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By: Jason Jowers, MS, MFT

Children in military families face unique challenges not often experienced by children in the civilian world. With constant moves, changing schools and friends, deployed parents, and parental transitions back into the home, just these challenges alone are enough to increase stress and anxiety for military-connected children. That is why finding resources that military families can use in real-time are super important.

One such resource that has similar goals to OneOp is the Military Child Education Coalition or MCEC. MCEC’s mission is “to ensure inclusive, quality educational opportunities for all military-connected children affected by mobility, transition, deployments and family separation.” Their goal is to set military children up to prosper in life and in college and in their future careers. This includes varied programming geared specifically for parents, children, and students, as well as professional development for those who have careers that support military-connected children and families.

For parents, MCEC provides their parent to parent workshops that involve videos and Facebook Live capabilities to share tips and techniques. This also includes various activities that focus on topics like early literacy, meal prep, nutrition, and self-care. MCEC also has a podcast series entitled “For the Sake of the Child,” which covers an array of informative and important topics with guests from all walks of life.

MCEC also has a targeted program for students called Student 2 Student. This program is designed to bring military and civilian students together to welcome new students, create a positive environment, support academic excellence, and ease transitions. There are three separate sections based on the type of school and age level: elementary, middle school, and high school-aged students.

Finally, there are many great webinars, training, and courses to help professionals across disciplines such as education, healthcare, childcare, and business. For all of their professional development opportunities click here.

To get everything you may need to help support military families and children, head on over to MCEC’s website here to get started. And be sure to check out their resource library for all their archived programming.

Blog Post Image:Pexels [Book by Caio, CC0]