JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas -- The Department of the Air Force stood up a new division at the Air Force’s Personnel Center to integrate three Exceptional Family Member Program, or EFMP, components – medical, family support and assignments.
The new Exceptional Assignment Program division will provide Airmen and their families with a singular point of contact to be more responsive and expedite their requests.
While the new division will serve to make the program more efficient for the service, Tammy Custer, an EFMP-Family Support specialist at Hill Air Force Base, said it will be mostly transparent to the base’s EFMP families.
“It won’t look any different for our families. We’ll still be connecting them with the information and referrals, relocation and family assistance, and other resources as we’ve done in the past.”
There are plans to add more EFMP core components to the new division, such as legal support, special education liaison and TRICARE support in the future.
“Your voices were heard,” said Kimberly Schuler, Humanitarian, EFMP and Expedited Transfer Reassignments chief. “Integrating all EFMP components under one division prevents families from having to navigate through a complex process and engage multiple organizations to respond to a singular EFMP request. Our goal is to improve the customer experience of our Airmen and their families during challenging times,” Schuler said.
The new division will also handle Humanitarian and Expedited Transfer assignment requests and execute the enhanced Air Force Family Member Travel Screening, or FMTS, process. The process allows Air and Space professionals the ability to virtually accomplish, track and communicate with medical personnel on their permanent change of station family screening requests.
Overall, EFMP will continue to evolve for the betterment of families with several processes already implemented to enhance the program. For example, Family Support coordinator training has been standardized to provide families with better and consistent information. Additionally, face-to-face orientations are available for EFMP families at all Air Force installations along with an online orientation for geographically separated units and leaders.
There are approximately 33,400 active duty Air and Space Professionals sponsoring more than 55,000 family members currently enrolled in EFMP.
“We are extremely proud to stand up this new integrated division as we know having a singular point of contact for our EFMP Air and Space Professionals and their families will make it much easier for families to get the assistance they deserve” Schuler said.
For information on the EFMP program, contact Tammy Custer or Alysse Seligman, EFMP-Family Support specialists, at 801-777-4681.
(75th Air Base Wing Public Affairs contributed to this article.)