Behind the scenes on quality of life Published Dec. 9, 2014 By Airman 1st Class Sean D. Smith Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- Keeping morale up during harsh winters at Minot Air Force Base can be a challenge: thanks to bitterly cold weather and treacherous road conditions. However, there's a diverse group of people and organizations at work behind the scenes to make things easier for everyone. The gathering place for these agencies is the Integrated Delivery System - a slightly unwieldy name for a consortium of representatives whose role is to collaborate to improve quality of life by offering programs and initiatives dealing with everything from resiliency to education that Airmen and their families can benefit from. "There are so many educational opportunities," said Cindy Whitesell, Minot AFB community support coordinator. "You might want to learn more about communication or relationship enhancement. Or managing finances or finding employment." Whitesell outlined an extensive list of agencies and organizations on base working toward improving quality of life: Family Advocacy, Child Development, Top Three, and Military Family Life Consultants to name just a few. The people behind these programs want to offer appealing services in such a way that it's convenient for Airmen to take advantage of them. But, despite their best efforts, they're sometimes faced with the problem of underwhelming participation. The Airman and Family Readiness Center offers relationship enhancement classes that focus on building skills and helping couples work through challenging times. "Despite indicators that validate the need for relationship enhancement activities at Minot AFB, as well as input from members of the community requesting relationship enhancement opportunities, participation remains a challenge," said Nancy Bowers, Community Readiness Consultant. "Seminars are frequently cancelled due to a lack of participation." Whitesell explained that there are a variety of factors that can affect turnout for these programs. "There can be stigma. People can think that if they go to a particular class or even just express an interest in that class, that it will look like there's something wrong with them," she said. Another hurdle can be the mission itself, the work schedule and operations tempo. Minot Airmen work a variety of shifts, and offering class times that accommodate everyone can be an intimidating challenge. "It can be difficult or impossible to pull people away from their jobs and during off-hours, life can get in the way," Whitesell said. Finally, Airmen can't attend classes that they don't know about. Many providers are willing to take their classes and services out to individual units, but they need an invitation. "There's limited awareness of everything going on," Whitesell added. "You have to go to more than one place to find out what force support is doing, what mental health is doing. What some of the private organizations are doing." The recently-developed "What's up at Minot" calendar, available at www.minot.af.mil is intended to make this information more accessible. Meanwhile, the men and women running the IDS agencies are always on the lookout for a new idea, and they hope the community will not only explore the options open to them, but also become more vocal about their specific needs. "Many of the ideas that I've launched over the years have come from Airmen," Whitesell said. "Anyone is welcome to e-mail me, or the agencies that run the programs that are relevant to you. We appreciate your ideas," she added.