Relevance

Kentucky ranks eleventh in the country for active-duty service members, with approximately 44,000 total military personnel across the state, including active-duty, Reserve, and National Guard members. This number does not include military spouses or dependents, or the more than 295,000 Veterans residing across the Commonwealth.^{1, 2}

Military families in and beyond Kentucky are supported by the Military Family Readiness System (MFRS), which is “a network of services operated by the Defense Department and other federal, state and community-based organizations that promote military family well-being. These services enhance military family readiness, resilience and quality of life by supporting career, social, financial, health and community engagement.”³ The MFRS is strengthened through research- and evidence-based programs such as OneOp, an online platform for professionals who serve military families.⁴ OneOp is a multidisciplinary collaborative between the U.S. Department of Defense and Cooperative Extension Service, funded by USDA-NIFA. The primary award is held at Auburn University, with subawards at eight universities across the U.S., including the University of Kentucky. 

The OneOp Personal Finance Collaboration Team, housed in FCS Extension at the University of Kentucky, is led by Dr. Nichole Huff (PI), Assistant Extension Professor for Family Finance and Resource Management, and Kristen Jowers, Extension Specialist for OneOp. The Personal Finance team aims to strengthen the financial literacy, counseling capability, and educational background of military Personal Financial Managers (PFMs) and Counselors (PFCs), Extension educators, and other financial service providers as they support the economic security of service members and their families.

Response

To achieve these goals, the Personal Finance team worked with Department of Defense and national subject matter experts to produce 14.5 hours of certified professional development programming from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025, including nine national webinars and one asynchronous course. Webinar topics included flexible spending accounts, 529 plans, domestic financial abuse, debt management, tax updates, financial recovery capital, and more. Additionally, the Personal Finance team developed the 2024 Military Family Readiness Academy course, Foundations of Military Family Financial Readiness; published 19 national blogs and an academic journal article in the Journal of Personal Finance; and recorded two national podcasts.

Results

OneOp uses a variety of metrics to measure impact, including continuing education (CE) credits, live attendance, and on-demand views. In this reporting year, the Personal Finance Collaboration Team certified 3,475.5 CE credits across all programming areas to more than 2,317 military service providers. Live attendance averaged 144 participants per webinar (total live attendance across webinars was 1,154). Additionally, the Personal Finance webinars had a total of 2,753 collective views on YouTube, with an average of 306 views per webinar. 

Highlights 

The webinar with the most CE credits (451.5 CEs) and YouTube (862 views) was Flexible Spending Accounts: A Tax-Advantaged Way to Pay for Expenses. The webinar with the highest live attendance (210 participants) was Financial Abuse is Domestic Abuse: Equipping Service Providers to Support Victims. 

In 2025, OneOp began a new evaluation process to capture self-reported increases in participants’ knowledge, skills, and intentions to make changes to their work. Notably, the webinar Building Recovery Capital with Military Families (presented by University of Kentucky Extension faculty Drs. Alex Elswick and Nichole Huff) received the highest percentage of participants who gained new skills (91%) and the highest percentage of participants who learned about new resources (93%). The webinar, Leveraging PowerPay: An Extension tool for Debt Management, had the highest percentage of those who intend to make changes to their work (83%) as a result of their participation in the webinar. 

In addition to webinar development, the team’s deliverables included: (1) two podcasts with a combined reach of 1,588 listeners; (2) 143 social media posts for X, LinkedIn, and Facebook; and (3) 19 research-based blog posts, with more than 2,342 views.

Finally, Huff and Jowers presented their work at national academic conferences including the Association for Financial Counseling & Planning Education (AFCPE) Symposium in Columbus, Ohio, and the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) conference in Seattle, WA; as well as at the 2025 Kentucky State Extension Conference in Louisville, KY. 

Public Value Statement

By enhancing the knowledge and skills of professionals who support military families, OneOp strengthens the Military Family Readiness System, ensuring service members and their families have access to informed support that promotes long-term financial well-being and mission readiness.

References

1. U.S. Department of Defense. (2024). 2023 Demographics profile of the military community. Defense Manpower Data Center. https://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2023-demographics-report.pdf
2. Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs. (2024). Serving Veterans in the Commonwealth. https://veterans.ky.gov/
3. U.S. Department of Defense. (2024). Military Family Readiness System. https://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Factsheets/Relo-FactSheet-MilitaryFamilyReadinessSystem.pdf
4. https://oneop.org/