The Army’s Quality of Life Task Force has been extended three more years in its broad effort to help soldiers and their families, with programs to improve housing, help spouses find employment and other initiatives.

Holly Dailey, director of Family Readiness for the Association of the U.S. Army and spouse of former Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel Dailey, said this is a critical program. “Taking care of Army families is an integral part of soldier readiness,” she said.

Dailey was joined in a presentation July 27 at AUSA’s 2023 Warfighter Summit and Exposition in Fayetteville, North Carolina, that included Lt. Gen. Kevin Vereen, the Army’s deputy chief of staff for installations, G-9, and Dee Geise, director of soldier and family readiness and the Quality of Life Task Force.

Geise said there are big efforts underway on things like expanding child care. Expanding capacity is important, Vereen said, citing an effort to gain more child care workers. One effort allows civilian workers with no direct link to the military to use child care services if they become an employee.

The Army has many resources for families, but it needs to do a better job of letting people know what is available, Vereen said, citing efforts to prevent behavioral health problems as an example. Vereen said progress also has been made in a program to help military families with special needs. “Is it error-proof? No, it is not,” he said, but new procedures have been “a game changer for us.”

Vereen acknowledged that the Army does not have barracks and family housing in perfect condition, but it is trying.

In many programs, like helping spouses find employment, there are areas “where there is a lot more to do,” Geise said. “There is a plethora of programs,” she said, stressing that families do not need to have serious problems, financial or otherwise, before seeking help.