The Caucus served to address many of the challenges facing military families today, including education, family support, service member compensation, and employment.
MSCCN’s President and Founder, Deb Kloeppel, delivered an inspirational speech at the event, which was followed by a standing ovation. “Military Spouses are natural born leaders, organizers and magnificent managers of chaos" she said. “So why did we marry military? We didn’t want to be ordinary. We wanted to live an intended life – a life that created purpose and meaning in our lives.”
As Founder and CEO of the first designated military spouse employment program in the nation, Kloeppel discussed the shift she had seen over the last ten years in the military spouse community, one where spouses began to realize that it was possible to pursue goals of their own.
“Even though the belief used to be that it was impossible to achieve anything around a service member’s career, you are all proof that we can achieve what we want, on our terms, with the help of others…together, with other meaningful programs that educate and cultivate corporate cultures into a deeper understanding of our military spouse culture, barriers that kept us from corporate and small business jobs and higher earning potential, are slowly chipping away.”
Military spouse employment is often critical in that it provides an increased quality of life for our military families and, in many cases, financial stability during the transition of service members to civilian life. The de-escalation of American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with huge defense budget cuts, will send 1.5 million service members, Guardsmen and Reservists home in the next five years. “On a daily basis, we encounter job seekers who are in crisis because they desperately want quality employment,” Kloeppel divulged.
Deb Kloeppel, President and Founder of CASY-MSCCN
Deb Kloeppel, Founder and President, CASY & MSCCN INSPIRES
the Military Spouse Caucus
Military Spouse Magazine hosted its second annual Military Spouse Caucus on May 8 in Washington, D.C. The event, held the day before the 2014 Military Spouse of the Year Awards Luncheon, drew attendance from Congressional members, senior military, Department of Defense leadership, and two hundred base Spouse of Year and Military Spouse of the Year alumnae.
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