Army Family Action Plan (AFAP) Soldier & Family Readiness Branch How's Army Life Treating You?

Your Senior Leaders want to know. Army Family Action Plan (AFAP) is your tool to voice your issues to Army leadership. It alerts them to areas of concern and allows them the opportunity to quickly put action plans into place to work toward resolving your issues. An AFAP issue is any problem that affects the readiness and Well-Being of Fort Hood or the Army. Some issues can be resolved here locally, while some must go forth for a chance at higher level resolution. 

AFAP has been an effective Army program for over 27 years. Within that time, there have been over six hundred eighty one issues identified. AFAP has driven 124 legislative changes, 176 Army policy and regulatory changes and 195 improved programs and services.  

Because of you and through AFAP, Fort Hood has accomplished several things, including the following:

• A full service facility with childcare on site to accommodate Soldiers and Family members needing such location to meet (Oveta Culp Hobby Soldier & Family Readiness Center), with 110 additional parking spots recently added.
• An exception to policy has been established between Child, Youth & School Services and Army Community Service for participants to attend ACS classes if exceeding the 15 hour limit.
• Monthly Deployment briefings for Family members of Soldiers who deploy independently .
• The need to display the Motorcycle Safety Foundation card each time a motorcyclist enters Post has been eliminated.
• Implementation of new marketing schemes for Child, Youth & School Services.
• Increased number of community life Non-Commissioned Officers to preside over On-Post Housing.

In fact one of our 2010 local issues “Coverage for all Infertility Treatment and Procedures” has been forwarded up and will be addressed at the next Headquarters, Department of the Army AFAP Conference.

Local installations are the grassroots level of AFAP, and it begins with you, your ideas, your recommendations, and most importantly, your voice!

Fort Hood conducts an AFAP Conference annually. The 2011 installation conference will be held October 25-28 at Comanche Chapel. The purpose of the conference is to draw together a representation of America's Army in an atmosphere of education and decision-making.

Objectives of the conference are: To reinforce efforts to enrich the quality of life of all members of the community, to utilize work groups representative of America's Army to select the five most valuable services, identify specific issues affecting quality of life and formulate recommendations, and prioritize the top three issues and recommendations for each workgroup, and to educate delegates on Army/installation management, resourcing, and plans through the use of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to assist the work groups.

An Operations Order (OPORD) is published detailing the scope and responsibilities of the conference. Units provide delegates in accordance with the OPORD. Active Duty, Reserve, Guard, Retirees, DA Civilians, Family Members, and surviving spouses are all invited to participate in the AFAP conference.  Individuals interested in serving as an AFAP delegate, or volunteering in other ways with the AFAP program, should inform their commanders, Family Readiness Group leaders, or call 287-AFAP (2327). 

Delegates are assigned to participate in workgroups during the conference.  Each workgroup focuses on specific areas of interest, such as Medical, Family Support, Force Support, Housing, Benefits and Entitlements, etc. 

Delegates review and prioritize issues pre-submitted by the community. Anyone may submit an AFAP issue at anytime.  Issues to be reviewed at the 2011 Fort Hood conference must be submitted prior to the deadline of 30 September for consideration. The process is quite simple. Look for issue boxes throughout the community, click the issue form link below or call the Installation AFAP office.

The public is invited to participate in the Report-out Session to our Senior Leadership on the final day of the conference, at the Comanche Chapel. Everyone is welcome, as these issues may effect the quality of Army life for you, either here at “The Great Place” or Army-wide. The conference is just the beginning of the process. The next step is for assigned action officers to work toward resolving the local issues. The Garrison Commander is kept abreast of the status of each issue until the conference recommendation has been met and the issue can either be deemed unattainable or declared complete. 

Issues beyond the scope of Fort Hood are forwarded to Forces Command (FORSCOM), the next level of our major command. FORSCOM conducts an annual AFAP conference where these issues are reviewed and prioritized. Issues beyond the scope of FORSCOM may be forwarded to the Department of the Army, which also conducts an annual conference.

If you are interested in participating in the local conference, or submitting an issue for the conference please fill out the appropriate form below and drop them off at the Lane Volunteer Center or Fax to 254-288-3650.

• Delegate Application Form 2011
• Fort Hood AFAP Conference Facilitator/Recorder/Transcriber/Issue Support Person Application
• AFAP Issue Submission Form
• AFAP Issue On-Line Submission & Management

Remember, each AFAP success story originated as an idea that someone decided to pursue.