According to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), the total military personnel in 2022 was 2,071,451. Kentucky is eleventh in the country for active-duty service members with approximately 81,000 total military personnel in Kentucky, including active-duty, reserve, and National Guard service members and their families. 

Military families in and beyond Kentucky are supported by a network of providers, programs, and services that support their health, well-being, and readiness. This network of support is known as the Military Family Readiness System (MFRS). The MFRS is strengthened through research-based and evidence-informed programming and resources such as OneOp. 

OneOp is a virtual professional development platform for service providers and educators who serve military families. Since 2012, OneOp (formerly Military Families Learning Network) has served more than 78,000 professionals who have engaged in our live webinars. These participants span a variety of professional scopes of practice including those who work in personal finance, mental health, caregiving, nutrition and wellness, and more. OneOp is a USDA-NIFA funded collaborative between the Department of Defense and Cooperative Extension, housed at Auburn University.

In September 2023, Dr. Nichole Huff, Assistant Extension Professor for Family Finance and Resource Management, became Primary Investigator of the OneOp Personal Finance Collaboration Team (OneOp PF). The focus of OneOp PF, housed within the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, is to strengthen the financial literacy training, counseling capability, and educational background of military Personal Financial Managers (PFMs), Extension educators, and other financial service providers as they support the economic security of service members and their families. Kristen Jowers, Extension Specialist for OneOp with Kentucky FCS Extension, serves as the OneOp PF Project Coordinator.

OneOp PF aims to meet the financial education needs of our audience through timely personal finance programming on topics significant to the military financial readiness. Demonstrating this, OneOp PF has produced seven live webinars ranging from 90 minutes to 120 minutes since Dr. Huff’s tenure, for a total of 11 hours of professional development since September 2023. Webinar topics include student loan repayment, financial well-being, taxes, cost of convenience, personal finance year in review, ethics in personal finance, and professional uses of generative artificial intelligence (AI). Since September 2023, live attendance averaged 131 live participants per webinar. The seven webinars had a total of 2,968 collective views on YouTube, with an average of 424 views per OneOp PF webinar.

OneOp PF uses a variety of metrics to measure impact including continuing education (CE) credits, live attendance, and on-demand views. Since September 2023, OneOp PF has certified 4,396 CE credits to more than 2,900 family and financial service providers. In June 2024, OneOp PF set a new record by certifying 878 CE credits to financial professionals. This is the highest number of CEs certified in a given month since June 2018, beating the previous record of 846 CEs certified in June 2020. 

In addition to webinar development, OneOp PF curated 150 social media posts for X, LinkedIn, and Facebook. OneOp PF authored 15 research-based blog posts, and OneOp PF’s outreach included a presentation and exhibition at the Association for Financial Counseling & Planning Education (AFCPE) 2023 Symposium in New Orleans, Louisiana, and an exhibition at the Department of Defense Office of Financial Readiness 2024 Training Symposium in Omaha, Nebraska. 

Through webinar evaluations, OneOp PF can qualitatively assess impact from participant responses. Below are selected comments across 2023-2024 webinars demonstrating the impact of OneOp PF’s professional development programming:

• "This has been a very informative and beneficial discussion and presentation to help us better understand the complexities of our Federal Student Loan Program."
   
• "Very interesting subject.  We all know the importance of exploring finances as a possible stressor but this gives a framework for exploring the issue beyond just having it listed as a check box on an intake questionnaire."
   
• “This webinar helped me to improve my knowledge and keep me up to date on new and pending tax changes, so that I can share information with clients in an easy to understand manner.” 
   
• “As an employee for a Military & Family Readiness Center, it's important to learn about these trends. I often work with first duty station airman and their spouses and a lot of these trends I see firsthand. I also work with many that are looking to buy homes, cars, and other discretionary items. Having this knowledge of the trends of 2023, will further inform 2024. I can provide them research-backed info on popular financial areas.”