Ideas for developing the Trailing Spouse Network

When someone is heading to a particular city as a Trailing Spouse, they ideally want to ‘tap into’ all available networks in that city/region. Not just internet sites but networks of people. We can all do that using the broader internet to find resources related to the city or region but as you know this can be extremely daunting and time consuming, with no guarantee that you will discover all of the available resources. The idea of a map based portal that takes you to a place that has all the things you need is worthy goal but most sites I’ve seen that attempt this fall short. Have you seen this site? http://www.expatwomen.com

One concern that I have with this model is the burden of initially creating then maintaining the content. A model that I’ve considered on this front and would like to pursue is to assign people as Network Leaders in each of the cities. To articulate things better, what I’m ideally trying to develop is a network of people supported by a web site. Not the other way around as most sites I’ve seen. i.e. if a city doesn’t have a Network Leader it can’t be supported on the site, so the motivation is to attract a Network Leader. A similar model to this is About.com and their ‘Guides’ for each subject area, http://beaguide.about.com/topics.htm

I regularly search Trailing Spouse articles and the News section on my main site is intended to present those. http://www.ausmerica.com/tsn/content/section/1/2/ This section can contain original articles written for the site or a synopsis and a link to external items.

I have seen articles on the subject of US based Trailing Spouses but I’ve noticed the same expat flavor to most information. I’m not sure why. I’ve heard comments that the TS issue has been around for many years however it has only become recognized since male spouses have entered the fold. There maybe some truth to that but still the majority (93%) of Trailing Spouses are female. In a detailed study of Trailing Spouses conducted between 2001 – 2004 the Dual Career issue is cited as the biggest challenge. Most spouses work, or want to work (many need to work) so having to leave a job to relocate is a major obstacle. This is a greater challenge for overseas moves for several reasons compared with a US based move. Relatively speaking, it’s easier to get a job in Anywhere USA than it is to find one overseas where language, culture, work-permits and a multitude of other issues add to the woes. I’m not at all under stating the difficulties of a Trailing Spouse move within the USA but I’m just thinking as I type, trying to understand why this issue is much more prominent in the expat world.

To your last point; How much do I wish to encompass? My goal is to create a network of people that can provide peer assistance. Take the situation where someone is moving out of one city to another. Firstly this may create a job opportunity for someone else who maybe considering moving there. With a dynamic network (of people) in place you can reach-out to the network in the region you are moving to. In turn this network is supported by the web site and detailing other resources. Although I’ve limited my subject matter to work and employment, all parts of the puzzle are important. I think the discussions and resources on work aspects however need to be kept separate from the family aspects but there is certainly a place for them.