As Police Wives we experience emotions that other wives don't; we have fears that other wives don't; we deal with shift changes and periods of single parenting and lonely holidays. Our husbands are often stressed and go through many changes stemming from their careers. It's been said that police wives are the hidden partners and, whether we realize it or not in the beginning, those are big shoes to fill. Our husbands and their on-duty partners receive high quality training 5 days a week for 6 months. We fill our "hidden partners" position with little or no training and, often, very little support.

Are you interested in starting a wives support group for your own department to meet in person locally as well as online but not sure where to start? Here's what we have to offer:

• A complete website, duplicate of the LAPD Wives site, at www.lapdwives.org, with the following customizations:

Choice of background and text colors from many combinations. Customization of Wives Logo to reflect your department's call letters Customization of text on any page and the ability to change text yourself on many of pages. (Please note that for security purposes we use royalty free photos which are not of any of our members.) Forum topics of your choice PayPal links for store setup if you wish to sell "hidden partners" items.

• Use of the slogan, "We are the Hidden Partners,"™ as outlined in the Service Mark License Agreement
• One hour training via telephone for file transfer setup for updates and/or forum moderation.

Pricing:

• $595 one-time fee for complete website and use of "Hidden Partners"™ as outlined in the Service Mark License Agreement.
• $8.99 per month hosting fee to IXWebhosting plus a $20 one time setup fee which is waived if two years hosting is prepaid.
• $8.95 per year for your domain name (www.yourname.org) - free for first year with IXWebhosting

You will be able to make your own changes to news and activities pages through a password protected web interface (very easily.) The forum can also be easily moderated by anyone in your association. If you choose to have daily devotions, they update themselves daily via a javascript with no maintenance.

How can your group come up with $600? Talk to 30 wives in your department who can each put in $20 or 60 who can put in $10. Perhaps your department or community will support you in this endeavor. You may be surprised who'd like to help!

Once your site is up and running, (usually less than 2 weeks) invite all the wives in your department to join your association and to introduce themselves on your private forum. Set up monthly meetings at safe places and rotate bringing refreshments. Plan for the education you've promised. There are many resources around the country, perhaps right in your area, who have offered to speak to wives groups at no cost. We'll be happy to share those resources with you as part of the Hidden Partners™ network.

Our goal is to minimize the hard work of starting your group at a fair price.

Interested? Please email us at info@hiddenpartners.org

“Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly." ~ Unknown