Fort Bragg holds ribbon cutting for Exceptional Family Member Program office

By Faith Hatton, posted Apr 25, 2025 on BizFayetteville.com

Pictured from left to right: 1st Lt. Grace Vanarendonk, EFMP Screening Nurse, Col. Stephanie Mont, Commander of Womack Army Medical Center, Col. Chad Mixon, Fort Bragg Garrison Commander and Casey Clark, Program Manager for the Fort Bragg Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP)
Photo provided by: Audra A. Satterlee, DFMWR, Army Community Service

The Army Community Service Exceptional Family Member Program (EMFP) at Fort Bragg held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, April 24, at 1:30 p.m. for the new Centralized EFMP Office located in the Soldier Support Center.

The ribbon cutting was attended by staff of the office and leadership for both Fort Bragg and the Womack Army Medical Center.

The EFMP is a program designed to support family members with special needs including physical, emotional, developmental or intellectual conditions that require special attention and care. Families must enroll in the program to ensure access and referral to appropriate support services for the care required. Along with non clinical case management, the EFMP also gathers resources from the local areas, hosts recreational events, educational events and support groups and more.

The new EFMP lobby and office expansions take over the entire fourth floor of the Soldier Support Center on Fort Bragg. The new space is the result of 18 months of planning and renovation to offer families a one-stop shop for services.

“We offer families a whole lot that they may not know about. We want to make sure that they know this is our in and out processing office. Everybody that comes into Fort Bragg sees our office, so we make sure if they do have a member of our program, that they are getting the resources that they deserve,” shared Casey Clark, program manager for Fort Bragg’s EFMP. “Our system navigators make sure that we reach out to everyone within our program. There are currently around 5,600 Exceptional Family Members (EFMs) in and around Fort Bragg, and that number is looking to go up.”

The new space includes new offices, meeting rooms, a library, therapy spaces and a play area for children.

The new office area encompasses an entire floor of the Soldier Support Center to expedite access to services for military families in the EFMP. The new space is the result of 18 months of planning and renovation to offer families a one-stop shop for services.

This new space will be able to better accommodate the demand for the program which extends outside of Cumberland County.

Casey Clark, program manager for Fort Bragg’s EFMP stands inside of the EFMP playroom. The new play area will be used to host play mornings, story time and craft sessions. The play room will also be used by support groups for parents and their children.

“A lot of soldiers come here, especially because they're in the Raleigh-Durham area and we help for a lot of services. Duke Medical and UNC are great providers so, we do house a lot of soldiers that do need to go up there for a variety of reasons,” shared Clark. “We are the largest program across the entire enterprise around the world.”

This consolidation brings medical services previously spread across the base and at Womack Army Medical Center under one roof to make access and medical processes easier for families.

EFMP Medical will process all enrollments, renewals, disenrollments and overseas travel screenings. EFMP Family support will ensure families have the specialty care they need by gathering and providing community resources and referrals, helping families build their support networks through events and support groups, non-clinical case management, and managing Fort Bragg’s respite care for qualifying families.

The reception area for EFMP medical services. EFMP Medical will process all enrollments, renewals, disenrollments and overseas travel screenings. EFMP Family support will ensure families have the specialty care they need by gathering and providing community resources and referrals, helping families build their support networks through events and support groups, non-clinical case management, and managing Fort Bragg’s respite care for qualifying families.

“Most of our EFMP members are pediatric or adolescent, [and] adolescent care is in the hospital. So it really creates a synergy of what does the ACS side of EFMP offer? What does the EFP medical side offer? And it's the vicinity in which everything is located,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Angela Cox, Womack Army Medical Center CSM. “A lot of people don't realize there's two different parts of EFMP. You have the Army Community Service, which is schools, housing, all the things that maybe special needs family members will need. That's the support that ACS gives. We do all the medical to make sure that they have the clearance, that we have the service that the family member needs are provided at whatever installation that they're going to go to, it 's all there for them.”

Fort Bragg is the first installation in the Department of Defense to co-locate EFMP Medical and EFMP Family Support offices.

“When you have it all consolidated in one space, the efficiency gained and the convenience to the families is the most important thing. Before, they'd have to come over here (to the Soldier Support Center) to EFMP family, and then they had to go to Womack for the medical and there was some confusion,” shared Fort Bragg Garrison Commander Col. Chad Mixon. “It’s a big day. We're the first in the army and I think in the DOD (Department of Defense) to do this.”

To learn more about Fort Bragg’s Exceptional Family Member Program, find them on their Facebook page here and on Instagram here. Watch the full ribbon cutting ceremony here.

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