Blue Star Spouse Networks Launches!

Blue Star Families 2012 Military Family Lifestyle Survey found that twenty-seven percent of spouse respondents said they had faced difficulties with transferring their professional certificates or licenses across state lines.  Interstate licensing requirements are also a huge obstacle for military spouses, but efforts to capture compelling individual stories are disparate and have thus far revolved around the legislative sessions of various states.

Military spouses need a way to congregate within their own career fields and develop comprehensive, coordinated strategies to meet the challenges within their own professional fields, and a place where they can connect with others in their field and network amongst themselves. 

Military spouses nationwide now have a platform called “Blue Star Spouse Networks,” for their unique professional challenges.  Blue Star Families (BSF), in conjunction with Hiring Our Heroes, is launching a spouse
network initiative, creating the nation’s premier series of networks for professional military spouses.

Initially focusing on three primary career areas:  educators, health care professionals, and entrepreneurs, spouse run "virtual networks," will leverage the internet, the convening power of Facebook, and the combined resources and vast networks and expertise of BSF and the Hiring our Heroes program, to empower members to connect online.

Blue Star Spouse Networks will provide a much-needed forum for spouses to meet their peers, regardless of geography, and work together toward changes needed in their professions.

These new Blue Star Spouse Networks will utilize the Facebook platform to enable (and encourage!) spouses to organize themselves and be their own advocates. This platform will also allow for peer-to-peer mentoring from within the spouse community, promoting connectivity that is currently absent and much needed!  Military spouses will finally have an avenue for addressing unique professional challenges, regardless of geography, career field, or employment status.

Blue Star Spouse Networks focuses on three career fields because of the requirement for state-level licensing for each of them and the need to have organized, networked spouse-led advocacy at both the state and national level.  Additionally, teaching and nursing are two of the top three occupations for military spouses in the labor force.

Stop by and “like” the Facebook pages to become involved now.   

Leave a comment to introduce yourself or just look around for helpful information and happenings.  If you’d like to take an even more active role, share your personal story, or sign up for extra information and alerts, you can sign up on our website. 

Blue Star Educators

Blue Star Health Care Professionals (including Social Workers)

Blue Star Entrepreneurs      

What are some of the benefits to joining a network (or two)?  We’re glad you asked! 

• You can have a founding role in an unprecedented military spouse-exclusive network within the most populated industries for military spouses.
• Each network will have formal partnership with the largest business federation in the world – the United States Chamber of Commerce, with over 3 million business members.
• You will be able to provide insight and input to government officials working on military spouse licensing and certification issues.
• You can help in the creation of state level policy on spousal licensing and certification that helps military spouses.
• You can be involved in Hiring our Heroes’ Military Spouse Business Alliance, the first ever coalition of the top nonprofits in the country working on military spouse employment.
• You will have access to top tier and innovative professional development opportunities, such as national and regional peer and mentoring networks, comprehensive resume assistance geared specifically toward military spouses, networking events to connect high level business and civic executives with military spouses, and professional advice on networking, career planning and career image improvement.
• You will have access to platforms like eMentor and Odesk, where spouses can connect with other spouses for mentoring and contract and short-term work opportunities.

With these organic groups, we look forward to taking suggestions and ideas for how to make these as beneficial and effective as possible.  So keep the ideas coming!  Email spousecareers@bluestarfam.org with your thoughts. 

 

Jenny Tracy   
Indiana Army National Guard
2-150 FA
Battalion Family Readiness Group Chairperson
812-339-5618