Photo By Marvin Preston | Andrea Verdino, Joint Base Andrews Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, addresses...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. – Air National Guard Readiness Center and Joint Base Andrews Airmen participated in the first of a two-part Sexual Assault Prevention and Response training April 9 held at the base theater here as part of SAPR mandatory training.
This training provided an opportunity for Airmen to discuss awareness, prevention and ways to care for victims of sexual assault.
“The Secretary of Defense [Aston Carter] has said this will be the number one priority for him as far as what our culture looks like in the United States military,” said Brig Gen. Michael R. Taheri, commander of the ANGRC, who hosted the event. “You’ve heard a lot from leadership in the last couple of years … when people like me stand up in front of you and say we can’t allow this kind of thing to happen and you know all the rules, we are not really going to make a difference until the newest Airman all the way up the most senior officer takes ownership of it.”
Andrea J. Verdino, Joint Base Andrews Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, interacted closely with the audience, acknowledged the innovation of training methods, and how training is being delivered this year.
“I love that we’ve evolved so much in the military that we can talk openly about a difficult topic like sexual assault,” said Verdino. “This year's training material set the stage; it is engaging and allows participants to feel comfortable within their environment to open up. Often participants learn more from each other than from me as the instructor.”
For the past two years, annual SAPR training has been conducted in a “stand-down day” format. The cessation of military activity to deal exclusively with sexual misconduct highlighted the importance Air Force leaders placed on the problem. The part two of training will now take place later in the year, in small group discussions.
“The Air Force’s goal is to generate increased peer-to-peer, commander-to-unit and SARC-to-Airman engagement on the topic of sexual assault prevention throughout the year,” said Capt. Christian Walker, ANG SAPR management analyst. “The limitation of the stand down format was that it only focused Airmen’s attention to the topic once per year. To increase learning and change behavior, training and education must be repeated more frequently. To foster change the annual training format has been modified with the intent to generate continuous dialogue about sexual assault prevention and response within the Air Force community."
Verdino summed up the training event by reminding us that through awareness and empowerment, we can work towards prevention.
“It is very important for our Airmen to be vigilant and look out for themselves as well as their fellow wingman, even outside the topic of sexual assault,” said Verdino. “Taking care of each other requires each and every one of us to uphold the standards of professionalism that the Air Force core values prescribe. We must work together on our prevention efforts and become active bi-standers, we must not be afraid to intervene when we see something that doesn't look or seem right and when an incident does occur we must be there for the victims and do everything in our power to hold offenders accountable for their actions.”
Sexual Assault Response Coordinators and Victim Advocates are available at major Department of Defense installations to assist victims and survivors of sexual assault. The Andrews SARC serves as the single point of contact for integrating and coordinating sexual assault victim (survivor) care 24/7, 365 days a year. The SARC Office is also responsible for providing Sexual Assault Prevention training throughout the installation.
The Department of Defense observes Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month by focusing on creating the appropriate culture to eliminate sexual assault and requiring a personal commitment from all Service members at every level.
| Date Taken: | 04.09.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 04.20.2015 11:26 |
| Story ID: | 160539 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MD, US |
| Web Views: | 74 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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