Blue Star Stories

Staying Ahead of Holiday Stress

Staying Ahead of Holiday Stress By Kelley Klor, Amazon Food Insecurity DEPLOY Fellow   As we roll into the final stretch of the year, and plans are made for holiday meals and festivities, it’s normal to experience feelings of anxiety, grief, and seasonal depression. For many, myself included, November and December are definitely not the…

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Foreign Military Spouses Face Unique Challenges; Blue Star Families Aims to Help

Foreign Military Spouses Face Unique Challenges; Blue Star Families Aims to Help Meet Anicia. She’s a Navy spouse and, thanks to the partnership with the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, Blue Star Families’ Chicagoland DEPLOY fellow. We know that military families struggle to build new relationships after each move. In fact,  from the 2020 Military Family…

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National Chapter DEPLOY Fellow Aims to Celebrate People and Create Connections

National Chapter DEPLOY Fellow Aims to Celebrate People and Create Connections Meet Quiana. She’s a Veteran Navy spouse, mom of three, and Blue Star Families’ National Chapter DEPLOY Fellow, a position made possible by USAA. With her husband having served 24 years in the Navy, Quiana is intimately aware of the sacrifices military families make…

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Opening Up Opportunity: Technology Careers for #MilSpouses

Opening Up Opportunity: Technology Careers for #MilSpouses Meet Leslie. She’s a Navy spouse, mom of four, and, thanks to a partnership with Salesforce, she joined Blue Star Families’ team as the Technology DEPLOY Fellow. When Leslie met her active-duty Navy husband and they started their family, she decided to take a step back from her…

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Tackling Food Insecurity: A Mission that Hits Home

Tackling Food Insecurity: A Mission that Hits Home Meet Kelley. She’s an Air Force spouse, mom of two, and just joined the Blue Star Families team as the Food Insecurity DEPLOY Fellow, thanks to the support of Amazon. With 13 years of service in the military, Kelley has seen the struggles military families face when…

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Blue Star Community Changemaker: Meet Jamie

Blue Star Community Changemaker: Meet Jamie Delivered by CSX Pride in Service When the draft ended in 1973, women represented 8% of officers and just 2% of enlisted service members. Since then, the makeup of the military has become increasingly diverse. Now, 16.5%(1) of all active-duty service members are women. With continued policy changes opening…

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Honor National Veterans Small Business Week with Blue Star Families

Honor National Veterans Small Business Week with Blue Star Families Written By: JPMorgan Chase & Co. DEPLOY Fellow Brittney Aladetohun According to the 2020 Annual Business Survey, nearly 6% of U.S businesses are Veteran-owned, and the majority are small businesses. While this makes up a notable share of the economy, Veterans still face challenges when…

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Hitting the Ground Running with Blue Star Welcome Week

Hitting the Ground Running with Blue Star Welcome Week Why did we start Blue Star Welcome Week? Because each year, approximately 600,000 military-connected individuals move, causing instability and often devastating feelings of isolation for the family members who move with them. These family members are serving and sacrificing alongside their service member every single day.…

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Making it Count: Blue Star Welcome Week Helps Fight the Isolation Felt Move After Move

Making it Count: Blue Star Welcome Week Helps Fight the Isolation Felt Move After Move While Blue Star Welcome Week 2021 is in the rearview mirror, there’s still important work to do to help turn this incredible moment into a movement! The reason is, military-connected families are serving and sacrificing daily, all year long. And,…

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Family Volunteer Day: Meet Mitch

Family Volunteer Day: Meet Mitch Did you know that only one in four active-duty family respondents to Blue Star Families’ 2020 Military Family Lifestyle Survey feel a sense of belonging to their local civilian community? In fact, one-third say they have no friends in the local community and nobody they can ask for a favor.…

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