FFSC Sponsors Advanced Ombudsman Training
Story Number: NNS070302-01
Release Date: 3/2/2007 1:07:00 PM
By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Alexis Brown, Navy Region Southwest
SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- The Fleet and Family Support Center (FFSC) held an Ombudsmen Advanced Training Session on Feb. 21 at the Navy Mobilization Processing Site auditorium aboard Naval Base San Diego.
The purpose of the training was to communicate to ombudsmen in the San Diego area the newest changes and challenges of the individual augmentee (IA) program as well as to stress the importance of what the ombudsman program means to the Navy.
FFSC Ombudsman and Volunteer Coordinator Kathy Nelson said the training is mandatory for command ombudsmen.
"It is the first time we have ever been mandated to teach a specific subject and report the number of commands in compliance with sending an ombudsman through the training," according to Nelson. "IA support is a topic that the Navy felt we needed to educate our ombudsmen about and teach them how to better support their commands' families."
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (SW/FMF) Joe R. Campa, Jr., took time to address the 80 members of the audience about where the IA mission is today and how critical ombudsmen are to Sailors and their family members.
Campa said that as Sailors continue to deploy as IAs and on surge deployments, ombudsmen play a key role in that support system.
"I believe we build a stronger Navy one Sailor and one family at a time," said Campa.
For Campa, this means that commands are making contact with families. They are making sure that families know what resources are available to them and the commands are seeing to it that the Sailor, while deployed, has positive reinforcement from the parent command.
Campa said he talked to Sailors who are deployed to remote locations during a trip to Afghanistan, and he wanted to know what kind of support they are getting. Some Sailors told him their command is supportive; the Sailor hears from them. Campa said some Sailors were hesitant to say that they did not have the same support.
"My definition of family readiness is a family that is resilient -- who is self-reliant, but is still well connected to our Navy community and the resources that we have for them if they need it," said Campa.
Among those resources that Campa spoke of was the ombudsman program.
FFSC Chief of Services Deborah Lane has been involved with the ombudsman program for 11 years and has given basic ombudsmen training for seven years. She echoed what the MCPON had to say about resources to the Navy and said that the Navy changes, and she has experienced it first hand.
"Over all those years, I've watched the Navy transform. I've watched the Navy evolve to support emerging requirements. During that period of time, I have watched the ombudsmen program also transform to meet new requirements," Lane said.
Lane added that the Navy's IA process is not going away anytime soon. There are more than 10,400 Sailors serving as an IA. Lane explained that the IA concept is not new to the Navy, but it has a new scope.
"Every time a command gets ready to deploy and they are missing an essential skill set, they borrow that skill set from another command," explained Lane.
Some other topics discussed during the training included the Expeditionary Combat Readiness Center (ECRC) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Nelson said the training on PTSD was also mandated.
"The topic was sent to us in PowerPoint presentation. We made some changes to reflect what we are doing in San Diego to support individual augmentees and their families. PTSD is a topic that we want our ombudsmen to be familiar with so that we can refer our families to the correct resources for help," Nelson said.
