Airman and Family Readiness Center provides vital resources to Airmen Published March 30, 2012 By Senior Airman Jack Sanders 99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. -- The Airman and Family Readiness Center offers a multitude of services to Airmen ranging from financial support loans to family planning and counseling. Among the large list of service options the AFRC offers to Airmen and their families includes monthly classes, transition assistance, relocation assistance, family life consultancy, the Exceptional Family Member Program, personal financial readiness, career planning, readiness, and Air Force Aid. The center offers nearly every one of its services to all Airmen regardless of rank or marital status, as well as to dependent family members and civilian employees. It also serves as a central contact point for locating helping services for a wide variety of needs, on and off the installation. From proactively building a budget or starting a job search, to finding resources to deal with a family crisis, the AFRC can help. "It's like a one stop shop," said Mechelle Randolph, Airman and Family Readiness Center community readiness consultant. "You can come here and get help with whatever you need, and if we don't know, then we're going to refer you -- sometimes off base, sometimes to other on-base offices." Many of the AFRCs classes and activities are published in a calendar, distributed via the base newspaper, base email, the Nellis website, the Force Support Squadron's website, and available for pickup at the AFRC or brought to specific units under unit requests. "People don't realize how much we do here," Randolph said. "We just had a big job fair with 22 employers in the back classrooms interviewing people on the spot." Those interested in help from the AFRC need only stop by. "You have people who are very private and I can understand that we sympathies with that a lot because we get that a lot with Air Force Aid," Randolph said. "We can do one-on-ones in those cases -- we're all trained for them." Randolph said that unfortunately, most interactions with the AFRC happen during deployment preparation or after financial emergencies have already begun. "A lot of Airmen don't know that we do all of those things here and when they come in, they come in under an emergency basis," Randolph said. "We want Airmen to be proactive instead of reactive so we can help. A lot of times when they come in early we can do a lot more versus getting into another situation where we can't do a lot. "Like, in the personal financial readiness arena -- if they come in when they miss that first car payment we might be able to do something," she said. "Versus, it's three months late and now the car's going to get repossessed -- it's out of our hands we can't really do anything at that point." No matter the situation the AFRC is happy to assist with anything, AFRC members said. "The most rewarding part about this job is when I have some of the younger airmen come back and tell me, ' Oh ma'am, thank you so much when you helped me,'" Randolph said. "They're just satisfied with the service they got -- 'you weren't judgmental; you were very helpful,' or when they send their friends back. You hear, ' My friend told me to come in and see you; that you were very helpful.' "That's the most rewarding part of the job," she said. "It's knowing that you made a difference. Everybody over here loves what they do, or we wouldn't be here."
