Life in the military is full of stress and pressure, the threat of the unknown and the struggle for normalcy. This counts just as much for the active serving members as it does for the family members who have to stay at home.
Of course, they aren’t alone. The Edmonton Garrison’s Military Family Resource Centre (MFRC) is there to provide them with as much support and comfort as they need. It’s a substantial task but it has been doing it for 20 years now. The facility is celebrating this major anniversary with a big party this weekend for its extended military family, one they say extends to more than 6,000 members.
Jennifer Bosch, the centre’s communications co-ordinator, explained that the importance of family to military operations has meant the definition they have applied to that term has broadened over the years.
“We call a military family anybody related to the military, so a defence team member, as well as we have single parents and families who have lost a member in action. We’ve got parents of single serving soldiers … it’s quite a wide range.”
It also serves retired members and reservists as well as their families.
This means that the garrison has the same population of a large town and must accommodate the same array of services as one. The MFRC helps its populace to emotionally navigate through deployments, relocations, emergencies and all of the other daily pressures inherent with the military. It supports parents with social networking opportunities, workshops, child development programs, and childcare among others, along with short-term counselling services and interventions where necessary. The childcare program is so popular that it has a two-year waiting list.
Because it is working on its longest operation in its history in the war in Afghanistan, the centre has pretty much seen it all. Bosch said the separation of family members is the toughest for most people, which is why the gathering this weekend is important.
“We’re ramping up for another deployment next year. It’s something that we face daily — the absences, the separation for training and then the separation for deployment. We want to thank the people who come in here on a daily basis for work or to use our services so that they can be the strength behind the uniform.”
