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Employment Advisory Committee and Working Group Focus on Easing Transitions for Spouses

The Canadian Forces (CF) Family Employment Advisory Committee and Working Group want to ensure that civilian spouses have support for finding fulfilling employment wherever their families may be posted.

The Advisory Committee and Working Group began meeting in Ottawa in October 2008 to take the ideas raised at the CF Family Services Summit and adapt them into feasible recommendations for enhancing the Military Family Service Program (MFSP). Over the coming months, they will assess the availability of current employment services at Canadian/Military Family Resource Centres (C/MFRCs), discuss service partnerships in the CF community and suggest improvements for national programming to the Director Military Family Services (DMFS).

“We’re asking ourselves, ‘What we can do to manage the system better?’” said one Advisory Committee member. “What valuable resources are out there? How should we use them? And what other services do we need?”

In the short term, the groups will answer these questions by conducting local environmental scans to determine the availability of employment support for CF spouses. The Advisory Committee recommended increasing communication between C/MFRCs on both ends of a family’s move to help families prepare to settle into new postings and new jobs. The Advisory Committee and Working Group also stressed the need to provide specialized services for reservists’ families and for families with OUTCAN postings.

The Advisory Committee recommended coupling local service assessments with national reviews of current programming and policy. In particular, the Working Group will examine whether national professional job placement resources would be helpful to CF spouses and whether existing services should be supplemented at the local level. They will also consider whether national protocols for Imposed Restriction (IR) screening and compensation could be helpful to families considering IR for employment reasons.

The groups agreed that an inventory of current family-related Compensation and Benefits Instructions (CBIs) should be taken with the resulting summary communicated to C/MFRCs and the families they serve. This could help C/MFRCs support families as they examine transition issues such as, transferring professional credentials from one location to another, moving expenses and second language training. The Working Group will further this initiative by conducting a needs assessment to identify existing service gaps, and recommending changes and enhancements.

The Advisory Committee and Working Group emphasized the importance of increasing collaboration and communication with the MFSP’s partners. They considered ways to make navigating Employment Insurance (EI) policies easier for CF families, and will consider teaming with Human Resources and Social Development Canada to answer CF families’ questions and concerns about EI knowledgeably and efficiently. They would also like to see the MFSP work with SISIP Financial Services to make educational resources on long term financial planning, spousal pensions and current taxation laws more readily available.

“We need to reach out to one another,” said one C/MFRC staff member. “Families are best served when we work together, and focus our energy on the possible.”