In a memorandum dated July 17, Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz designated July 2009 to July 2010 as the "Year of the Air Force Family," and groups at Hill Air Force Base have organized to help families here feel supported throughout this time and beyond.Hill AFB already offers a program for nearly any family need and this year the focus will be on raising awareness of what is available to the Air Force community, said Janice Hollen, 75th Air Base Wing Airman and Family Services chief. Hollen is spearheading the Year of the Air Force Family program at Hill and reports that the biggest challenge will be streamlining the plethora of family programs into one deliverable package and reaching out to every person on base to ensure they know what is available.Reaching out to every person who falls under the "Air Force family" umbrella may be a daunting task for Hollen and her program team. "We are not just talking about married active duty Airmen. We are talking about the Air Force as a whole," she said.Donley and Schwartz clarified that the Air Force family is dynamic and diverse, made up of active duty, Reserve and Guard members, civilians, spouses, children, friends and community partners who support Airmen.The Air Force leaders also outlined the four important areas of concern for Air Force families: affordable and available family housing, safe schools that challenge and prepare children for the future, accessible and quality medical care for Air Force families, and quality childcare.Hollen says Hill AFB is ahead of the curve when it comes to affordable family housing due to its established privatized housing relationship with Boyer Hill, which will complete its design award-winning housing renovation project within the next few years.Team Hill also enjoys high quality childcare with its award-winning Child Development Center and Youth Center, and the education programs here will instead keep the focus on increasing training opportunities for educational trainers.Judy Maughn, 75th ABW School Liaison officer, will offer a Specialized Training of Military Parents course in late October that will educate parents and trainers how to help families with special needs family members deal with their additional challenges. The Airman and Family Readiness Center will also offer a training class during the first week in November, which also happens to be Air Force Family Week, to help blended families operate more smoothly. Hollen's team will also ramp up family activities that base organizations have offered in the past by pulling them together into centralized, larger activities. "We are working together as one unit and not trying to duplicate our efforts."For example, this year's Halloween activities will be grouped into the Haunting on the Hill event, to be held near the Hubbard Golf Course on Oct. 30. The Warrior Health and Fitness Center will then host the Halloween Costume 5K and kids' one mile runs the following morning to incorporate healthy activities into family quality time."These are activities we were already offering before and now we are working on getting the word out to the families to show them what is available," Hollen said.For those who have a need that they are not sure has been identified, Hollen extends the invitation to contact her with that concern."We would be happy to identify what we are already doing to address that need, and if we are not, we need to know that there is a gap we need to fill."To contact Hollen about Year of the Air Force Family events, call her at (801) 777-3599 or e-mail her at janice.hollen@hill.af.mil.