Joining Forces

[1] The creation of the Joining Forces program was announced at The White House on April 12, 2011, by Michelle Obama and Jill Biden.

[3] In that vein, Michelle Obama made a number of high-profile, general-audience television appearances to speak in behalf of Joining Forces and its goals.

Six months after it began, an analysis in Time magazine was skeptical that it was achieving much, although the White House pushed back and listed specific areas where the initiative was in position to make gains.

[5] Over time, the most concrete results came in the employment sphere, as Joining Forces secured some 1¼ million commitments from corporations to hire military spouses.

[7] When Jill Biden came back to the White House in January 2021, this time as First Lady, the Joining Forces program was restarted.

Then Second Lady Jill Biden and First Lady Michelle Obama speak about the newly created Joining Forces initiative, 2011
Jill Biden speaks at a Joining Forces event in 2012 about preparing educators to lead classrooms that are more responsive to the social, emotional, and academic needs of military children, as U.S. Army General Ray Odierno looks on
Deputy director (and future executive director) Rory Brosius, 2015