Practitioner’s Corner

By Grace Betts

The Department of National Defence (DND) Spousal Employment Assistance Service is the responsibility of the Director Military Family Services at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa but is delivered locally by Employment Assistance Co-ordinators (cousellors) in Military Family Resource Centres (MFRCs). MFRCs have been established in all locations where a significant number of Canadian Forces (CF) families live.

The service was established in 1999 in response to a study on the quality of life of military families by the Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs (SCONDVA). The Committee recommended that civilian spouses of CF members be given some assistance in finding employment and planning their careers. Military spouses move frequently to accompany their partners/spouses to the new place of duty. Employment is almost always lost and with it seniority, benefits and the second family income. The military lifestyle offers many wonderful opportunities for families but in terms of employment, it can create barriers that are hard to overcome without assistance. Every few years, on average, a military spouse leaves behind friends, colleagues and networks that are so crucial to finding work. The MFRC and the Employment Assistance Co-ordinator (counsellor) replaces the missing support systems and connects the client to resources and employers in the new community.

The Employment Assistance Service is co-ordinated nationally at DMFS in Ottawa. At the local level Employment Assistance Co-ordinators work with spouses (and youth) individually or in groups to help them find work and career plan. The service provides:

• Resume preparation
• Job search
• Interview skills
• Job find clubs
• Resources
• A data bank of employers and jobs

• Workshops
• Support groups
• Skills augmentation
• References to potential employers
• Child care service
• Advocacy

DMFS collects national statistics to determine the effectiveness of the service. In a recent six-month period, 71.5 % of all clients who used the service took action in terms of employment and career planning. Approximately 60% found work and the remainder either entered skills augmentation courses or returned to school for academic upgrading.

The EAS has quickly become one of the most popular and frequently used services offered in the Resource Centres. The service is still quite new and is constantly seeking ways to improve. One of the challenges at the local level has been getting a follow-up status report on spouses who have used the service. No one is home to answer the phone!

Mrs. Grace V. Betts, a Registered Nurse, is a graduate of the Kingston Psychiatric Hospital School of Nursing. Grace also obtained a degree in sociology and political science from the University of Maryland and has studied advanced counselling skills at the University of Victoria.

Grace and her husband raised their three sons while living the military lifestyle. Grace has worked, in English, French and German in psychosocial support programs, as both a paid professional and as a volunteer throughout military and civilian communities in Canada, United States and Europe. Grace credits the CF for the tremendous opportunities it offered her as a military spouse for personal and professional development.