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Key Spouses have been a part of Hill Air Force Base for some time but recently, with the kick off for The Year of the Air Force Family, the program has come more into focus. Families have always been an important component in the Air Force, and in light of the steady stream of deployments Key Spouses are stepping up to take a "key" role in conjunction with leadership to ensure the focus is on the mission.
The Key Spouse role is to support Airmen and their families throughout their time at Hill AFB. Though initially the Key Spouse focus has been on families during deployments, with the new Key Spouse program they are reaching out to active duty Air Force families when they first arrive on Hill Air Force Base. This is just one of the ways Ann Maglio, Key Spouse coordinator at the Airman and Family Readiness Center, points to as a crucial role in the program's success. She said "the Key Spouse mission is essentially to support the families during deployments to ensure the active duty member can focus on their Air Force mission. By reaching out to the families before deployments they increase connections before they are needed."
The program helps strengthen the leadership support team by working with commanders and first sergeants as they connect with unit families. Key Spouse volunteers work to promote unit readiness and keep families informed with vital information and resources. "Key Spouses are basically a wingman for the spouses," Maglio stated. The idea is to have peer-to-peer contact, someone families can approach and talk to comfortably. The trained volunteers can offer resource information, keep families up-to-date on current events planned at the unit or base level, or in some instances, just offer a listening ear.
They can even be an important component of keeping spouses in the loop for information when the active duty member is still on-site but hasn't passed along information that could be helpful. Included among those diverse resource contacts are the latest information on emergency loan programs through the Airman and Family Readiness Center, $6,000 worth of college tuition for active duty spouses or even just something as simple as the next big event around Hill.
"We've had several instances where the Key Spouses have been helpful when a family member has been involved in hospitalizations or other emergency situations where the families needed assistance," Maglio reports.
All volunteers receive training through the AFRC to include 12 hours of initial and annual training. Each Key Spouse is chosen and appointed by unit commanders and as part of their training attend Heart Link, a short course designed for new Air Force spouses to learn about life in the military and the Air Force. They also get a course in suicide awareness and learn their role as a Key Spouse to include Privacy Act training. Each sign confidentiality agreements as part of their initiation into the program.
Such volunteers focus on positive choices and are not meant to be counselors. They are, however, an important component to the base support team and can make a great sounding board to assist families during deployments. They even know how to create some fun as seen by their recent support of the Trunk or Treat at the Haunting on the Hill happening at Hubbard Golf Course. "We wouldn't have had such a successful event without them," she said.
"Hill Air Force Base wouldn't run without volunteers, or at least not as smoothly," Maglio said, but she considers the Key Spouses a group of very dedicated professionals who offer great positive role models for Air Force families.
If anyone is interested in becoming a Key Spouse they can contact their respective first sergeant, commander or the AFRC for more information.
