DoD Recognizes Sexual Assault Prevention Efforts

By Debbie Gregory.

The Department of Defense (DoD) honored groups and individuals from each military component who contributed an innovative idea or approach to positively affect sexual assault prevention.

In June 2014, the DOD Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) Office initiated an annual Sexual Assault Prevention Innovation Award to recognize a group or an individual from each military service who contributed or developed an innovative idea, concept, methodology, or approach to positively impact the SAPR program on an installation, in a deployed environment, or in a reserve component.

The award recognizes service members and DoD civilians whose work in support of service members has been particularly noteworthy.  DoD created these awards to spark creativity and incentivize efforts to address not only sexual assault prevention, but also ideas that enhance overall command climate, officials said.

The 2015 Sexual Assault Prevention Innovation Award awardees are:

— Air Force 17th Training Wing, Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas and Presidio of Monterey, California: Established a five-member team serving two geographically separated locations providing training to promote pro-social behavior called “Dating 101” and expanded their Teal Rope program into multi-service-member peer-to-peer mentorship and trust-building in the community.

— Army Combined Arms Support Command Training and Technology Division, Fort Lee Virginia (Matthew MacLaughlin, Diane Jenkins, Tyler Gross, Christopher Borland, and David Garrison): Developed a template for a mobile application called “We Care” for soldiers of the Combined Arms Support Command, which was made available to all Training and Doctrine Command organizations.

— Marine Corps Combat Service Support Schools, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (Shirley Stephens): Designed the MCCS Dance Battle event using a club-like environment using the theme “Eliminate Sexual Assault. Know Your Part. Do Your Part” to highlight situational context in which the target population would likely be vulnerable. This event increased participants’ awareness and provided tools to intervene.

— Naval Construction Battalion Center, Gulfport, Mississippi (Deborah Brockway, Tammie Holland, Michael Jordy, Capt. Paul Odenthal): The Gulfport team collaborated with local businesses to develop the “Responsible Advertising and Bystander Intervention Training” campaign to provide training for local recreation establishments to identify potentially dangerous situations and intervene.

— National Guard Bureau, Kentucky Army National Guard, Louisville, Kentucky (Sgt. Joshua Kemp): Proactively participated in peer-to-peer mentorship on topics of healthy relationships, responsible drinking, and bystander intervention in social settings. To further the SAPR messaging across the installation, Kemp also developed a DoD Safe Helpline vehicle wrap for the government vehicles that are driven on the installation.

— Coast Guard, Base National Capital Region Headquarters, Washington D.C. (Simone Hall): Established the first and only sexual assault response coordinator Web page in the Coast Guard and regularly publishes sexual assault prevention news articles highlighting prevention efforts such as “Don’t Be an Active Bystander…Intervene, Stop a Sexual Assault.”

Nominees were submitted by each of the military services, the Coast Guard, and the National Guard Bureau. The awards are presented by their respective commands.

Military Connection salutes and proudly serves veterans and service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Guard and Reserve,  and their families.