Strong Families Strong Forces Training Program, Designed by BUSSW Professor DeVoe, Lands at Kentucky’s Fort Campbell

March 13, 2019

Strong Families Strong Forces, a two-day provider training program developed by Professor Ellen DeVoe, extended its reach last month to Fort Campbell in Kentucky — the home of the 101st Airborne and Special Forces units. The program provided tools and guidance to more than 60 chaplains, behavioral health providers, family members, local pastors, and local counselors to help them build a more collegial and collaborative caregiving community for local soldiers and their families.

Beginning in 2008 and funded by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), Strong Families Strong Forces was initially developed by DeVoe to support returning National Guard and Reserve service members who were at the reintegration phase of the deployment cycle and parents of children under the age of five.

Since then it has gained national attention and is currently being evaluated through a randomized control trial at Ft. Hood Army Base in Texas with funding from the DOD. The program recognizes the particular needs and developmental challenges that arise for military families when parenting young children in the context of wartime deployment. Its goal is to reduce deployment-related parenting stress and promote family resilience by supporting parental roles, parenting/co-parenting, and parent-child relationships.

To learn more about Strong Families Strong Forces, visit: /sfsf/