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New ‘Operation Purple' Program Provides Family Retreats
(April 27, 2009) |
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| | WASHINGTON, April 22, 2009 – It's no
secret that deployments put stress on a family, and the
National Military Family Association has developed a new
“Operation Purple” program at no cost to military families.
The association created Operation Purple
summer camps in 2004 as a way to help children of military
families struggling with the stresses of war. A new program
helps military family members re-establish their roles
through family retreats. |
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| Military families
participate in one of two National Military
Family Association Operation Purple family
retreats, a pilot program, in March 2009. The
retreats helped families reconnect after a
servicemember's return from deployment. Photo
courtesy of National Military Family Association |
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“The intent of it was to bring the family
together so that they could tell their deployment story as a
family and really build on the experience of bringing the
family back together after the deployment,” Michelle Joyner,
NMFA's director of communications said.
“This was just helping families [with] the reintegration
piece of re-establishing the family roles, [which] was done
through writing this deployment story as a family unit,” she
added.
Based on a six-week program that the FOCUS Project at the
University of California at Los Angeles has been using with
the Marine Corps, the first two Operation Purple family
retreats were held in Port Angeles, Wash., and Sausilito,
Calif., in March. NMFA worked with the FOCUS Project to come
up with a concept that would be beneficial for military
families and could be accomplished in a long weekend, Joyner
said.
With support from the Sierra Club, military families bonded
and enjoyed a number of outdoor activities in the national
parks where the retreats were held. Activities were guided
by four master's-degree-level clinicians experienced in
working with families, said Patricia M. Barron, NMFA's
director of youth services.
“Our collaboration with the FOCUS curriculum saw that the
activities used at the retreats were centered on skill
building and resiliency training,” she said. “Families were
taught to use specific skills to identify feelings that
could impede communication and also spent time creating a
family collage that told the story of their unique
experience as a military family.”
The camp staff also was well trained, Barron said. As
field-science educators, each held at least a bachelor's
degree, and many had a master's degree.
Eligibility for March's pilot program was limited to those
who had returned from deployment within the past year, and
despite limited outreach, the response was huge, NMFA
officials said. Applications came in from 400 families, and
43 were accepted for the program. The participants' response
to the retreats was very positive, Joyner said.
“They appreciated having the dialogue and the activities
that sparked the conversations,” she said. “It was nice,
because you're never sure how group activities are going to
go over when you do them the first time.”
NMFA officials are planning at least two more retreats for
the fall, to be held on the East Coast, and hope for a
third, possibly to be held on the West Coast, Joyner said.
Registration takes place through the
Operation Purple Web site, which also features
information and updates on the program. | |
By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2009
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