National Guard Family Assistance Center The Family Assistance Center (FAC) is composed of prescribed functions and services provided to military and their families by the military as a policy and regulatory requirement.  It is staffed by guard members, contractors, and volunteers.  It is primarily a resource and referral service.  The FAC supports the family of the Guardsmen, which includes the extended family - parents, siblings, other relatives, and significant others.  Our primary services include a wide range of resources offered to Guardsmen and the families, as well as a wide range of referral services.  Crisis counseling assistance is provided on referral and is coordinated through the Joint Forces Headquarters, the local chaplains, and the appropriate state and local agencies.  Counseling and assistance in form completion, claims submission, and general questions is provided on TRICARE and other military benefits, to include dental and mental health.  Emergency financial assistance is provided through loans/grant submitted through Air Force Aid, Army Emergency Relief, American Red Cross, and through other state and local human service agencies.  Legal information and assistance is coordinated through the Staff Judge Advocate or other local legal service agencies; information is provided through the FAC on the preparation of wills, powers of attorney, and appropriate counseling on the provisions of the Service Members Civil Relief Act.  Also included are referrals and/or requests for assistance with Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR). Among the FAC’s most important services are the numerous trainings provided to the Guardsmen and their families.  Mobilization and deployment trainings take place at a regular schedule, to include information and training on the preparation, sustainment, and reunion phases for both the Guardsmen and the families, and also includes youth training.  A significant amount of other trainings also occur via the FAC, to include Army & Guard Family Team Building, Family Readiness Group Management, Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), Trained Crisis Responder, Money Management, Military One Source, etc. The FAC is a proactive agency in the ongoing support of the Guard Family.  The Calling Deployed Families program is coordinated through the FAC offices.  This program entails connecting a FAC volunteer with a family of a deployed Guardsmen.  The volunteer provides a regular check-up call to the family; conversation topics range from friendly social chats about what’s happened in life to the needs of the family that could be met by either the FAC or the family’s unit, such as difficulty with TRICARE or other benefits.  Families that choose to receive calls feel like they are being remembered and looked after by the Guard while their loved one is away serving his/her county.  Also, as the volunteer reports back to the FAC, this program allows the Guard to maintain regular contact with the Guard families that require the most support, resulting in happier families during a difficult time and relieving the Guardsmen of some amount of worry for his/her family while deployed. Several examples of the invaluable assistance provided by the FAC to Guardsmen and families in times of need include: The house of a deployed soldier from the Kenai was lost due to fire.  The FAC coordinated relief efforts through the American Red Cross, supplying his wife and children with grant money, donated clothing, food, and even securing prescription contact lenses to the wife at no cost. An ex-wife with two children of a deployed soldier was encountering difficulty in receiving her monthly child support payments due to a mistake made while transferring her ex-husband’s pay status from part-time to active duty.  With the soldier deployed and unable to contribute efforts in resolving the issue, the FAC coordinated with the family, a local child services agency, and DFAS to resolve the issue.

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