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The Marines New Parent Support Program

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Okay, Marines - listen up! You thought that recruit training was tough, well you've haven't been through anything until you've roughed it through "Dad's Basic Boot Camp" or "Mom's Basic Training."


All joking aside, the Marine Corps is focused on helping new parents tackle the joy and challenges of welcoming a baby boy or girl into the family. The program is known as the "New Parent Support Program (NPSP)" and it is available to Marine families and military families from all service branches whom have an expectant mom or will soon be adopting a child.

The program is run by social workers, nurses and marriage counselors who are professionals in their fields and dedicated to helping Marine families. The special part of the program is that these professionals, are on call 24 hours a day to help Marine families with any questions or concerns.

These experts have a special understanding of the challenges that face military families, with a focus on the issues of deployment and family moves; they understand that Marine families are often hundreds of miles from their home town and friends.

The program aims to give families the skills to help them deal with the stresses that accompany the joys of being a parent; with a particular focus on how a parent can care for children while the Marine spouse is deployed. The experts also help families understand some of the basics of a child's growth and development, so they'll know what to expect as the child ages.

The program is also open to expecting parents who may already have children; it's not uncommon for families to have to adjust to having a small infant enter a growing family. The issues of new brothers and sisters learning to love and accept each other can often be helped with some skills and sound practices.

Click here to learn more about marine corps tuition assistance.

The programs services are:

  • "Basic Training" - Expecting parents learn how to care for an infant and how to interpret the needs of a newborn
  • Parent Classes - Hands on information about how to parent toddlers and young children
  • Referrals - New to the Marine Corps? This will help you find the right Marine services for your family
  • Play Morning - Interactive play group that teaches parents how to play with their children at each stage of development; understanding the cognitive and motor skills of the child is emphasized
  • Home Visits - A child pro will come to your home and help you with any concerns or questions you have about parenting styles or your child


The program is also an excellent way to meet other Marine families, learn about Marine Corps services as well as develop a support system of people who can help during the ups and downs of life in the military. The NPSP is a service of the Marine Corps Community Services (MCCS).

A NPSP team is located at all U.S. Marine Corps bases, including Hawaii and Iwakuni and Okinawa, Japan. To learn more about the program, visit http www.usmc-mccs.org

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Posted by Allied Blogger Admin @ 10:05 AM • 0 comments

California Marine Families Get Christmas Surprise

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Christmas and the holiday season are a time of great joy for families, but for many military families with loved ones deployed overseas, it can be a time of stress and worry as well.
Marine families at Camp Pendleton and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in southern California, however, got a boost to their Christmas spirits, when two charitable groups stopped by to distribute free Christmas trees to Marine families.

The "Trees for Troops 2008" organization stopped at MCAS Miramar in San Diego to distribute free trees to Marine Corps families, while at Camp Pendleton, the Christmas Spirit Foundation and FedEx joined forces with the National Christmas Tree Association to give away 1,000 Christmas trees to Marine families on the sprawling West Coast base.
Although it's nice to receive, the Marine Corps also understands it is better to give, and that's why the Marine Corps Reserve's "Toys for Tots Program" will once again be providing donated toys to deserving children across the country.

And when it comes to giving to Marine families, active-duty Marines have the chance to help their wives and husbands by taking advantage of military spouse scholarship programs that help marine spouses get the training and education opportunities they need to compete in a very tight job market.

Although every school's military spouse program is unique, many schools join a service member's enrollment to their military spouse education programs. For example, some schools will provide no-tuition courses to a military spouse when his/her service member spouse enrolls in the institution. This allows both husband and wife to get the training and skills they will both need to compete in today's work world.

Now when an active-duty Marine enrolls in a school using Marine Tuition Assistance, this means that he/she will pay nothing for tuition, and then if the program has a military spouse scholarship program, it's possible that they will both train without spending a dime.

Although many Marines and their spouses choose to work toward a degree, there are a number of vocational schools - many of them with online courses - which prepare military families for a number of career paths.

In the medical field, there are a number of medical office careers, including: medical coding, medical billing, medical administrative assassinating, dental office assisting and medical transcription. Medical transcription is a particularly attractive career for military spouses because it allows people to work from home.

Although the real estate industry is experiencing the pain that nearly every field is, it is inevitable that when the recession ends, real estate will rebound. Military families can get their real estate training now and be ready for the eventual rebound. And there's more to real estate than just selling homes, career paths in real estate also include positions like home inspector, property manager and even licensed contractor.

Solid business training programs like administrative assistant or small business management which train students to become independent business owners or provide support to others.

The good news is that these career training programs can all be found 100% online at schools that specialize in distance learning for service members and their families.

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Posted by Allied Blogger Admin @ 1:56 PM • 0 comments

Big Reenlistment Bonus for Marines

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Marine Corps is looking to retain a few, good men and they plan to do it by offering reenlistments bonuses of up to $90,000.

The incentives are part of a larger plan to grow the Marine Corps to 202,000 by the completion of fiscal year 2011. Marines looking to reenlist and get the bonuses must do so on or after Oct. 1 of this year; the slots are limited because each MOS will be accepting only a specific number of reenlistments.

Despite the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Marine Corps had a strong year recruiting new Marines. And while positive signs of security and stability continue to emerge from Baghdad, the fight in Afghanistan appears to be heating up, which has lead to speculation that more Marines will soon be sent there.

This past spring Marine Corps leaders floated the idea of having the Corps withdraw entirely from Iraq and take full responsibility for the war in Afghanistan. The plan was reminiscent of how the service branches split responsibilities in World War II, with the Marines in the Pacific and the Army fighting in Europe. Despite the historical precedence, Secretary of the Defense Robert Gates rejected the proposal.

Some in-demand specialties are also eligible for a "kicker" bonus of up to $25,000. Marines in 18 select MOSs are eligible for the extra bonus, including those in infantry, linguistics as well as a host of combat-related specialties.

Marines who stay in the service will have more time to take advantage of the marine tuition assistance program, which pays up to 100% of a Marine's career training. Marine military benefits such as military tuition assistance can help a marine prepare for a career when he's ready to take off the uniform. Many schools these days also offer military scholarships for marine spouses, as well military dependent scholarships. Marines and their spouses should be sure to check out their accredited military education options.
Allied Schools, www.education4military.com

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Posted by Allied @ 9:01 AM • 0 comments

Marine Spouses to Get Boost from MCFTB Budget Increase

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

When we think of long wars, we naturally think of the impact on troops and equipment, but the military family is equally strained when conflicts continue for multiple years. With this in mind, Marine Corps officials have announced a $30 million budget increase to a USMC program that looks to strengthen both Marines and the Marine family while the longest all-volunteer war in our nation's history continues.

Like the Army's recent "Army Family Covenant," the Marine Corps Family Team Building (MCFTB) program recognizes that military families are the warrior's true support system. Marine Corps leaders understand that current family programs are still based on the realities of a peace-time Corps, and as a result, they've committed to increasing the MCFTB's resources.

The MCFTB offers programs that, among other things, offers spouse-to-spouse orientation for spouses new to the Marine Corps, personal and professional growth workshops for spouses, Military OneSource resources, marriage and relationship seminars and religious enrichment programs run by Navy chaplains.

The impact of this funding will reportedly be seen early this year during the first fiscal quarter and is supported on all major Marine installations by the Marine Corps Community Services (MCCS).

In addition to the MCFTB programs, Marine spouses can also take advantage of military spouse education opportunities by pursuing military spouse scholarships and searching online for schools that offer military spouse tuition discounts. The Navy-Marine Corp Relief Society offers scholarships to Marine spouses - information can be found at their site www.usmc-mccs.org/ - while many online schools offer some form of tuition assistance for military spouses.

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Posted by Allied @ 1:32 PM • 0 comments