Family Readiness Groups
Families
are the backbone of the National Guard. We deeply believe in the
family as an integral part of the National Guard in its 365
years of existence. This website is dedicated to all families.
What
is a Family Readiness Group (FRG)?
The idea
behind a Family Readiness Group (FRG) is that Guard members and
Guard families benefit from helping one another cope with the
rigors of Army and Air National Guard life, particularly the
challenges families deal with in everyday life while Guard
members are deployed.
During
the Revolutionary War, mutual help was quite obvious. Family
members functioned as support troops by cooking, mending,
nursing, and carrying the wartime equipment in exchange for
getting half-rations for each adult and quarter-rations for each
child. Family members helping one another was also evident in
the frontier West, where the families and soldiers shared the
hardships of establishing and maintaining Army communities as
isolated posts in the middle of an often-hostile environment.
There is a rather touching story of Mrs. Elizabeth (George)
Custer, who, after the defeat at Little Big Horn, went from one
unit wife to another (each now a widow), offering what comfort
she could, even though she had just lost her own husband and,
because of the policies then in effect, was no longer eligible
for any Army benefits to help her restart her life.
Today an
FRG is a company or battalion-level organization of officers,
enlisted soldiers or airmen, civilians, and family member
volunteers who provide mutual social and emotional support,
outreach services, and information to their fellow Guard and
family members, specifically those who belong to the unit, have
a significant relationship with a Guard member in the unit, or
the FRG "adopts." In other words, there is a spirit of inclusion
that does not stop with just the spouses of Guard members. FRGs
welcome those who have an interest in the unit (employers,
retirees, parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, brothers,
sisters, cousins, and significant others of single soldiers),
need its services, and/or are willing to help the FRG meet its
goals. This collection of individuals who belong to the FRG is
the unit "family."
The
National Guard recognizes that helping families is its moral
obligation and in its best interest. Families that can cope with
(and in many instances actually enjoy) Guard life are more
likely to contribute to the community, allow their Guard members
to do their jobs well, and encourage their Guard members to
remain in the Guard. The best help for families comes from peers
as they learn how to handle various aspects of Guard life.
Hence, the Guard mandates that each unit commander establish and
support an FRG. To help FRGs grow and prosper, the Guard
provides training and materials. The FRG is not the only
resource for helping families. FRGs are part of a larger Guard
effort to help families adapt to the challenges of Guard life.
The
assistance that FRGs provide is the kind of help we all need and
try to get every day:
-
good
information to help us plan;
-
an
opportunity to make friends;
-
help
with Guard issues; and
-
a chance
to have some fun and talk through whatever may be on our minds.
Good
information and friends who provide each other needed emotional
support and shared labor to meet daily tasks can and should be
what FRGs are. These are the very things that Guard families
need to cope successfully with all of the phases of Guard life.
So if you need information about plumbers, carpentry,
automotive, childcare, budgeting and financial planning,
bookkeeping, taxes, teenagers, pay issues, elder care, and many
other life issues, your Family Readiness Group is a good people
resource.
The
FRG is a command program.
FORSCOM Regulation 500-3-3, the Reserve Component Unit
Commander's Handbook, directs unit commanders to establish a
Family Readiness Group. This includes:
-
Appointing an officer or senior noncommissioned officer as the
unit's Family Assistance Coordinator
-
Supporting preparation of a telephone tree for FRG members. In
today's electronic age, telephone trees are evolving into e-mail
trees.
-
Conducting annual briefings to family members
-
Upon
activation and mobilization of a Guard unit, the FRG works with
the unit's Rear Detachment and the unit's Recruiting and
Retention Noncommissioned Officer who has the mobilization
mission to operate a Family Assistance Center.
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