we're very fortunate today to have as our next speaker barbara thompson. barbara is the director of the office of family policy, children and youth in the office of the department under secretary of defense, office for military community and family policy. she's responsible for programs and policies that promote military families well-being and quality of life. she holds a b.a. in early education and spanish from st. louis university and a masters in management from troy state university. barbara is here to talk with us about the services available through her office to support our military families. barbara, thank you for being with us here this morning. >> thank you. good morning, everybody. thank you for the opportunity to share some of the wonderful programs that we have to support military members and their family. i just want to give you a little bit of a context. two-thirds, even up to 70% of our active duty force, live in your communities. they do not live on the installations, like we did in the '70s. so they're embedded in your communities. attend

we're very fortunate to have as our next speaker, barbara thompson. she's the director of the office of family, youth -- she's responsible for programs and policies that promote military families, well being and quality of life. she holds a va from st. louis university and a master of from troy state university. barbara's here to talk to us about the services available to support our military families. thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you for the opportunity to share some of the wonderful programs that we have to support military members and their family. and i want to give you a little bit of a context. two thirds -- even up to 70% of our active be duty force live in your communities. they do not live on the installations like we did in the '70s. they're embedded in your communities, attending your churches, shopping in your shopping malls, they really are a part of your community. and we want to make sure we don't see them as being isolate ed. this has been ten years of intense deployments, separations and a lot of families. a lot

we are very fortunate today to have as our next speaker barbara thompson.she is the director of -- she is responsible for programs and policies that promote military families well-being and quality of life. she has an early education and spanish and a master's in management. she is here to talk with us about the services available through her office to support our military families. barbara, thank you for being out here with us this morning. >> good morning. thank you for the opportunity to share some of the wonderful programs we have in the support military members of their family. i want to give you a little bit of context. 2/3 are up to 70% -- they cannot live on the installation like we did in the 70's. they are embedded in your communities. they are attending or churches. they are shopping in your shopping malls. they really are a part of your community. we want to make sure that we do not see them as being isolated on an installation and really volunteered. this has been 10 years of intense employment, separations, and a lot of worrying for our famili

we are very fortunate to have as our next speaker barbara thompson, director of the family and childrenmily policy. she's responsible for programs and policies that promote military families' well being and quality of life. she holds a ba in early education and spanish from st. louis university and a masters in management from troy state university. she's here to talk with us about the services available through her office to support our military families. barbara, thank you for being with us here this morning. >> thank you. good morning, everybody. thank you for the opportunity to share some of the wonderful programs that we have to support military members and their family, and i just want to give you a little bit of a context because two-thirds, even we say up to 70% of the active duty force live in your community. they do not live on the installations like we did in the 1970s. they are embedded in your communities, attending your churches, shopping in your shopping malls, and they really are a part of your community, and we want to make sure that we don't see them as being isolated