EAST HARTFORD, Conn.–Defense Contract Management Agencyoffices incentral Connecticutwrapped upApril’sSexual Assault Awareness and PreventionMonthactivitieswith awalkto raise awarenessApril 29.
Inspired byvictimadvocatesfrom across the agency’s global workforce, employeesfrom DCMA Aircraft PropulsionOperationsPratt&WhitneyandDCMANortheast joinedforces tohost60 of their colleaguesfor the event.
DCMA’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, or SAPR,program is designed toaddresssexual assault,preventionandresponse procedures.Additionally, theprogramraisesawareness.
“Our first awareness walk in 2019 was around the outside of the Pratt&Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut.We asked participants to attend instructor-led SAPR training, sign a pledgeand walk around the stadium as a show of support for sexual assault victims,” said BrendaKoboski,amanufacturingand programs supervisor for DCMAAPOPratt&Whitney.
Koboski,a victim advocate for more thansevenyears, began planningreoccurringSAPR activitiesfive years agowith hercolleagueJacky Forcucci, a contract administrator withDCMA Northeast.
Over the years, theykeptactivitiesfreshand relevant, which ishow the awareness walks moved from the stadiumlooptowalking trails by the Connecticut River.
Theyalignedwithlocalcommunitygroupswith similar goals for ideas and presentations.
“When Brendainvited theConnecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence,I felt it was a great opportunity to connect our workforce to community resources that are available to them andaresimilarly aligned to the SAPR program,”said Forcucci.“The groupis a statewide alliance of individual sexual assault crisis programs.”
Forcucci saidby co-hosting trainingand awarenesseventsin April, theycapitalize on the national campaign messaging goals.
Whilethe end of Aprilmarks the end of the national awareness campaign,the pair of advocatesstill spend the rest of the year supportingformaltrainingmoduleswithinsupervisory trainingclasses atDCMA.
“BetweenBrenda, myself and the agency’sSAPR Programtrainingevents,we have combined efforts to train more than 700DCMA employees,” said Forcucci.
Such work, she said,demonstratesthe agency’scommitmentto confrontingandeliminatingsexual assault.