop designed to increase family resiliency on Aug. 27 and 28.

The two-day Family Resiliency Training Workshop focused on teaching youth, families and community leaders the resiliency skills needed to face the challenges and stresses of military life.

"The purpose of this training is to provide the children and their parents with the tools to handle a spouse who is deployed," said Tanya Watkins, Child Development Center training curriculum specialist. "It helps to integrate the deployed member back into the family after they have been gone for an extended period of time."

Although some children might not be old enough to remember a deployment, others may have gone through more than one deployment.

Karen Petty, Texas University department of family services was brought in to help teach these children different techniques to manage their emotions during this difficult period in their lives.

"The workshop taught me a lot of things like seeing the difference between little and big problems," said Dillon, son of Master Sgt. Donna Rybicky and Tech. Sgt. Robert Rybicky. "I learned that some of the problems I had were bigger than others. For every type of problem, I learned how to deal with them."

The parents were taught ways to keep the deployed spouse "active" in the home with different methods such as recording the absent parent reading a story or having that spouse talk to the child as often as possible.

"This workshop was funded by ACC and it gave us the opportunity to expand on the training that the 93rd Air Ground Operations Wing put on earlier this year," said Mrs. Watkins. "It gives the spouses and children the tools to not only deal with the situation, but to understand it as well."

Staff members from Moody's Youth Programs and local community leaders had an opportunity to attend the class and receive training.