Airman and Family Readiness Center
830 Chisholm Ave.
Fort Meade, MD 20755
301-677-4136 or 301-677-4138
Hours of operations
- 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday
- Closed all holidays and weekends
Mission
- We promote, educate, and facilitate readiness and resiliency for Airmen and their families by ensuring all service members and their dependents are connected with the appropriate services on and off post.
- We serve all single and married Active Duty, DoD Civilian Personnel and their eligible family members, to include Guard and Reserve members while on Active Duty, other eligible uniformed members, military retirees, and their eligible family members.
Services
The Ft. Meade Airman and Family Readiness Center offers a variety of services in alliance with the Army and Navy to include information, referral, and financial services, relocation assistance, transition assistance, employment programs, spouse orientations, and more!
- Newcomers’ Brief / Right Start
- This is a mandatory briefing which is held every other Wednesday (please call to confirm as dates are subject to change). You must register with the Military Personnel Element (MPE) when you in-process.
- This briefing acquaints newcomers with Fort Meade and the local community. Learn about health care options, child and youth services, housing, and more!
- Spouses are highly encouraged to attend with their service member when space permits. Child care is not available at this time.
- Hearts Apart - "Awaiting Families"
- Hearts Apart assists family members of all services in making prolonged separations more bearable.
- It provides a source of information for all families and offers spouses of deployed members to informally meet others in the same situation, share information, and enjoy fun activities with each other.
- Location and times of events are to be determined.
- Call (301) 677-5990 or (301) 677-4136 / 4138 for more information.
- Pre-deployment Briefing
- Held the first and third Fridays of each month from 0930-1130 (dates subject to change).
- Mandatory for any extended TDY assignment of 30 days or longer
- It is highly recommended that you contact the Airman and Family Readiness Center to register for this briefing within 72 hours of recieving your TDY/Deployment notification.
- Spouses are highly encouraged to attend this briefing as well, as many of the programs discussed will be applicable to them while the service member is deployed. Call 301-677-4136/4138 to register.
Key SpouseProgram
- The Key Spouse Program is a partnership between the Key Spouse, organizational leadership, and the Airman and Family Readiness Center.
- It is drastically different from a traditional spouse's group in that organizational leadership empowers a volunteer to link families with quality of life programs and services available to Airmen and their family members. This is not a social group.
- Volunteers are appointed by Command and work closely with organizational leadership. Key Spouses are trained to become the focal point for community resources, information, and support to families in their unit.
Transition Programs
The following services are available for transitioning members and veterans of all service branches through the Fort Meade Airman and Family Readiness Center.
- Pre-Separation Counseling
- This is a benefits briefing mandatory for all DoD personnel NO LATER THAN 90 days prior to separation/retirement; attend this prior to the TAP/GPS Workshop.
- Airmen are highly encouraged to start this process 1 year from anticipated date of separation or 2 years from date of retirement.
- Topics include Veterans Affairs benefits, education, employment, finances, the Reserves, and more.
- You must register for this brief. Call 301-677-4136/4138 to reserve a space.
- TAP / GPS Workshop
- Currently, Air Force does not facilitate a TAP/GPS workshop on Fort Meade. Airmen are referred to the Navy or Army to complete this second step of the mandatory three step process.
- To register with the Navy for Fort Meade's TAP/GPS workshop, call 301-677-9017. Army: 301-677-9871, Bolling AFB: 202-767-0450 & Andrews AFB: 301-981-7087
- Capstone
- The final step to the transition process, Capstone is a mandatory one-on-one appointment to ensure service members are transition ready.
- These appointments should be scheduled NLT than 90 days from separation/retirement.
- Appointments are provided every Monday at the A&FRC. To schedule, please call 301-677-4136/4138.
