Liberty Wing Hosts Key Spouse symposium

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Christopher S. Sparks
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  The Liberty Wing Key Spouse program hosted the fourth annual Key Spouse symposium, an event geared towards networking, inspiring and supporting all U.K. area spouses here, Oct. 17.

The event featured a collaboration of over 100 key spouses from RAF Mildenhall, RAF Alconbury and RAF Lakenheath in an effort to share effective strategies and ideas, as well as a chance to get to know their peers and Key Spouse mentors.

This commander-approved program is designed to help build resilience and provide support and information for spouses across the Liberty Wing.

“We’re coming together to network as key spouses to gather information from each other,” said Sarah Berger, a 423rd Medical Squadron key spouse. “We want to share some new ideas and fresh takes on how others run their programs and hopefully walk away with new skills for our squadron.”

The main goal of the program is to provide support and community for those families who may be new to the Liberty Wing or to those whose spouses are deployed.

“We try to reach all spouses but our main goal is to help spouses with deployed family members and newcomers to the base,” Cherron Brown, 48th Component Maintenance Squadron key spouse and committee member for the symposium. “We are a program here to help the families in our squadron and across the Liberty Wing.

During the event, participants were broken up into small groups to discuss topics including communicating with leadership, unit sponsorship and networking.

Each small group had speakers that led open discussions, interactive workshop activities and listened to testimonials on resilience and community.

“This is a time for Key Spouses to gain skills and learn more about ways they can help fellow spouses in the U.S. Air Force,” Brown said.

A major topic that was discussed during the event was the importance of resilience as Key Spouses and how they can share it with their families, making them stronger and more prepared for anything such as deployments, permanent change of station and much more.

“When a spouse is resilient it spreads to the family and even to their squadron,” Berger said. “It makes everyone stronger and able to handle the trials and tribulations that might come their way.”