Common Ground Partnership Webinar Series

Important goals of the Purple Star Award and this newsletter are to ensure Military Family Points of Contact and school staff receive information about the wide variety of resources that military partners have to offer schools and best practices for supporting military-connected children. To provide useful and informative professional development, Common Ground Partners will offer the following series of webinars via the Microsoft Teams online platform. No event registration is required, simply click on each individual session’s name below to join the meeting at the appropriate time.

• Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB)
  • Monday, September 26, 2022, at 3:30pm – 4:30pm
• March2Success (ACT and SAT Supports)
  • Monday, October 24, 2022, at 3:30pm – 4:30pm
• Phases of Emotional and Psychological Deployment
  • Thursday, November 17, 2022, at 3:30pm – 4:30pm
• General Stress and Coping Strategies for Military Kids and Families
  • Thursday, January 19, 2023, at 3:30pm – 4:30pm
• Fostering Resiliency Among Military Kids
  • Thursday, February 16, 2023, at 3:30pm – 4:30pm
• Resources and Strategies for Combatting Trauma, Grief and/or Loss
  • Monday, March 6, 2023, at 3:30pm – 4:30pm

National Convening of Schools and Communities for the Purple Star Award 

The Purple Star Award in West Virginia is one example coming from a growing educational movement of national significance, as similar programs have been established in more than 40 states within the course of only five years. Thus, a national online conference is being planned to occur on the Day of the Deployed, November 26, 2022, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. eastern time. The conference’s theme is, “Connecting and Empowering Parents, Schools, & Communities to Build Resiliency for Military-connected Youth.” While this event is not being organized and provided by West Virginia Common Ground Partners, West Virginia school staff for grades preschool to 12^th grade are invited to participate, learn and share ideas.
 
Those who are available to attend and participate via the Zoom platform will hear about strategies being used in other states from across the nation to meet the needs of military-connected children. This event is expected to be the first in a series of annual events where stakeholders will come together to share successes, lessons learned and improve the overall effectiveness of programs at the state, district, and local levels. To register for the event, please click here.

Careers in the Military Website

A new website for career exploration has arrived including extensive alignment with the ASVAB Career Exploration Program. The Careers in the Military website allows students to review information about 272 careers found in the military and identify which branches of service offer those specific opportunities. The guided exploration section asks students a variety of questions and their answers reveal which jobs sets best align with their interests. Moreover, students who have taken the ASVAB can determine precisely how their scores impact eligibility for those jobs in the military. The website also includes basic enlistment requirements for each branch of service, information about military pay and videos providing reasons to consider careers in the military.

West Virginia National Guard (WVNG) Office of Family Programs Launches
Educator Care Package Initiative

Fall marks the launch of an important new endeavor. Beginning on October 3, 2022, as elementary school staff learn that students are experiencing deployments or transitions due to active-duty military orders, they may use an online system on the Common Ground Partnership’s website to request that a care package be mailed to the school from the WVNG Office of Family Programs. Contents of these care packages are designed to offer strategies, resources and contacts who can help school staff assist these students and their families. These packages will be sent by request on a first-come first-serve basis and are contingent upon the availability of funds.

To request care packages provided by the WVNG Office of Family Programs, school staff may click here. While the care packages are presently only available for school staff at elementary grade levels (grades K-6), in months to come, there are plans to expand this offering to secondary schools (grades 7-12). Details on potential expansion may become available in upcoming issues of the Purple Star Informer, so be sure to keep an eye on this resource.