MyVoice is in direct response to reports released in the fall of 2013 by the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Ombudsman and Chief Review Services. “We as an organization recognize that we need to do a better job listening to families and we need to communicate more with them.” LGen David Millar, Chief of Military Personnel, 2013.
Your thoughts and feedback are important to us. Our accountability to you as military family members is to listen to your concern, direct your concern to the appropriate stakeholder (other department or chain of command) when required and to report back to you, and families in general, about how we are addressing the issues of concern to families. MyVoice is moderated by supportive MFS staff. Every day one of us will ask group members a question about your unique military family experience. Sometimes the questions are in the form of a poll, a video or a meme. Maybe we’ll initiate a conversation about health care, operational separation, spousal employment, recreation or mental health.
An MFS staff member monitors the page all day and may engage in conversation with you, to inform you of MFS or community partner resources, programs and services you may be unaware of. Once a week the MFS MyVoice Feedback Team reviews all the comments and answers you leave. Every single one. Then, your feedback is directed to the appropriate stakeholders, including Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) leadership and community partners. Your feedback is important because it helps us to improve the Military Family Services Program (MFSP). It keeps CAF leadership and policy makers informed about how military family services are impacting your family.
Remember, we work in a large bureaucracy and forward movement can take time, but we will answer your questions as soon as possible and post the results of your feedback on the MyVoice Facebook page, under files and on this website.
Your thoughts and feedback are important to us. Our accountability to you as military family members is to listen to your comments, direct your feedback to the appropriate stakeholders including leadership and partners when required and to report back to you, and families in general, about how we are addressing the issues of concern to families.
In return, we ask for your acknowledgment that we work within a large, government bureaucracy that can often take some time to either address an issue, or make its way through the appropriate channels. In some cases, there are technical issues or simply volume of work that slows down the process, beyond our span of control. Issues may also fall outside our area of responsibility completely, or may even lie within another government department, fall within provincial or municipal legislation, or with another service partner.
The anticipated timelines put forward by MyVoice in no way reflect the seriousness or complexity of the issue you have raised. Please know that we are committed to you and want to respect the anticipated timelines we've set out to achieve as closely as possible.
Confidentiality and anonymity are critical to the way we gather feedback from military families on MyVoice. Here is a breakdown of the various ways to submit your feedback:
Note that all forms of communication on MyVoice are confidential and anonymous, with the exception of Facebook. While the MyVoice Facebook Group is a Closed Group and thus restricts membership, Facebook Groups are not by nature a confidential forum. We have therefore pinned a note on Facebook Group, noting that if a Group Member has a confidential topic to discuss, they should use another point of contact, such as the Family Information Line (FIL).
