JOINT BASE LANGELY-EUSTIS, Va. –
The Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia community gathered during the Army Family Action Plan conference Oct. 30, 31 and Nov. 1, 2018 to discuss issues that affect families across Fort Eustis.
The AFAP is a U.S. Army program that allows installation community members, including service members, spouses and civilian employees, the opportunity to discuss and prioritize issues on the base and report them to senior leadership.
“The program gives Army leadership the opportunity to hear directly from people living and working on the installation what is really going on,” said Donna Cloy, Army Community Service community readiness consultant. “It allowed Headquarters Department of the Army to prioritize these issues for the Army community.”
During the conference, delegates discussed over 60 notable issues, but highlighted issues with the most impact to present to the 733rd Mission Support Group command team, U.S. Army Col. Jennifer Walkawicz, commander, and Command Sgt. Maj. Eric Vidal.
Delegates, split into three groups, compiled a list of concerns from the community before partnering with subject matter experts from agencies across the installation to help formulate recommendations of solutions.
Issues are presented by the working groups to the commander, who will evaluate them and determine if they are just local issues that can be resolved by agencies on the installations, or if they need to be further routed to Installation Management Command – Atlantic Region. Once IMCOM is able to look at the issues, they will decide whether or not to send them to the next level of command.
For example, some issues that have been elevated to Headquarters DOA and to the Department of Defense include paternity leave for male Soldiers who have a newborn child as well as identification system issues that are DoD-wide.
“You really get to find out what’s going on in your community, more than what you personally see,” said Tera Burney, ACS volunteer and AFAP support staff. “One of the issues that was worked last year and actually came out as a pilot program, was the Single Parent Support Group. It was inspired by my brother who is a single parent and a Soldier.”
For more information, contact Army Community Services at 878-3129.