As we begin a new year, we want to take time to look back and reflect on Community Capacity Building’s offerings in 2019, as well as look forward to what is to come in 2020.
The Total Force Fitness (TFF) blog series was introduced in February 2019, however, Total Force Fitness is not a new paradigm for those who are familiar with the Department of Defense. TFF came onto the scene in 2010 in the midst of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan to address performance, resilience and recovery in service members. This model initially only addressed the “strengths” of family, social, emotional, and physical well-being. Today, the domains of TFF have been expanded to include: physical, psychological, behavioral and occupational, medical and environmental, spiritual, social, family, and nutritional wellness. You can catch up on the history of TFF in our “Intro to Total Force Fitness” blog.
In the weeks and months that followed, our Friday Field Notes focused on how the Cooperative Extension System is a crucial part of TFF. We then led readers through each concentration area of OneOp and how resources offered by each one can address one or more domains of TFF to include not only service members, but their families as well. Our blog featuring Family Development and Early Intervention was the perfect example of how taking a holistic approach to wellness like that of TFF can offer strategies to increase the strength of family’s behavioral, social, environmental, and nutritional fitness.
In October, Community Capacity Building hosted a 1-hour webinar, “Building a Battle Plan for Military and Veteran Families” presented by Barbara Thompson and Keisha Bailey. Presenters shared evidence-informed practices on how communities can support military families before and during events, such as military deployments. If you missed the event, you can view the webinar recording here.
In the latter part of 2019, we began a series on disaster preparedness, which we will be continuing through 2020. The series is touring through each concentration area of OneOp to present resources that contribute to disaster preparedness. Thus far, we have featured Nutrition and Wellness, Personal Finance, and Family Transitions. Next week, we will pick up with more concentration areas and continue our tour through February.
Lastly, we are excitedly looking forward to a blog series that will begin mid-February 2020. We will revisit TFF, specifically focusing on the environmental domain. The environmental domain of TFF mainly focused on negative interactions with the environment, however, there is mounting evidence that positive interactions with the environment are increasingly important for promoting overall health. Our new blog series will feature Outdoor Rx and how cooperative extension programs are promoting those positive interactions with information on how service providers can incorporate this into their work of serving military families.
We hope that you have enjoyed programming from Community Capacity Building over the past year and that our content has proven useful in your profession. We are looking forward to what the New Year will bring as we continue serving military families. Happy New Year from OneOp Community Capacity Building!
