Naval Support Activity Washington’s Fleet and Family Support Center (FFSC) is offering online webinars on how to manage during the COVID-19 pandemic, starting April 1.

"Helping Children Navigate the Coronavirus" was offered April 1 and is scheduled again April 15. "How to Manage Anxiety and Stress" will be offered April 2 and 21, and suicide prevention training will be offered April 13 and 23. The webinars are open to service members, families and civilian government employees.

“The webinar idea has been part of our vision for quite some time now,” said Andrew Freed, Work and Family Life supervisor for FFSC. “As we began to telework due to COVID-19, we really saw the need arise for this kind of training. There were several webinars that we felt were pertinent to service members and their families at this time, and we developed those immediately.”

“The biggest impact this is going to have is providing flexibility to our families. With these webinars, they can log in from the convenience of their home and participate. In the very near future, we’re going to launch two more,” said Freed.

The webinars being offered now were designed to deal with specific challenges all families are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The first webinar is really about family dynamics,” said Martha Karandy, life skill facilitator for FFSC. “It focuses on how to talk to children about the virus, how to explain them missing birthday parties and graduations, and how to homeschool, and activities for the whole family. The second topic is about the anxiety and stress we’re all feeling. It’s everywhere and it’s effecting every family. The third training is general military training. I didn’t want to go through this time without suicide prevention training and giving service members someone to reach out to. “

The webinars will allow people to participate via voice and text chat. People can also call in and communicate that way. 

To register for the interactive webinars, visit www.navymwrwashington.com/registration-form or log into the classroom a few minutes before the scheduled start time at http://ffr-learn.adobeconnect.com/nsawfleetandfamilyvirtualtrainings.

For more news from Naval District Washington, visit www.navy.mil/local/ndw/.

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For more news from Naval District Washington, visit www.navy.mil/.