Photo By Andrew Damstedt | Kim Agnew, Naval Support Activity Bethesda Sexual Assault Response Coordinator Kim...... read more read more
“I was ‘voluntold’ to do it, and that was early when the program came onboard,” said Kim Tobiere-Agnew, NSAB’s sexual assault response coordinator (SARC). “It was one of those things where we need someone to do this and it’s going to be you.”
After retiring from the Air Force, she took a job with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, but didn’t have day-to-day contact with veterans, so she looked for a new job. That search led her to NSAB where she once again began working with sexual assault victims like she did in Germany.
The NSAB sexual assault response programs follow both the Army and Navy guidelines and Tobiere-Agnew has training in both programs. She is assisted by a part-time Navy SARC, Monique Greene, and a full-time Army SARC, Rosemary Galvan.
“We’re constantly coordinating to ensure that we’re providing the proper services to meet the community needs as well as meeting the needs of each service so our victim response is the same no matter the uniform,” Tobiere-Agnew said. “So if the person is in the Army, Navy, Marines – if they call our 24/7 number they’re going to get one of our victim advocates or one of our SARCs.”
The most important thing Tobiere-Agnew wants to get across is that the program focuses on helping the victim. She said she’s seen the program evolve to be focused on the victims since the sexual assault prevention and response program was established by the Department of Defense in 2005.
“One of the greatest things that’s come out in the last two to three years is the victim legal counsel, which is a lawyer who advocates for our members who are victims of sexual assault,” Tobiere-Agnew said.
Another change that’s helped is putting civilians in the SARC role, she said.
“It changes the way a military person looks at the SARC,” Tobiere-Agnew said. “It’s different when I’m in uniform and I’m going to someone else in uniform, and I’m going to report something that’s really drastic that has happened in my life. But when they come in and it’s a civilian, it’s different because you might be able to let go of that military layer.”
The personal interaction and being able to help sexual assault victims is the most rewarding part of her job, she said. Sometimes she doesn’t get as much interaction because of the work done by NSAB’s 43 victim advocates who help handle several of the reported cases.
She said she couldn’t do her job without the help of the installation’s victim advocates who often have the assignment as a collateral duty like she once did.
“When they’re called they’ve already worked a full day’s shift and they’re being called to respond to a sexual assault so the program would definitely not be what it is without the victim advocates,” she said.
Those victim advocates were recognized during an April 5 proclamation and pledge signing to eliminate sexual assault in the military as part of the DoD’s Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.
Tobiere-Agnew says she tries to make herself and the program known to the various commands on NSAB.
“I walk around and ask ‘Do you know who your SARC is?’” she said.
She’ll explain the role of a SARC, which is to oversee the program, but also makes sure people know about the services available to them. She’ll leave them with her information, whether it’s on a poster or a small card they can put with their ID badge with the SARC number (301-442-2053) and Safe Helpline (1-877-995-5247).
She also wants to make sure people know that her office is a safe place, so that is why she purposefully doesn’t take notes when they come in to see her. She stressed that what is shared with her is protected.
“But if I see someone I know who they are or if someone comes into the office and they talk to me and report, and then I go and I walk down Main Street if I see that person I would say hello, but I say hello to everyone I make eye contact with. I will not ask them any questions in public about their case because that is how serious I am about protecting it,” she said.
“I was in uniform and I know what it feels like and [know] that you need to share something that is so personal, you want to be able to trust them.”
| Date Taken: | 04.12.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 04.14.2016 08:01 |
| Story ID: | 195364 |
| Location: | BETHESDA, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 44 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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