Blog

    Normally, this is the point in this weekly communication where we’d wish you a happy Thursday (we still do), but this edition is particularly serious.   Right as we close out Suicide Prevention Month, the Department of Defense 2019 Annual Suicide Report is released. We talk more about it below. We’ve got a...

    Happy Thursday! Lots to catch you up on.   We’ve been tracking and updating you regularly on the services’ efforts to be more diverse. THIS is what getting diversity right looks like. Well done, Air Force!   MFAN’s Advisory Board members held their monthly meeting recently, and they shared some of the questions and challenges...

To the MFAN family:   We are writing to share news that will positively impact the lives of military families in military housing, quite substantially.   In early 2019, the Military Family Advisory Network (MFAN) conducted a research effort to understand military families’ experiences in privatized military housing. The response was overwhelming, as were the...

    Happy Thursday! It’s been an action-packed week here at MFAN.   On Tuesday, the Military Family Financial Readiness Coalition (MFFRC) held its quarterly meeting. The goal of this coalition and these roundtable meetings is to build collaboration and open lines of communication among those who work to support military family financial readiness.  ...

MFAN’s unique ability to convene key policymakers, public and private organizations, and other stakeholders dedicated to meeting the needs of military families enables us to meet those needs and create a plan of action to solve the challenges those families may face in the future. The Military Family Financial Readiness Coalition (MFFRC), convened by MFAN and made possible thanks...

    It’s a strange time to be thinking about smart investing. For many of us, these days (global pandemic days), we’re just hoping to get through a particularly challenging situation. But what if we told you that now is the PERFECT time to think about your future financial self? First, let’s catch up. Earlier...

    It may not feel like Thursday, especially with the long weekend that just passed, but here we are again. This week starts an exciting (and perhaps challenging) shift for most folks as we transition into new schedules and routines. We’ll continue to share information and resources to make those transitions easier.   Speaking...

  Through MFAN’s research and our advisory board, we’re able to address many of the challenges faced by military families across the country. Recently, our advisors, representing military communities at home and abroad, have shared that families are concerned about the potential impact of United States Postal Service (USPS) delivery time unpredictability and receipt of...

    In this week’s Thursday Three, we talk about the recent executive order to defer payroll taxes. The idea of some financial relief in the midst of COVID-19 is an appealing one. But it’s not one without future consequences. Today’s “extra money” is tomorrow’s problem – when the new year will bring with it...

    Back to school season. Cue the round of deep sighs…. We’re talking about it in a blog this week, complete with resources to support you and your favorite military kids during a school year like no other.   Also this week, MFAN participated in two panels at the (virtual) Association of Military Banks of America (AMBA) Fall Workshop – talking about how to best ensure military...

      Ahhhh, the good old days. When we’d gleefully count down until the end of a school year with the lunch packing and the homework checking and the waking up of the cranky children who just want five more minutes of sleep. We’d let those same children sleep in late and enjoy lazy...

  Happy Thursday! This past week registration opened for the Military Spouse Entrepreneur Virtual Launch Camp, an online workshop designed specifically for military spouses interested in exploring the field of entrepreneurship. This event, a collaboration between MFAN and SEED SPOT, is made possible by the Association of Military Banks of America. Interested? Register here.   Executive...

Does it seem like another week has passed? Perhaps as kids head back to school (either virtually or in-person), we’ll get one step closer to the good old days when we remembered what day it was when asked!   In last week’s Thursday Three, we talked about continued tensions between DoD and DHA over the handover of military medical facilities. In an update...

In case you missed it, MFAN was in the news this week. Executive Director Shannon Razsadin spoke with The Virginian-Pilot about food insecurity and MFAN’s efforts to move the needle in making sure the basic needs of military service members and their families are met. And our very own Nikole Schmidt was featured on an episode of Hearts & Stripes talking about PCS’ing, military marriage (and MFAN). You...

Difficulty finding child care has been a perennial finding in MFAN’s support programming surveys. In the most recent iteration of the survey, child care was a top support military families wish they had. The majority of active duty family respondents (62.3%) said they need child care or have needed it during the past two years. And 77.4% reported finding the search for...