Congress has approved $5 million to expand nationwide a University of North Carolina program connecting the families of deployed National Guard and Reserve soldiers with local community aid programs.

The demonstration project, started by a vice chancellor and social work professor at the university in Chapel Hill, pays for community liaisons throughout the state to draw on university resources and experts that help communities adapt and enhance local programs for families of citizen-soldiers.

The programs include healthcare and daycare assistance, household maintenance and car repair service and help with transportation issues. They are meant to complement direct services that the National Guard and Defense Department already provide these families.

Congress spent $1.8 million in 2005 to develop the program, called the Citizen-Soldier Support Program, and $3 million in fiscal 2006 to expand the program statewide.

The $5 million approved last week will pay for a national technical training and assistance center.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 360,000 Guard and Reserve soldiers have been mobilized for missions abroad and at home, including assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan and along the U.S. Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. At least 33,600 have been mobilized more than once.