History

The Right Place at the Right Time

Blue Star Families has struck a chord, not just with military family members hungry for support and empowerment, but also with elected officials seeking to hear unfiltered feedback and leading non-profits who wish to connect the service they provide to military families.

There is unprecedented interest in military families in America because of First Lady Michelle Obama’s focus on this issue.  This opportunity, coupled with social networking and other new technology, has created an opportunity to engage and empower military families as never before.

The energy and need for an organization such as Blue Star Families is so keen that even in our early stages of organization, while still preparing our non-profit legal status, we developed a track record that long-established groups would envy.  Since our founding in 2008 we have:

• Started 70 chapters on military bases and National Guard sites around the country  
• Designed and executed a comprehensive Military Families Lifestyle Survey, securing the partnership of many of the ‘Blue Chip’ non-profit organizations that serve military families and gaining the attention of Congress, the Speaker of the House, the Congressional Womens' Caucus, the Chair of the Appropriations Committee, and the Chair of the Armed Services Committee and the White House Council on Women and Girls.
  
  The First Lady has widely and extensively cited the survey and identified it as a source for her commitment going forward for military families.

• Produced several internal studies for the Obama administration transition, including a smaller scale top issues survey, and a study of where military families receive their news media information.
• Partnered with Be the Change to develop national citizen service projects engaging with military families
• Launched the “Books on Bases” program with the Forbes 200 charity KIDS, to bring 100,000 children’s books to military children.
• Developed a resume toolkit to aid spouses in translating their volunteer experience into relevant experience.  The toolkit is presented at Hiring our Heroes fairs nationally. 
• Engaged oDesk and Facebook to launch Blue Star Jobs and Blue Star Spouse Networks - spouse employment initiatives designed around the unique military lifestyle.
• Senator Mark Warner requested BSF brief him on military family issues and received his commitment on several key military family issues.  
• Participated in two major White House meetings with the First Lady, on the Summer of Service and on Military Families 
• As part of the ServiceNation coalition, BSF was asked to lead a working group on military families and non-profit partnerships  
• BSF has a monthly column in Military Spouse Magazine, a magazine with a global circulation of over 60,000  
• We have been covered extensively in the National media:  NBC, CNN, NPR, USA TODAY, Military.com. Also, all of the flagship military publications have done stories featuring Blue Star Families.
• Blue Star Families has partnered with The National Endowment for the Arts to develop Blue Star Museums, a program that provides free entrance for military families to nearly 2,000 museums across the nation. 
• Launched MilKidz Club as a way to show support for our military children.
• Unveiled Blue Star Theaters - a partnership among the Theatre Communications Group (TCG) with Leadership support provided by the MetLife Foundation to recognize the profound contributions of service families and seeks to build stronger connections between theatres, military families and their communities.

Blue Star Families continues to expand with new chapters at bases across our nation -- and we will continue to evolve and seek new innovative ways to support military families and service members.