The Airman & Family Readiness Center at Tinker Air Force Base connects Airmen, civilian personnel and their family members with various support services.
Community Readiness Specialist Nakisha Hall is the Key Spouse coordinator overseeing the volunteer program for A&FRC, and Community Readiness Consultant Robert Duwel oversees career focus classes, along with working to meet whatever other need Tinker Airmen and their family members have.
The A&FRC can be reached Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 739-2747.
What are the most important ways your agency serves Team Tinker? What are the services offered through the A&FRC?
Hall: “Everything we do. Anytime someone comes to Airman & Family Readiness needing assistance or a service, they’re going to find it here. I like to call A&FRC social services specifically for the military community because people have a need when they come see us and it’s our job to meet that need however were able to do so. Whether they’re just getting to Tinker as a first term Airman or they’re prepared to retire and have been in the military for 30 years, we’re going to have what it is that they need.
The biggest service I can think of is Robert’s career focus classes. That class is all about helping people obtain employment. When you have a military member that is preparing to separate and retire, whether they’ve been in the Air Force for four years or 20 years, that’s how long you’ve gone without writing a resume, looking for a job or interviewing; so these classes really kick in and help you build on skills that may have been lying dormant for a little bit.
The classes are also open to spouses and civilians employed at Tinker because we’re all growing, so Airman and Family is here to help give you the tools to grow. One of the things Robert is doing tomorrow is the first ever military spouse edition Job Club, specifically geared towards military spouses.”
Duwel: “I would say that eight or nine out of ten people we see aren’t in the best of situations and it’s our job to help them with whatever their needs may be. Whether it’s lack of food and they’re about to get their electricity cut off, or they’re leaving the military and don’t know what the next step is. Helping them with those steps, giving them options and guiding them along their path eases a lot of their stresses. Everything we do here is extremely important to our service members and their dependents.
When an individual reaches out to the A&FRC what can they expect?
Hall: “They can expect to first be treated with respect. When someone reaches out and they need help that’s already hard enough. They can expect to have a listening ear and by the time they’re done talking to us they’ll have a process to move towards whatever their goal is.
For example, if they come to us and they need financial assistance we’ll sit down and talk with them about what their needs are, whether or not they qualify for Air Force Aid and more than just providing them with those financial resources, we want to make sure they’re equipped to make changes in the future so they’re capable of helping themselves.
We’re here as a helping agency, but our goal is to empower people to help themselves. We do have to ask some questions, so making sure they know that we respect them and that we’re not judging is first and foremost. We want you to be honest with us because we’re here to help you.”
Duwel: “One of the hardest things for people is to come out and admit that they’re in a situation. We see everyone from young Airmen to higher ranking folks, and it took a lot of them sucking up their pride to come out here and share with us. It’s our job to show that we can relate with them and that they can feel safe. This is a safe environment for them to open up to us and we’re not going to run and tell and broadcast their problems to the whole world. We’re here to help them fix their problems.
What are the common misconceptions about your agency?
Duwel: “One of the biggest stigmas we have here is everyone relating us to the Transition Assistance Program office. People think this is where you go when you’re transitioning out of the military, but we do so much more than that. The awareness of what we do is what’s lacking for us.”
Hall: “The awareness of how much more we are than TAP. You may have come here specifically for TAP, but outside of TAP we have several other programs that would be of benefit.”
What’s your favorite part of working in your position?
Hall: “Connecting with people every single day. It fills my gas tank to smile with people, laugh with them or share an experience with them because it’s not always smiles and laughter. Sometimes people come in and they’re really upset and they just need to be able to get that off of their chest in a safe space.
For Airman & Family to be a safe space for people is extremely important. Connecting with people, establishing relationships and the variety of people we see every day is my absolute favorite part because you never know what the needs of the person is going to be. You just know they’re trusting A&FRC enough to come see you.”
Duwel: “For me it would be when someone’s leaving and I was able to help them. The fulfillment I get from that is priceless and that’s why I’ve been in this type of career for 12 years. Prior to this I was in the real estate world and owned my own business, I was a mechanic for a while, but coming into this world was completely different and I just felt like a better person. I found my calling, to sum it up.”