For children in National Guard or Reservist families, or whose parent was injured in military service.
When a family has a child with disabilities, it may be challenging to find activities and programs that are both affordable and benefit their child. This grant program helps fund activities for military-connected children, with and without disabilities, whose parents have financial challenges because of their service.
Our Military Kids is a “nonprofit organization that supports children, ages five through 12th grade, whose parents or guardians are deployed National Guard and Reserve service members and children of wounded warriors from all service branches. Grants pay for participation in activities that help children cope with the stress and anxiety while their parents are recovering or absent”. Since 2004 Our Military Kids “has given out nearly $23.5 million, through 60,000+ grants, to military children in all U.S. states and territories.”
Eligible activities fall into five categories: sports, arts, camps/clubs, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and tutoring. Parent may be particularly interested in grants for tutoring in study skills or SAT/ATC test-taking!
Their website links to resources that you can share when helping military-connected families, and includes:
- Emergency and Child Advocacy Services
- Exceptional Family Member Programs (EFMP) for each branch of service
- Deployment Help
- Legal Assistance
- Health Care
- Insurance programs
- Military Benefits
- General Military Resources
- Shopping and Discount
- For Military Children
- Child Care for Military Families
Your Parent Center can show support for National Guard, Reserve, and Veteran families by sharing this information on social media. You can download program brochures from Our Military Kids and display them at resource fairs and in your office. It’s an easy way to show that your Parent Center is aware of the challenges faced by military-connected families.
Grant applications and eligible activities