1997 Annual Defense Report Table of Contents - Air Force Magazine

Child Development Program
Today, over 65 percent of military spouses are in the labor force, an increase of 11 percent over the last
seven years. DoD standard child care programs and common dependent education curriculum in the
Department of Defense Education Activity schools provide unique stability and continuity for military
family members. Military families need 299,000 spaces for children from birth through age 12. The
Department is meeting about 54 percent of the need for care in military child development programs with
162,500 spaces at 300 locations. These include spaces in 9,810 family child care homes and 831 child
development centers and school-age care located in youth facilities, schools, and other community
support facilities. DoD's short-term goal is to meet 65 percent of the need -- a goal the Department is
projected to reach in FY 1997. Much of the growth has been in school-age spaces. The Department's
ultimate goal is to meet 80 percent of the need. To support movement toward the 80 percent goal, the
Department has increased the Navy budget for FY 1998 for direct support by almost $17 million and the
Air Force budget by about $10 million.
To examine the potential for most cost-effective child care, the Navy and the Defense Logistics Agency
are serving as the DoD executive agents for outsourcing tests for child care. They are conducting two
evaluation tests. The Navy is to contract with civilian accredited centers in five locations (San Diego,
California; Norfolk, Virginia; Jacksonville, Florida; Seattle, Washington; and Honolulu, Hawaii) to buy
down the cost of spaces for military families in these locations. The Defense Logistics Agency will test
the outsourcing of the management of a defense-owned child care facility in Columbus, Ohio. The Navy
is also testing the feasibility of a contract for the management of the child care program, child
development centers, and family child care in the San Diego area.
Model Communities (Youth Initiative)
The Department's model community projects are paying great dividends in innovation for youth programs
that address youth gangs, idleness, and productivity. Each participating installation submitted proposals
which defined local needs, described a plan to meet those needs, and indicated how they will manage
their solutions. The 20 winning installations selected from 134 submissions will serve as test projects for
new ideas and as models for military bases around the world. Proposals were submitted from all four
Services and represented installations around the world. The winners received up to $200,000 per year for
a three-year period. The Model Community projects are fully implemented. A technical assistance
seminar was held in September 1996 to train Model Community Coordinators in the techniques of
outcome and performance results measurements. These measurements will be used to evaluate the
effectiveness of the Model Community projects. After-school study programs and youth operated
businesses are examples of programs working well. The Department has distributed a book containing
information on these programs to help installations with youth problems.
Family Centers
Department of Defense family centers are the hub for a wide range of educational and preventive human
services. Family centers provide core services geared to developing skills to help service members and
their families be more self-reliant and adjust to the challenges of military life, while at the same time
providing a safety net of programs and services to assist them when they need help. There are currently
291 family centers DoD-wide.
Since the Gulf War, the Services have substantially strengthened their family support infrastructures. As a
result, the families of deployed service members coped extremely well during deployment to Bosnia.
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