Green Dot training gives Airmen tools to prevent violence and sexual abuse

About 100 program implementers wrapped up Green Dot training at Joint Base San Antonio–Lackland Feb. 25 as part of the Air Force's newly implemented violence and abuse prevention initiative.

These implementers, along with 1,400 other Airmen who have attended 22 Green Dot prep sessions worldwide, are on the front lines of a five-year strategy to decrease interpersonal violence across the Air Force.

This program isn’t the first step the Air Force has taken to address issues of sexual abuse and violence, but it is the most promising one so far, said Steven B. Mayfield, Air Force Personnel Center, Directorate of Airmen and Family Care community readiness analyst.

"The goal here is to curb instances of violence, sexual abuse, assault, things of that nature that are occurring within the Air Force,” Mayfield explained. "We've had a number of programs to address these issues - some with a modicum of success - but this is a new initiative, a new tool to put in our toolbox to address these violence-related issues."

Green Dot training is built on a grassroots, or ground-up, method of decreasing instances of violence.

In this initiative, program implementers use a mapping system of green and red dots to keep track of positive and negative actions at each installation.

Green dots represent positive actions and behaviors of every Airman – as opposed to top-down actions from leadership - who are trying to correct and intervene in negative situations, such as stalking and domestic or sexual violence.

Red dots, on the other hand, represent negative actions. From there, the program simply aims to increase the ratio of green dots to red ones, according the Green Dot website.

During fiscal year 2016, most Airmen will get about 50 minutes of training, while about 10-15 percent will receive four hours of Green Dot training, as mandated by the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office because this new curriculum will now fulfill the annual SAPR training requirement.

This training will consist mostly of group discussion and a variety of interactive scenarios where Airmen learn how to identify and stop abuse.

This time requirement actually represents a decreased training load across the board compared to SAPR requirements from fiscal year 2015, Mayfield said.

"This is a different approach -- it's not death by PowerPoint, and it's really more about trying to get community involvement,” Mayfield noted. “We’re having everybody recognize that they play both an individual and collective role in intervening and addressing violence-related issues."

That’s what makes the Green Dot effective: emphasis on small but vital action from the ground up, rather than the top down, Mayfield said.

"In the Air Force, we talk about wingmen concepts and taking care of our wingman,” he explained. “This program coincides with that.”

Master Sgt. LaTonya Parker, 802nd FSS MPS superintendent, is one of many program implementers who will be tasked with bringing the Green Dot’s message to their respective units.

"The biggest piece for me is to help bystanders know how to intervene,” she explained. "People see things that happen all the time and they don't really know how to interact. This training will help people know what to say and what to do, whether it's in a dorm room, workplace, movie theater or in any kind of environment. This will help the individual know how to react."

Essie Whitworth Nurse, JBSA community support coordinator and violence prevention strategist, compared the Green Dot program to a public health model for innoculation.

"We're training implementers who go talk to their section.” Nurse said. “Eventually, you reach everyone and the disease stops growing. The message of Green Dot, that everyone can intervene, is a message you can take anywhere. That's how we give you the 'vaccination.'"

Even Airmen who don’t experience these problems can recognize how they affect the Air Force’s mission to fly, fight and win, Nurse said.

"In order for us to be ready, we have to stamp out anything that's causing an issue that keeps us from meeting that mission, and this kind of violence keeps us from being mission-ready,” she concluded. "The programs we've implemented in the past haven't gotten us to zero. Domestic violence, suicide, sexual assault and workplace violence all still have statistics. We have to get these to zero."