DoD Develops Teen Web Site

Military Teens on the Move, the new Internet site at /mtom, caters to teen-agers of service members and DoD civilian employees. It's a one-stop, interactive information source for teen-agers seeking to connect with each other and to learn more about military life and themselves.

"Military Teens on the Move was designed to help teen-agers moving to a new military installation," said Carolyn H. Becraft, deputy assistant defense secretary for personal support, families and education.

The site offers typical moving information and has hyperlinks to military installation and school home pages. By clicking on a "News You Can Use" icon, teen-agers can link to pages for homework help, volunteer opportunities and college information. Other links jump to pages on such subjects as substance abuse, HIV, dealing with parents and handling difficult situations during the teen-age years.

The DoD site dedicates an entire area to youth sponsorship programs, which pair relocating teens with a teen at the new installation who can answer questions, send information, and maybe show them around once they arrive. Site pages include detailed information on how to start and maintain teen sponsorship programs at bases without them.

Military Teens on the Move also features a monitored chat room and bulletin board to help teens keep in touch with each other, further enhancing local youth sponsorship efforts, Becraft said. She said she hopes the new web site will help DoD teens get information quicker and that teens soon will be able to earn volunteer credits by creating and updating pages for the site.

Military Teens on the Move is the latest in the Office of Family Policy's suite of web sites on military assistance programs. The military assistance home page address is http://dticaw.dtic.mil/mapsite, and it links to the teens' site and the others.

(From a DoD Release)