Welcome Ben Gould the Chicago Area Director of Blue Star Families is my guest this week as we discuss military family resources! Every military and veteran family faces certain struggles from time to time. Perhaps it's employment, caregiver resources, medical, mental health, financial, or something else. With over 200 Blue Star Family Communities across the world, they offer a ton of resources to the military-connected community. Check them out next time you have a need!

Guest Links:

https://bluestarfam.org/

Transcript from Episode 21 with Ben Gould:

Keith McKeever 0:03

Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever.

And welcome back battle buddies. Got another podcast episode for you. And we've got Ben gold from Blue Star families here. Ben's gonna talk to us about all the resources and stuff that they've got going on. Ben, you hold a distinction. I know if I told you this, but you're the first civilian, to be on the on the podcast. So congratulations.

Ben Gould 0:26

Honored to hold that award. Thanks for having me.

Keith McKeever 0:30

I'm really I'm really excited to talk to you about all the different things I just told you a couple minutes ago, before we started that, we could talk for two or three hours on all the different resources and stuff. So really, the goal of this episode is just kind of highlight the big picture of all the different things that that Blue Star Families can do. And I'll go ahead and throw that down there at the bottom blue star fam.org. For those happen to be listening, and not watching should be pretty easy. Remember, Bluestar fam.org. Go there. Huge website, tons of resources. But before we get into it, Ben, but and tell us a little bit about yourself. What's What's your story? How'd you get involved with Blue Star Families?

Ben Gould 1:07

Yeah, sure. Well, thanks for having me. First and foremost, my background is a civilian my work mostly in political organizing, advocacy nonprofits, I did an internship with then Congressman Tammy Duckworth office where I was an intern with the veterans case manager. So that was kind of my little connection to the military and veteran community, and got the opportunity to start here in Chicago just after the launch chapter. And so far, it's been a great, it's been certainly a learning experience for myself to learn the kind of difficulties that military families endure. And something that has been very educational for me. And I know that we need more civilians to understand these issues, for sure.

Keith McKeever 1:47

It's definitely a big divide. For civilians who don't know anything about the military have virtually no connections and the veteran community and we have to do a better job on both sides of asking questions and telling stories, so that everybody understands, because there's, there's such a huge difference, culture wise, between civilian life and military, it's totally different. You're in it for a few years, and then you're out. But most people, most people don't serve or don't have somebody super close. And, unfortunately, is that sometimes we're pretty bad at opening up and talking about our experiences, we kind of hold it in, we talk about it with our brothers and sisters, but we don't kind of openly talk about a lot of different things. But you know, the families do know. And I mean, that's what you're doing Blue Star Families with all kinds of resources and helping out. And I think because of that, and all your work with veterans, and for veterans, I think we can officially adopt you into the into the club, whatever that. Well, we'll bring in your inner circle now, for whatever that means to you. But Blue Star families got a ton of different resources. So like, in your mind, what are the top three or four different resources that Blue Star Families is doing? One of the things that they're doing out there?

Ben Gould 3:04

Yeah, sure. Um, I mean, who's their families got started as an organization to really support military families at large. And as a whole. While the military does a really good job of training the service member for their particular role, and has a support system built in with them, really, a lot of times the family, that wife, or husband or spouse, or kids, you know, bear the brunt of some of the most difficult challenges of frequent moving PCs and deployment. And so it was really to help and support families in a variety of ways really bring strong, build strong communities of support within our military communities. So military families can thrive as a serve. Some of the biggest things that we do if we start families is our military family lifestyle survey. It's the largest of its kind reaches usually about 11,000 respondents, every urine tracks kind of the data points in terms of the difficulties that military families indoors and allows us to take that information and put our resources and programming into combating them. And also being able to use that information to inform policymakers, elected officials, military leadership, you know, VSO, MSOs, philanthropist, etc. Um, in terms of like, direct resources, a big issue is Spouse Employment. So through us and our partners, we have spouse scores, which is kind of like our online platform that brings like workshops and employers directly to military families who are looking for jobs and often in jobs that are conducive to the military lifestyle, being remote, being one of the biggest ones and flexible in terms of in having kids. And so, you know, we have a jobs newsletter that goes out and the nice thing is that regardless of where you are, you can access those things because they're all virtually done through our website, and also like career coaching and resume writing and those types Some services, we work with some great partners. And through our websites where military families, spouses included, can obtain certifications and some of the kind of leading areas of employment data analytics, human resource and project certification product, sorry, project management certifications, working with the Syracuse University. And so those are all resources that are absolutely free, and can equip, you know, job seekers with school with the tools to advance their employment, even under the difficult circumstances that military families are enduring on a day to day basis.

Keith McKeever 5:41

Yeah, it's awesome that you hit on like resume writing, like, that's one thing that I'm glad you guys offer that I'm sure there's other people do. But for the military spouses like, boy, I hate to say this, but don't let your don't let your spouse right that military members are terrible at this, that holds over to become an a veteran, that resume is going to be full of all kinds of acronyms. And it's not going to be what employers are really looking for. And so I plead with you, if you're a military spouse, go get get the hell from Blue Star families or whatever. Don't use resources on base. And it feels weird to kind of say that, but if you go to the wrong person, it's just going to be full of acronyms. And it's going to stand out, probably my human relations expert, the hiring authorities, whatever of this is definitely a military spouse in all these acronyms, and also the stuff in there, but you mentioned like remote work, and we've talked about that before, when we met, if you notice any difference in that like, is it easier to find the spouse's employment now that it seems like a lot of companies are kind of becoming okay with remote work, the ones that weren't previously?

Ben Gould 7:00

Yeah, I mean, I think that that's definitely been maybe one of the few Silver Linings dealing with COVID, it has made deployment, sometimes more accessible for people that might be in, you know, parts of the country that have less strong economic backbone, so to speak, so that many of these companies are offering jobs that can be done from literally anywhere, and that are often can be done on the person's kind of timeline, as well, for spouses and people with children and dealing with other responsibilities as well. So it's been benefits to be able to take companies that say like, we want to hire military spouses, and then be able to directly pull them into our job seekers. And so you can go to our website, and fill out, become a member, it's absolutely free. And you can put in your information, employment wise, what you're looking for. And we'll keep you updated and give you access to our events or workshops, our careers newsletter, and you'll be hooked into some of our partner organizations that provide a lot of those great direct services. I mean, all those are open to military members, service members, or veterans as well. We have kind of a focus on spouses, but we're always open to helping veterans as well. And I think, Keith, as you mentioned, there are so many different types of jobs that are done by our service members, and being able to translate them on paper to hiring managers that are civilians. So you can, you know, explain in the best light in common terms that they understand kind of the work you did, you've done and how that translates directly into the jobs or sector that you're hoping to go into.

Keith McKeever 8:50

Yeah, I'm definitely not a resume expert. But you know, if I, if I was looking at one, as a civilian, and I see a bunch of three and four letter acronyms, it's gonna be like, arena, foreign language, I'm not gonna have a clue what you're talking about, I'm gonna look at it, like, you know, I don't speak Chinese or write Chinese, but it'd be like, looking at some foreign language that I just cannot, there's just no way without really training yourself and learning about it, that you're even gonna remotely have a clue what you're reading. And if you can't tell that on paper, then you're probably not going to get a phone call for for an interview. You know, you got to get nailed that first impression. And that resume is your first impression. So that's really awesome for those out there who might need a little bit of employment help. Because right now, you know, you look at look at things and I don't get political on my on my page. But I mean, there's a lot of stuff talking about, you know, employment issues. I mean, there's a lot of people that are unemployed and you go places and there's not enough people cooking and it takes longer to get your food and you can't get the right service because there's not enough people there. So the jobs are out there. So use the resources and go get them. So another thing you guys offer I know you guys don't have an in Chicago but it's kind of a national at some places around the country have it as your your caregivers empowering caregivers. So what what exactly is going on with that kind of program? Because I find that pretty intriguing. It's kind of like a mentor ship kind of thing if I'm if I'm reading it, right.

Ben Gould 10:17

Yeah. So I mean, military spouses and military family members often become caregivers, whether they see themselves under that terminology or not, they're often carrying out the role of being a caring person, which can certainly be beyond the full time job and some of the resources that we have for caregivers, especially because it's sometimes can come on you pretty quickly. And there's not a ton of information sometimes that you're able to be accessible to in your local community. So one of those are, as you mentioned, the caregivers, empowering caregivers, really social events that are developed to empower, you know, military caregivers, and give them a sense of support system in a social setting, with resources and share in sharing, you know, peer support, so they can explain what they're going through and really find people that are kind of going through similar things or have been through those things in the past that can provide them with kind of a mentorship and support system. Whether it's emotionally or practically, in some, some of the other. I'm sorry, I was just gonna say in some of the other information and services that we have, on our website, we have, like an avatar based tech technology to support caregivers. So essentially, you can go and talk to this in real time, and give them questions and they'll bounce back answers to you in real time. And we also work with the Rosalyn Carter Institute for Caregiving, and they offer like a caregiver program for coaching. It's like a 16 to 24 month program for totally free, that is offered to give people the education and support themselves in a caregiver role. That may not have planned to be in

Keith McKeever 12:11

Yeah, no, that's what I, as I was kind of reading, reading about it, and kind of coming up with the questions that I wanted to ask you to kind of get that huge view, you know, not to, because you got so many different resources, it really spoke to me just knowing that there's a lot of medical things that can come up, you know, I mean, you could, anything could happen to you, you know, it could be a car accident tomorrow, it could be, you know, service connected issue, that next thing you know, you're you're getting a limb amputated, or you lose your sight, whatever. And that service member goes through a huge adjustment, so does the family, because somebody else is doing different chores, now, they're taking care of you, you got mobility issues, maybe, you know, even simple things as bathing and going to the bathroom, eating food, like things can just change so drastically. And I can't imagine personally going through that. So you know that, that really spoke to me, you know, having a resource where you can talk to other people and say, Hey, here's what I'm going through. And if then you've been through the same thing, you know, a short conversation could put somebody's mind at ease, and say, You know what this person's done it. This is the tips and the tricks and stuff that they learned and how they kept their mind on the right path to process this and do what they do would be huge, you know? So that's really awesome.

Ben Gould 13:30

Yeah. Sorry, good. I'll go ahead and say that, you know, and sometimes these can be temporary roles, and it's not always physical issues. So it could be mental, emotional, dealing with post traumatic stress and other issues, become, you know, given roles in certain circumstances.

Keith McKeever 13:52

Absolutely. You mentioned your annual lifestyle survey. So I don't know when exactly that was done last, but what are what were the, you know, couple, couple of top takeaways from, from what you found in that?

Ben Gould 14:07

Yeah, so I mentioned earlier kind of our survey, it's basically attracts a year to year basis, some of the difficulties that military families endures, and does it break down geographically as well, based upon the reserve families are active duty and veterans, and there certainly are some similarities across the board and one of the biggest one is time away from family, especially amongst preserving guard, families that ranked in and number one for active duty families. It was Spouse Employment, but very closely followed by time away from family. So that has always been, you know, kind of the top tier issues. Some of the other ones are around military pay, you know, the children's education. Those are ones that certainly come up often and when dealing with the veteran community that we have, you know, in the top five things like post traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury as well as, you know, VA health care accessibility and quality care, as well as military benefits, but really at the top of that is often in time away from family, sport, Spouse Employment, deployment impact on families in military pay seem to be at the top as well as family stability and children's education.

Keith McKeever 15:30

We start to think about and reflect on what you just said there. I mean, it's not really much of a surprise. I think about the especially the veteran ones, PTSD, TBI, I mean, yeah, you would definitely expect those in the top five of concerns for sure. And so yeah, not not much of a surprise there. So when when is the next survey Do you know?

Ben Gould 15:52

So we do every year because of COVID. It was moved on. So we did the 2021 was during the fielding ended in October. This year, we did the fielding, which ended in June went through late from late April to early to mid June. And so I will begin again, next April, will be the 2021 cycle. Well, it will be the 2022 cycle we do um, you know in advance, because it takes us some time, then the day, we're usually released the result of the preceding survey, and then almost immediately following that go into the feeling portion for the succeeding survey. And then there are also some more locally based assessments that we do actually current Lee, we're going to be starting one in Illinois. Next month, our Illinois needs assessment. And right now we're coming to the conclusion of our racial equity survey that we've been doing throughout the country as well, looking at military, veteran families of color.

Keith McKeever 17:03

Awesome, so that those surveys those emailed out or something to somebody goes to the website, because I just had had thoughts here, man, like, if it's something you could send me send me so I can get it out there on on the website, on the Facebook page, the Facebook group that I've got here for the podcast, you know, if it can help get 10 more eyes on it. 20 eyes 30 Eyes, whatever, better, because this, that's a lot of data, you know, in, in honest, maybe a lot of data, but it should be double or triple that right to really get even more accurate.

Ben Gould 17:31

Yeah. Yeah, during survey time, I mean, it's it's certainly one of the premier things on the website directly, but we have links as well, that we can definitely send around to you as we get into the fielding period. And I can send you the results of last year survey if people are interested in take a look. And, you know, as we know, military families are constantly moving and things are changing. So we do this on an annual basis. You know, when when things like COVID, you know, Picchu, being able to use questions around COVID, and see how they're impacting military families specifically, is something that we've been able to do quickly in transitioning to new things that pop up and, you know, play in the role in the lives of military families.

Keith McKeever 18:18

Absolutely. I know, personally, I would love to read that. But, you know, I would love to, you know, it'd be okay to put that on my website, too, as a, as a resource, as I try and build my website, you know, not not just the podcast and talking about these issues. But I really want to build out more, I've got some stuff on there. But I'm always looking for more stuff to add more value where people can find different things. And I'd love to share the links to zyada. Especially, you know, since we're both here in Illinois, great State of Illinois, then that, you know, having a better idea what's going on in our own backyard too. So some of the things that you kind of you kind of mentioned before, and now the thing that you guys do is free museum visits. So what can you tell us about that? For those little kids, or maybe even adults want to go to the museum?

Ben Gould 19:04

Yeah, definitely. It's fair for everyone, none. So who's our families works with the National Endowment for the Arts, and also the Department of Defense, and museums across the country to offer free admission to active duty military personnel, guard, reservists, veterans and their families. So between Armed Forces Day, May 15, and Labor Day, for this year will be on September 6. The museums that are participating will be in their hundreds across the country, offering free admission for military families. And so if you go if you go to the National Endowment for the Arts website, or you could go to our website, just Google Blue Star museums. The first one will pop up and you'll be able to look and search in your area and see which museums as a military family you have free Access to

Keith McKeever 20:01

absolutely, everybody should take advantage of that. Get out there because there's some great museums and I've been in a couple this year and it seems like they're not that busy. So get out there and go do it, spend some time with your family it quality life is important. So, um, you know, some other resources you guys got going on, you got like book clubs, Yellow Ribbon Program, virtual summer camp, you know, anything, anything in there that you you'd like to hit on?

Ben Gould 20:30

Yeah, definitely. Um, so we do have for the second year of virtual summer. And then we started last year, given that a lot of kids were unable to go to their normal camp or were stuck at home. We saw this as a big need. And we had hundreds of kids join our for last summer, it was six weeks, only six or eight weeks, where we did things like virtual field trips, to online games and things like that. Currently, we're doing it through the month of July. We're in the middle of it at the moment. It's gone through dates, we started July 12. And it's going to go through July 30. And so we have a three week camp. There's like a specialization headline for each week. So we had summer Safari, it was week one aerospace where we are right now. And then next week will be motion in the ocean. And I can drop the link to the sign up for families that are interested in but it's just been really nice for families to be able to allow their kids to get some excitement while still being at home. And so we are happy to provide and we have some great chapter directors across the country that were leading it. I think they just did a mock launch to outer space today. So it was it was pretty cute. And I will send you that info. Yeah, and in terms of other programs, book clubs. In certain locations, we do have them call Start program is serving, thriving and reading together. It's humanities based and family focused among military and civilian families. So it's like a six week program that has storytelling reading discussions. And sometimes we'll include the author of the book. It's a free program that we aim, children around between six and 12. And again, it's for military and civilian families. And so that's something that we've implemented in a variety of communities. It's something that we're implementing in Chicago. Next spring, which we're excited about, we have a fellow who is Naval Station, Great Lakes spouse, and the former teacher. And so she's going to be using those expertise as a former teacher to run our star program in Great Lakes.

Keith McKeever 22:57

Awesome, awesome. And thanks for sharing private chat, here are a couple of information, I'm going to leave bolt on, put the other one up here on this for summer camp here a second. Want to leave it up there for people who are watching it. If you're listening, you can head over to the YouTube, I'll put some of this content on our website, too. If you're watching, I wanted to put it on there. So they can pause it and type it into their browser. Since there's no way to link it there, but that's some that's some awesome stuff. I wish you just had a way to get kids to read more. I'm trying to get mine to read more this summer. And all they want to do is play video games. Such as the challenge of parenting. So, uh, you know, somebody who's watching this and might want to get involved. You guys are not a nonprofit. You got volunteer opportunities, you got opportunities to donate. So what can you tell us about where people can kind of help either financially or in person as a volunteer?

Ben Gould 23:53

Yeah, definitely. In our website, Blue Star fan.org is a great place to go. In terms of donations. Also, we have 11 chapters throughout the country. And even in places where we don't have chapters, we sometimes still have volunteer chapters. But you can sign up to be a member. And then it will, based on your geography, your zip code, connect you into the local chapter in your area. We've had a variety of different volunteers opportunities in Chicago, we had some pretty unique ones that we had just last week, Macy's was partnering with Blue Star families as part of the salute, those who serve campaign and we were able to surprise a Chicago area military veteran and Sergeant in Illinois National Guard with home makeover. So that was really cool. And we had some volunteers that were helping us with that. And it was a really fun experience to be a part of that kind of life changing day for this wonderful family that we were able to help. And we also did a fruit insecurity event when we were distributing about 25 pounds, 16,000 pounds of non perishable food items, things like personal care items, shampoo, soap, toothpaste, to military and veterans who were based out are living in the area of Great Lakes. And we had about 1500 people that showed up. So that was really great event. And so those types of events, we do coffee chats that happen periodically through Starbucks, who's our partner on that in various different local areas, on a variety of different topics, some are more support, group oriented, some are more just, you know, a sense of community coming together, you know, every month or two. Yeah, and so if you just sign up to be a member, it's 100% free and you will be pulled into your local community we live in Chicagoland area, including Great Lakes and beyond are in Illinois, you know, feel free to reach out to myself, I can put my email in the chat, it's just be Google Gru LD at Blue Star fam.org. Follow us on Facebook, as well, we post a lot of our opportunities there at facebook.com/shy, ch ibsf. And then you can be following us on social media where we try to post everything that we have going on as well.

Keith McKeever 26:27

You definitely got a lot of stuff going on. But locally up there in Chicago, and you know, around the nation. So I guess what I would leave everybody with is, is go to the website, you got to go to the website, see what's going on in your area, see where the chapters are, find their Facebook pages, I'm assuming probably each one has has their own info, find out what they're doing, you know, volunteer, or if you don't have the time, maybe maybe a few bucks to help the mission go forward or, or spread the word or, or share Facebook posts or whatever. I mean, we've got to do a better job in the military community and military supporters and all that to get the word out there about this because I don't care who you are. If you've got a family, you know, you get the is a slight recap here, resume help find a jobs, books, summer camp for your kids. I mean, there's something literally for everybody that you guys are doing, which is awesome. And that's why I was really excited to have you on here. And kind of highlight basically, a little bit of everything we could probably go like I said earlier, go down a rabbit hole on each one of these in depth of how awesome they are what they do so. But you got you got an event coming up. At the end of September that I wanted to get to have you highlight that you're you're welcome week. So what is that? And what are you guys doing?

Ben Gould 27:44

Yeah, so welcome week is an initiative that we started last year. Because about 600,000 military families, family members will be moving, whether it's PCs and deploying transitioning out of the military. We want to establish a week that is all about welcoming new families to their new communities. Part of our survey, what we found is that only about 20 only about a quarter of military families feel a sense of belonging and community that they live in. And about 25% don't even know a single person they trust enough to ask a favor from. And so one of the things that we really are working to do that initiative is really to welcome new families, putting them in touch with existing families in that community and offering them a support system. We're doing some really great events in the Chicagoland area we have, the Chicago Bears are going to run their mini monster football camps with a bunch of military children. So we'll be able to bring them all out together as a thank you. And you know, if you're from Chicago, and a lot of cities, you know, sports and food is really how we, how we operate. And so we're getting the Chicago Bears there. And also, Portillo's is going to donate some coupons to their chocolate cake. And we're going to give them all kind of like a resource bag, as well as some swag and other, you know, gift cards and welcoming, just really a sense of belonging here in the community. And we're establishing our first ever welcome committee. So we're going to have dozens of military families that have been in their area in Great Lakes in Chicago for some time now. They're going to be there to kind of check up on some of the new families to have their family meet these new families and give them a sense of community and belonging within their community at large, so we're really excited about that. And we've seen a really overwhelming amount of interest and people being part of this welcoming committee and saying that you know, wish this existed when I was moving, and really what those posts are going to do is put together and it document all the information they wish they would have known when they arrived at Great Lakes, kind of a cheat sheet and things like that. Just trying to make the transition just alleviated just a little bit, make it a little bit easier, trying to put people in, in an atmosphere where they'll be able to meet people and create new relationships that will be helpful for their quality of life.

Keith McKeever 30:23

Awesome, awesome. Then you mentioned Portillo's chocolate cake. So I'm going to assume correct me if I'm wrong. That's the first thing you tell new families when they come to

Ben Gould 30:32

Chicago. Sorry, the top

Keith McKeever 30:35

person got to go get some chocolate cake. Yes, it is some pretty good stuff. If you are not from exotic Portillo's anywhere other than Illinois. As far as I know. We've got one here low I'm down to the poor area. We've got one. I think Bloomington got one but if you've never had the chocolate cake, it's it's it's like I don't know if you've ever been out on the west coast. But when I was in the military, a lot of people talked about in and out. And I'm probably gonna get a lot of hate for even saying this. I've had it. It didn't really live up to the hype. I'm just gonna say you got to come to the to the Midwest and get some Portillo's chocolate cake. It will live up to the hype. fired back to the west coast

Ben Gould 31:18

during the show, but I got broad shoulders I'll take it. Hey, neighbor, pretty good burger and burritos to Italian beef can't go wrong.

Keith McKeever 31:27

Yep, that they do that they do. And then you know, it's good. Some good pizza up in Chicago too. So but you know, it's uh, once again, thank you for for coming on i anything else that you'd like to highlight anything that's going on? Whether it be locally in Chicago, or things on the horizon for Blue, Blue Star families that you'd like to talk about?

Ben Gould 31:45

Yeah, I mean, those are really kind of the big things we are going to be having an outing at the Chicago Sky, the WNBA game, September 5, and we're circulating the registration link if people are interested to follow us on Facebook sign up to be a member of lose our fan.org to be connected directly to our local chapter, your local chapters, you'll get all these emails and information, feel free to reach out to me directly. Happy to help or Chuck get you someone in your community. Yeah, well, we're just here. I appreciate the time and being able to share about Blue Star families the work we're doing and, and, you know, hope to hear from folks out there.

Keith McKeever 32:26

Awesome, man, I appreciate it. Because I mean, I have a variety of people that come on and talk about different things, man, but it's always awesome to have somebody in the nonprofit world, you know, who you know, given back in so many different ways. So it's always it's always special to kind of know, know more about it myself and bring that a little bit more light channel a bit more light on what you guys do. So I appreciate it. Go ahead and go ahead and wrap up and hang out if you want to, like get a couple more links from it. And then we'll go ahead and wrap this up.

Ben Gould 32:57

Alright, thanks so much for having me.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai