Deployment Support Group
When a family member is deployed, children experience a wide range of emotions. Certainly emotions change and fluctuate throughout the day for many children. Realistically, children are not always good at expressing their fears and anxieties using words. Recognizing this need, Duncan Elementary School has instituted “Deployment Support Groups.” These are small group meetings facilitated by the school’s counselors. Through these groups, students with a deployed parent have a special place to meet weekly to focus on problem solving communication skills, in addition to getting a little extra tender loving care. Participants are divided into groups according to grade level. Typically, students enroll in deployment groups when their parent is first deployed and remain members until their parent returns home. Deployment groups are developmentally appropriate for students and are planned by the school counselors. Goals and objectives for all groups include: evaluating each child’s stress level; presenting factual data on geography, culture, and other information about Iraq and Afghanistan; understanding, discussing, and expressing feelings; providing support from friends, teachers, counselors, and administrators; and providing strategies for academic success in the classroom.