ARMED SERVICES YMCA OF THE USA

The main objective of this grant is to provide services of early learning programs and food insecurities for currently serving junior enlisted soldiers, and their families.

Military families are required to move frequently, and a high proportion experience the deployment of one or even both, parents. The effects of this disruption and separation are that: spouses lose their employment and the income that comes with it, leading to financial instability and food insecurity; children experience loneliness and emotional stress because of the absence of a parent and the loss of friends and suffer learning loss because of the interruptions in their schooling; and severe stress can be placed on partners’ relationships and so the cohesion of the whole family.
In 2020, the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic marked the beginning of a dramatic increase of food demanded by our junior enlisted families. Though there have been attempts to solve food insecurities, we have seen an increase in demand, and unfortunately the community support in donations has not been able to keep up with the growing needs.

At the Armed Services YMCA we are always welcoming of volunteers to come be a part of our learning opportunities with our program participants. We welcome, fun days for an organization to come in, and provide some sort of activity or craft to be done with our families. In addition, we offer many events throughout the year that we would love participation with. These include but not limited do; Healthy Kids Day, Annual Duck Race, Father/Daughter Dance, Field of Heroes, and the Patriot Day Festival.
We value and recognize our community partners. We would be honored to recognize Apple on all of our marketing materials for our food insecurities programs. Apple would be recognized on our website as well as our donor wall inside our Armed Services YMCA facility. In addition, we welcome any materials you may have for us to get into the hands of our service members. Apple would be recognized on our social media pages, media announcements, and would be featured as a sponsor of all of our annual events including an individual banner at our Patriot Day Festival, Field of Heroes, as well as a sponsor for our youth basketball league which now has over 360 athletes.

At Fort Leonard Wood we have a wide demographic of families stationed on and off post. There are approximately 17,500 active-duty military and dependents. The average family age is 35 with 2 children under the age of 5. Of these families, the average stay is 2.9 years before relocating. This allows us to build relationships with our families and provide fundamental programs for their kids in the prime early learning years of development. Although we are a YMCA that focuses on the military family, we remain active in our community and provide programs and resources to the entire Pulaski County. Our goal is to broaden our reach as far as possible.
The Armed Services YMCA of Missouri therefore aims to strengthen and increase the resilience of military families, specifically those of junior enlisted active-duty members (ranks E1 to E5,) by achieving these outcomes:
1. To help junior enlisted families worry less about food and focus on mission readiness.
2. Provide food and meals to those in need.
3. Provide educational programing to battle food insecurities.
4. Increase household income.
5. Create a stronger bond between parents and their children.
6. Improve parental well-being.
7. Improve children’s confidence, self-esteem, and coping and resiliency skills; academic ability and achievement; and communication and social skills.

Programs in which donations support:
Patriot Day Festival: Patriot Day Festival is an all-inclusive, community wide gathering, providing a family fun day to bring service members & families stationed at Fort Leonard Wood together with our surrounding communities. This event focuses on patriotism, music, fellowship, and community, as we remember the tragic events which took place September 11th 2001. Our vision is to recognize service, sacrifice, and honor that we all hold dear, for love of country and community.

Field Of Heroes - We present a field of flags, arranged in the style of Arlington National Cemetery. In observance for Veterans Day, we will have the flags placed in USO Chimney Park in St Robert, MO. This gives us an opportunity to honor all those we consider HEROES in our lives. All proper flag etiquette will be rendered, including having the field properly lit at night. Attached is a Field of Heroes sponsor form that will show the levels of sponsorship.

Operation Little Learner – This is a parent/child family-bonding program designed to support social and cognitive development in little learners. The program is a STEAM Inspired curriculum of songs, stories and crafts where each week will have a different theme. We will be live streaming this program twice per week for each of the age groups of 18 months -3 year olds, and 4-5 year olds.

Help Me Learn/Help Me Grow - This Half-Day Preschool programs have classes for 3-4 year and 4-5 year old children. The program daily schedules include age appropriate lessons, crafts, numbers and social skills. The goal of the program is to make sure kids are ready for the next step, Kindergarten.

Operation Hero - Operation Hero is a program provided to military school-age children. Operation Hero is designed to address challenges faced by many military children (feelings of isolation, feelings of self-doubt, frequent or long-term deployments by one or both parents and academic difficulties due to frequent moves). This program promotes social responsibility through team-building activities and targets children in grades kindergarten through fifth grade. The dedicated facilitator takes the time to interact with the children on a one-on-one basis as well as in a group setting. This targeted method is believed to be the key to the program’s success.

Operation Summer Camp: One of our core programs which is unique at the Fort Leonard Wood Armed Services YMCA is a program we call Operation Summer Camp. This program is unique to our branch, and we have been able to do for the past 6 years. Our goal is to send over 60 campers from Fort Leonard Wood to a one week residential camp at Camp Lakewood. This valuable experience for the military children gives them opportunity to go to camp and come back enriched/better from the experience.

Youth Basketball: We are the only ASYMCA Branch that runs a youth basketball program. Working with the Garrison Leadership and MWR, we run the local basketball program for ages 5 to 17 years old. This program serves 35 teams with over 360 athletes. Donations for this program enabled us to keep the fees down, purchase equipment and make it a quality program for all the families involved. This program not only build basketball skills but also builds character skills: Respect, Caring, Honesty & Responsibility.

Other programs include: Annual Father Daughter Dance, Annual Duck Race, Operation Ride Home, Operation Deploy Your Dress, Earn-a-Bike, Safety Around Water, Operation Music and Me, and our new Food Insecurities Family Support programs.