Utah officials describe expanded military family supports, resiliency programs and national policy wins

Members of the Utah Veterans and Military Affairs Commission heard an update from Brian Garrett, deputy director of the Department of Veterans and Military Affairs, on the department’s recent work on family readiness and installation resiliency.

Garrett said the department has hired staff to coordinate family programs and resiliency services and to expand outreach to service members, veterans and their families. He credited recent legislative funding for adding staff including Mike Miller, the department’s family programs manager, and Cale Smith, who oversees suicide prevention and resiliency programs. Garrett said the department “pushed out 1,300 gun safes to service members, veterans, and their families” and launched a resiliency playbook called Military Live On as part of a broader Live On program.

Why it matters: Commission members said the effort aims to reduce gaps for families when service members move or deploy, and to increase local coordination so families in rural communities can access support without duplicative processes.

Garrett described several program-level results he called “wins.” The department has stood up military support teams in Davis, Ogden, Weber and Tooele school districts; Garrett said those teams served more than 800 military and veteran families, engaged roughly 13,000 participants in school events, and trained about 2,500 teachers on military-connected student needs. He said the teams let districts assemble a multi-disciplinary crisis team — principal, teacher, military child advocate and therapist — to address a child’s needs while reducing information barriers that previously existed because of contractor employment rules and privacy laws. “We cut through all that,” Garrett said, referring to coordination gaps between school staff and military family therapists.

Garrett highlighted a change secured with the Utah High School Activities Association that shortens transfer documentation for military children: military families now need only provide a copy of a permanent change of station order or proof of relocation rather than extensive paperwork, a change state officials said DOD now cites as a national best practice.

Legislative changes described: Garrett and others noted two bills from the prior session. One expands portability of employer contributions to defined-contribution retirement accounts for service members or military spouses who relocate before vesting in the Utah Retirement System; the other extends transition benefits and similar supports to DoD civilian employees. Garrett said the department plans to press the Legislature this session to add language allowing service members who take short-term off-base leases to terminate those leases when they gain base housing, similar to protections under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

Commission members and staff also flagged implementation challenges. Garrett said the recent federal lapse in appropriations had forced civilian family programs staff to be sent home in some units, creating gaps in services at a time many families would be under additional strain. Separately, a National Guard representative told the commission that, because of the federal funding lapse, a planned Army band performance for a local Veterans Day event will not include the band.

Commissioners praised the department’s outreach and encouraged continued work with local school districts, military leadership, professional boards and community partners.

Taper: Officials said the department will continue to monitor use of the new programs and work with the Legislature and partners on any statutory or budget changes needed to sustain them.