New SAPR strategy focuses on prevention

  • Published
  • By Mark Wyatt
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  Air Force leaders recently released a five-year Sexual Assault Prevention and Response strategy that will guide the Air Force in developing a prevention model while continually honing response capabilities. Hanscom Airmen will begin seeing portions of the prevention strategy in action this coming year.

The secretary, chief of staff and chief master sergeant of the Air Force signed a foreword to the strategy charging all Airmen with the responsibility of preventing sexual assault.

"Sexual assault prevention is critical to the health, morale and welfare of Airmen and ultimately essential to Air Force readiness," said Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James. "This strategy lays out the deliberate, science-based process we will follow to eradicate this crime from our ranks."

Members of the Hanscom Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program feel the strategy is an example of how committed the Air Force is to this issue.

"The Sexual Assault Prevention Strategy uses education, training, policies and programs to provide all Airmen at Team Hanscom - military and civilian - the skills necessary to realize an Air Force free from sexual assault," said Jersouk Myers, Hanscom's sexual assault response coordinator.

To assist with the implementation of this new strategy, Hanscom will hire a prevention specialist in 2016.

"My role as Hanscom's sexual assault response coordinator has been to teach prevention strategies, as well as be reactive to victims of sexual assaults," said Myers. "With the addition of this new position, which will be separate from the SAPR office, I will now be able to focus on the reactive component, while the prevention specialist's role will be focused on the proactive component."

She added that the prevention specialist will train Airmen in expected positive behaviors, how to mitigate negative behaviors and how to intervene when necessary.

"It's really segmenting these two proactive and reactive roles so they are not together under one overarching SAPR office," said Myers. "Through the addition of the prevention specialist, we are clearly defining the need for a more proactive approach to promoting healthier relationships and healthier environments."

The strategy lays out the sexual assault prevention tenets: preventing violence before it occurs; preventing perpetration; promoting prevention at every level; and providing ongoing prevention activities that reflect the unique roles and development of each Airman.

"The tenets provide additional structure to what the Air Force has already been promoting and teaching," she said. "Enhanced developmental education and training will be tailored to address populations at Hanscom and the specific behaviors of individuals, groups and cultures here."

In line with the Defense Department strategy published in April 2014, the Air Force strategy promotes a comprehensive prevention approach that ensures prevention messages and skills are consistent and reinforced across the different environments in which an Airman may live and work.

According to the strategy, a key long-term objective of SAPR programs is to provide every Airman with standardized developmental education and training throughout their career, strengthening the Air Force culture of dignity and respect and sustaining an environment inhospitable to sexual assault perpetrators.

"This program is a reinforcement of what we are doing now and the culture that we already promote of zero tolerance when it comes to sexual assault," Myers said. "This includes teaching one another how best to respond [to a victim], how not to just be bystanders and how to intervene when appropriate."

She explains that the strategy document defines factors that put an individual at risk for assault, including having had previous unhealthy experiences, personal beliefs or relationships. It also outlines a plan to tailor training to address risk factors in every setting.

"Everyone comes from different backgrounds and life experiences," Myers said. "As a SAPR community we must take that into consideration."

The Air Force SAPR office is working with a contracted prevention training company, "Green Dot," to tailor the company's training to address specific populations and behaviors of individuals, groups and cultures within the Air Force.

"Sexual assault has a direct impact on our Airmen and our mission. Our Airmen deserve to carry out our vital missions in an environment where they are treated with respect and dignity," James said. "We will not stop looking for ways to improve until we have an Air Force free from sexual assault."

(Editor's note: Portions of this article were taken from a Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs article)