Photo By Tech. Sgt. James Hodgman | Tech. Sgt. Quintina Tatum, 60th Dental Squadron dental technician from Dallas, Texas,...... read more read more
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Interpersonal violence is a problem in the United States.
Statistics show on average, 20 people every minute are physically abused by an intimate partner, more than six million people are stalked by someone each year and one out of every six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.
According to the 60th Security Forces Squadron, 17 sexual assaults were reported along with 29 domestic disturbances between January 2015 and September 2016 at Travis Air Force Base, California. The total number of assaults reported during this time period was 66 and victims ranged in age from 1 to 90.
Travis is using a new program to prevent violent incidents at the base and hopefully, across the Air Force.
Green Dot training is an interactive experience focused on providing tools to prevent power-based personal violence including sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, child abuse and bullying.
Tech. Sgt. Quintina Tatum, 60th Dental Squadron technician and a certified Green Dot instructor, presented her 10th training class to 40 Airmen Sept. 6 at Travis.
“Too many of our Airmen are being hurt by interpersonal violence, including sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, as well as stalking behavior,” she said. “To prevent this violence we have to change the way we think.”
Tatum displayed a map of Travis covered in red dots.
“These red dots are not fictitious, they’re not made up, they represent real situations where individuals made decisions to hurt someone,” said Tatum. “Each dot represents a moment when someone decided to hit another person, decided to show up unwanted outside of someone’s home or car, or decided to engage in sexual contact without consent.”
Now, imagine the map is covered in green dots, she said.
A reactive green dot is the opposite of a red dot. Green dots represent moments when someone decides to use his or her words and behavior to reduce the likelihood of inter-personal violence from taking place.
“A reactive green dot is someone who decides to get involved and do something when he or she sees something alarming, it’s that moment when a person walks someone to their car in the middle of the night or when someone provides a ride home to a friend after a night of drinking,” said Tatum.
“When green dots outnumber red dots we can reduce the amount of power-based personal violence on our installation, in our service and across the DOD,” added Tatum.
Staff Sgt. Matthew Edwards, 60th Maintenance Group electrical and environmental journeyman, said he enjoyed the training and plans to share what he learned with his Airmen.
“We need to be proactive and green dot training provides us with tools to help prevent violent things from happening,” said Edwards. “The class also focused on the positive aspects of those situations and encourages Airmen to prevent violent acts by getting involved in any way they can.”
During the class, which included real-world scenarios and group activities, Tatum, a former corrections officer, provided numerous ways Airmen could prevent violence.
One of her favorite prevention methods she said, is the 3 Ds; direct, delegate, distract.
“We all have barriers to getting involved in a particular situation and whether someone has a personal, organizational or relationship barrier, the 3 Ds can help them apply a tool they can use to prevent inter-personal violence,” said Tatum.
With direct involvement Airmen take some form of decisive and immediate action to prevent violence such as escorting someone out of a possibly threatening situation or confronting a threatening individual.
For those less fond of direct confrontation, delegation or distraction are quality alternatives.
“Some people are shy, or timid or just not comfortable getting directly involved in a potentially violent situation,” said Tatum. “If that’s the case, delegation is a great tool to use. If you’re out shopping and you see something that concerns you, notify a store manager or employee and ask that person to get involved.”
“You can also create a variety of distractions to prevent violence such as honking the car horn, initiating your car alarm, making a noise or creating some type of diversion that draws attention away from the potential violent incident,” added Tatum.
Master Sgt. Shawn Delang, 60th MXG Development and Instruction Element NCO in-charge, said it is vital Airmen look out for one another.
“We have to take care of our Airmen and our families and apply the same principle we apply in maintenance with our jets,” said Delang.
“After work is completed on every aircraft, we ask the maintainers who performed the work if they would be comfortable putting their families on those jets,” said Delang. “If you see something that concerns you, and you don’t take action, would you be comfortable with that decision if that person was your wife or girlfriend?”
To date, 4,376 active-duty Airmen have completed Green Dot training at Travis. The base hopes to have all service members and civilian employees trained by December 31.
| Date Taken: | 09.09.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 09.19.2016 11:20 |
| Story ID: | 209956 |
| Location: | TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, CA, US |
| Hometown: | DALLAS, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 98 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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