Airmen will take the first step of a five-year strategy to
decrease interpersonal violence across the service in January when 1,500 Airman
implementers attend one of 22 Green Dot prep sessions worldwide.
The Air Force contracted the non-profit Green Dot
organization to provide these violence prevention tools to the total Air Force
over the next three years.
“As a service, our number one priority has and will continue
to be response. However, in order to stop violence before it occurs we must
dedicate time to prevention,” said Chief Master Sgt. Melanie Noel, Air Force
Sexual Assault Prevention and Response senior enlisted advisor. “Helping our
Airmen understand what they can do to prevent violence and how they can do it is
the first step.”
Green Dot prepares organizations to implement a strategy of
violence prevention that reduces power-based interpersonal violence, which
includes not only sexual violence, but also domestic violence, dating violence,
stalking, child abuse, elder abuse and bullying.
“Green Dot is the Air Force’s first step in arming Airmen
for violence prevention using an evidence based public health model,” said Dr.
Andra Tharp, Air Force prevention expert. “Although that sounds complicated,
really what it means is that we know Airmen are a vital part of the solution
and we will use methods like this that have been subjected to rigorous
scientific testing and were proven to be effective in reducing violence.”
Reflective of Green Dot’s wider scope, command-designated
Airmen at each installation will conduct 50-minute long sessions across the Air
Force. Installation leadership will also have oversight of Green Dot through
the Community Action Information Board and Integrated Delivery System and track
completion through the Advanced Distributed Learning System.
“It’s on all of us to take responsibility to prevent
interpersonal violence in our Air Force,” said Brig. Gen. Lenny Richoux, Air
Force CAIB chair. “There are more good Airmen out there who want to take care
of their wingman than there are predators seeking to inflict acts of violence
inside our family and I have confidence our Airmen won’t let me or each other
stand-alone against this criminal behavior.”
The 1,500 Airman implementers will complete training by
March 2016. They will return to their units to train peer leader Airmen at each
base followed by training for all Airmen.
“Taking care of one another requires an integrated approach
using the expertise of the medical community, sexual assault prevention and the
Profession of Arms Center of Excellence,” Richoux said. “Old-school analog
leadership from commanders and supervisors and between Airmen is the key to our
success.”