CNA CONFERENCE SERIES ON MILITARY CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

On November 29 and 30, 2012, CNA will host “Promoting Resilience in Military Children Through Effective Programs” at the Westin Georgetown in Washington, D.C.

The second in the CNA Conference Series on Military Children and Families, this meeting will explore ways to evaluate programs designed to help military children. We will also compare these with evaluation methods used for programs for civilian children. Conference discussions will provide a framework for improving those programs and the resilience of the children and families who use them.

CNA is leading the conference planning and is working with representatives from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, George Washington University, RAND Corporation, Tufts University, the University of Maryland, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Blue Star Families, the Military Child Education Coalition, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

To view the 2012 conference agenda, click here.

Conference Series Background

The fact that nearly half of the 250,000 troops who deployed under Overseas Contingency Operations are parents raises questions about how servicemembers’ children are coping with deployment-related issues such as a parent’s absence, injury, recovery, disability, or death.

CNA analysts see opportunities to use the science of child development to increase the body of knowledge on these matters. The science could provide theoretical models and scientific methods for learning about military children and the conditions that promote their successful coping and resilience. CNA analysts also see opportunities for researchers of civilian children and families to collaborate with researchers who focus on military children.

Given these two areas of opportunity, in 2011, CNA hosted a two-day conference to provide a forum for communication and collaboration between child development experts, researchers, policy-makers, and program operators, where the focus was programs for military children and their families.

The 2011 conference highlighted the need for such programs to reduce stress and promote resilience, and the importance (cited by academics and policy-makers alike) of assessing program effectiveness through rigorous evaluations. CNA’s 2012 conference will explore the complex issues associated with designing and implementing the types of evaluation processes needed to understand and improve the impact of programs for military children and families.