AUSA’s Family Programs Directorate is dedicated to providing Army families with the assistance they need to help them manage the challenges of military life.Through four pillars of support, Education, Information, Advocacy, and Outreach, AUSA Family Programs provides a platform from which Army families can voice their issues and concerns.In addition, the activities and outreach efforts that Family Programs is involved in throughout the year allows for a better understanding of our Army families’ strengths and trials.This translates into better materials, information, timely and relevant educational forums, and support.Support for our soldiers and families cannot happen without conversations and visits to the "field."In 2012 AUSA Family Programs was able to travel to four installations and visit with installation leadership, soldiers and spouses, and AUSA chapter members.Through these opportunities we learned that families continue to worry about the educational prospects for their children, employment and career portability for military spouses, and the unknown lasting effects that 10 years of war has had on their children.We were therefore proud to become a member of the Military Spouse Employment Partnership and support events with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Military Spouse Job Fairs.We also helped fund various events with the Army Wives Network, Stronger Families, Partnership for Children, a BackPack Journalist, and the DA Army Family Action Plan Conference.In addition we attended the Military Child Education Coalition Conference, the Center for Naval Analyses’ Military Children’s Conference, the Wounded Warrior Family Symposium, and The White House’s Joining Forces Anniversary to ensure that we were kept abreast of all the latest research and programming available to military families.Understanding that knowledgeable families are stronger families, we explored innovative methods to provide timely and important military family focused information to our members and Army families.We have an abundance of information and resources that continue to be well received.Our E-newsletter, the Family Programs Update, has a current distribution list of 63,068 recipients.Feedback from our members is very positive.We will begin to shorten the length of the update and provide articles that are less visible in other venues in an effort to highlight information that is not always readily available.We continue to provide information packets for active duty, National Guard and Army Reserve, Wounded Warrior, and surviving families.These packets are requested online and are mailed free of charge by AUSA Family Programs.We were honored to have the support of the 1st Heavy Combat Brigade Team, 3rd Infantry Division Family Readiness Group, that partnered with us to conduct an onsite review of our materials.Based on its members input, we will be revamping and downsizing the contents of the Active Duty Packet.We plan on having similar reviews for the three additional packet categories mentioned.In August of 2012, we launched our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/AUSAfamily) and now have close to 500 followers.One of the primary goals we have for 2013 is to utilize this resource as much as possible.Our goal is to have 5,000 followers by the end of the year.AUSA’s Family Programs works closely with AUSA’s Government Affairs Directorate to address Army family issues that require legislative attention and/or action.With support from our Legislative Affairs Directorate, we at Family Programs were able to support the following:Announcement and dissemination of the report: "Supporting our Military Families: Best Practices for Streamlining Occupational Licensing Across State Lines" – DoD Feb. 2012Co-signed letter to the chairman of House Subcommittee on Defense for Appropriations, Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., urging support to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) by adding a provision that requires a data element for the military-connected student, or adding the data element provision as a part of other appropriate legislative vehiclesOur biggest educational activity is the execution of the Military Family Forums at the AUSA Annual Meeting and Exposition.These forums have grown from one session in the 1990s to four sessions since 2010.The forums have become an integral part of the annual meeting and a trusted and anticipated educational event for family members, the army staff, and organizations (both public and private) that support them.From 2008-2010 Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) conducted a separate workshop for Family Readiness Group (FGR) leaders.FORSCOM centrally funded approximately 500 FRG leaders and FRSAs to the National Capitol area, and financed their stay for the additional three days of the AUSA Annual Meeting.This ended in 2010 due to reductions in funding conference attendance.In an effort to keep FRG and FRSA leaders informed, AUSA Family Programs and staff from the assistant chief of staff for the Installation Management Command (IMCOM) developed a process for family members to attend the AUSA Family Forums as virtual delegates.Selected virtual delegates attended "virtually" and had the opportunity to submit real time questions to speakers using social media outlets.Delegates were selected through Army Community Service (ACS) centers at installations that house army schools and NCO academies.Virtual participation was very successful.We tripled our live stream numbers from last year and had twice the number of online audience members as compared to our in-house audience. All in all we had 3,733 participants (online and in house) at the 2012 AUSA Military Family Forum.With 2012’s forums behind us, we look forward to 2013 and the opportunities to further partner with Army families to support their resilience and well-being.The Army chief of staff, Gen. Ray Odierno, often is quoted as saying: "The Strength of the Nation is the Army; the Strength of the Army is the Soldier; and the Strength of the Soldier is the family."We could not agree more.Family Strong – Army Strong!