SAPR wins AMC-level award

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Abigail Klein
  • 22nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --  With more than 500 sexual assaults reported in 2009 Air Force-wide, and one rape occurring at least every 2.9 minutes nationwide, the mission of the 22nd Air Refueling Wing's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program is to not only protect its Airmen from these attacks--it's also meant to educate them.

In the past year at McConnell, events such as "Happy Hour," "Remote Control" and "Sex Signals" delivered the SAPR message of sexual assault prevention, bystander intervention and personal safety in an entertaining and creative way to help Airmen absorb the SAPR message.

"We are always trying to find new and interesting ways to encourage our Airmen to think about prevention, consent and safety using a variety of methods," said Lynn Emond, 22nd ARW Sexual Assault Response Coordinator.

These efforts, along with many other services the SAPR Program provides behind the scenes, allowed the McConnell SAPR Program to achieve the 2010 Air Mobility Command SAPR Program of The Year Award for the first time. The award recognizes the SAPR Program and what all its elements do for McConnell and AMC.

"We were excited for the team primarily because sexual assault is a very serious issue, and the victim advocates that assist with this program perform a lot of hard work that is really valuable and all voluntary," said Ms. Emond "For the Victim Advocates to get recognized and receive that recognition is really exciting for us."

McConnell's SAPR Program has 28 Victim Advocates that are active duty or civilian members. After the SARC is notified of a reported sexual assault, the victim advocates immediately assist assault survivors in making a determination about whether or not to receive a sexual assault forensic examination, as well as the options for making a restricted or unrestricted report.

"It's a whole program award, which includes our 28 victim advocates, Lynn and myself," said Vickie Hayden, 22nd ARW SAPR Program Assistant and Victim Advocate. "We've accomplished it as a group."

In addition to the active victim advocates, Ms. Hayden and Emond credit the program's involvement with the local community as a factor in their program being recognized.

"We are extremely involved in community outreach on base and in the Wichita community," said Ms. Emond. "We work closely with the Wichita Area Sexual Assault Center, and serve on the Wichita Sedgwick County Domestic Violence Coalition."

The SAPR program's involvement with these programs has included helping community events like the annual "Champions of Respect" event in October, and "Take Back the Night" event held in April during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

The extensive training that the victim advocates are required to attend as part of McConnell's SAPR Program was also credited by Ms. Emond as a contributing factor to the award.

"The AFI only requires victim advocates to obtain 40 hours of training initially, and then one hour each year after that," said Ms. Emond. "That's not enough, and to keep our victim advocates more up to speed, we provide them with monthly training opportunities."

After winning the award, the SAPR Program shows no intent of slowing their program or event schedules.

"We continue to find new ways to be involved in the community and find more public speakers to keep victim advocates active and engaged," said Ms. Emond.

Some of the new programs planned for 2011 include speakers to help perform first responder training to McConnell members, and other interactive presentations similar to "Remote Control."

The SAPR office is also currently facilitating Bystander Intervention Training for McConnell's more than 5,000 active duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian members.

If an Airmen is interested in becoming a victim advocate, and is active duty or on active status or a DOD civilian employee, he or she is encouraged to call the SAPR office at (316) 759-1872. If anyone is aware of a sexual assault or is a victim, he or she should contact the SAPR Hotline immediately at (316) 759-4357 (HELP).