Interview with Kathy Roth-Douquet, CEO, Blue Star Families

We first started working with Blue Star Families and its CEO, Kathy Roth-Douquet in the summer of 2022. At the Franchise Action Network meeting, we packed 200 welcome kits to support their Welcome Week initiative with the support of franchise brands such as Papa John’s, SportClips, The UPS Store, Schlotzsky’s, Mosquito Joe’s, Moran Family Brands, Rita’s Custard, and more. At the IFA Annual Convention, we’ll once again be packing envelopes and distributing them not only to Blue Star Families, but to other nonprofits who share our mission of advancing opportunities for Veterans and diverse communities.

Get to know Kathy and the mission of one of our national partners, Blue Star Families.

Q. As the CEO and co-founder of Blue Star Families, what is your proudest achievement?

A. Raising the nation’s awareness about military families and their experiences. When we started Blue Star Families in 2009, around the height of the Iraq War, few people thought about the sacrifices military families on the homefront were making while their service members were deployed. They didn’t know that despite all of these protective factors military families had – stable income, free healthcare, a housing stipend, etc. – that many were really struggling. In many meetings, I found that most of my job was to say “and military families” after someone mentioned the need to support service members and Veterans.

In order to tell that story, we needed data, so we launched our annual Military Family Lifestyle Survey which provided the first glimpse into military family life. And we’ve been using our research to tell military families’ stories, educating policy makers and leaders ever since!

In the past 14 years we’ve shed light on the breadth and effects of chronic military spouse unemployment, which is now an issue of nationwide concern. We’ve collected the first data available on food insecurity among military families and elevated this issue through Congressional testimony and through conversations with the Department of Defense and White House. And we underscored that many military families don’t feel a sense of belonging to the communities where they live and serve, and launched Chapters and our Blue Star Welcome Week campaign to help solve this problem.

Today, when I go to a conference or hear a policy maker speak, I never need to say “and military families” anymore. When a military family moves to a new community, more of their non-military neighbors are aware of and respect their military service and acknowledge the sacrifice the family makes. More researchers and organizations are actively seeking to understand and address the needs of military family members – including spouses and children. I’m proud of that.

Q. We were so proud to begin our partnership with you at last year’s IFA Annual Convention, and then again at the Annual Leadership Convention for Blue Star Welcome Week. The kits we built were distributed to families across the country. What do you see as the value of a partnership with the International Franchise Association Foundation?

A. Blue Star Families is all about community. Working with the IFA Foundation has been an incredible opportunity to reach community partners where military families live, creating relationships and partnerships that make our constituents feel more welcome and included in their communities. We’ve had productive partnerships with Schlotzky’s, Papa Johns, and more, and welcome new partners who want to join this journey with us.

Q. Many organizations, including ours, have begun recognizing the importance of not only employing Veterans, but assisting military spouses. What more can be done, and how can franchises get involved?

We are thrilled to see so many employers and industry leaders recognizing the importance of supporting military spouses in their employment journey. Military spouses are unemployed at 3-4 times the rate of their civilian peers – a number which has not significantly changed in over a decade.

Franchises are in a great position to help alleviate this issue and Blue Star Families is here to provide access, consultation, and research to support you.

1. Partner with us! Blue Star Families has nearly 250,000 members, most of whom are military spouses. By tapping into our membership you may find future franchisees, employees, and customers.

2. Use Blue Star Families research to inform your military spouse hiring efforts!
   Our research suggests that simple steps, such as adding a voluntary military spouse identifier to your job application to ensure that their resumes are not inadvertently screened out by computer algorithms, or reviewing your website to demonstrate you have a military spouse friendly work environment are grounded in our research.

   While lateral job moves every couple of years may be a red flag for most applicants, they are commonplace among military spouses, who move every 2-3 years. You may be looking at a candidate who is chronically underemployed and would be a huge asset to your team! We also know from our research that military spouses may not choose to disclose their military affiliation based on how open they perceive the employer to be to hiring them.

3. Sign-up to participate in our Employer Focus Groups! Blue Star Families is interviewing employers as part of a multi-year, longitudinal study to understand what policies, practices, and programs successfully promote military spouse employment.

To contribute to IFA Foundation’s 2023 Giving Back initiative supporting impactful groups like Blue Star Families, please reach out to Ashley Mancheni at amancheni@franchise.org.