Photo By Master Sgt. Joseph Harwood | 179th Airlift Wing Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, Capt. Becky English, plays a...... read more read more
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MANSFIELD, Ohio – 20 professionals representing various agencies within the Richland County community joined with the 179th Airlift Wing Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office as they gathered for the Richland County Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Collaborative quarterly meeting, held this time at the 179th Airlift Wing, Mansfield, Ohio. Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, Capt. Becky English hosted this edition of the meeting to give the military perspective of these issues that can plague everyone in any community.
The Department of Defense addresses the issues of domestic violence and sexual assault within in its ranks with a dedicated team in each service branch that educates service members to be proactive in prevention, identification of warning signs of abuse and urges members to feel comfortable in the reporting process to address issues. A great deal of emphasis is put on understanding all of the available resources to seek help.
“As the SARC, I attend these quarterly meetings and we share statistics and products that we use across our shared career field, each of us bringing a unique perspective to these familiar issues,” said English, “This time I chose to share a really unique product called ‘I am…’, a spoken word video written by a U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Edward Wilson, who acted in this product for the Army program, known as SHARP (Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention). The message is strong, even uncomfortable, and can be applied outside of the Army and impactful in any room.”
The group dimmed the lights and viewed the video on a large projector. The man in the black and white low light video personified the dark mentality of a perpetrator. He effectively sought to make the room uncomfortable. His words were poetically strewn together as an aggressive spotlight on the problem. Using every day examples of missed warning signs and blind eyes turned on the subject he sought to make everyone accountable for our culture.
Carl Anderson, City of Mansfield Law Director’s Office, said “I thought the video was awesome, a completely different and impactful approach to the topic than I’ve seen from other agencies.”
The Richland County Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Collaborative consisted of representatives from the Richland County Prosecutor’s Office, City of Mansfield Law Director’s Office, Mansfield Police Department, Domestic Violence Shelter, Richland County Sheriff’s Department, Ohio Health Mansfield Forensic Department, Ohio State Mansfield Campus as well as a representative of Shared Hope International, a non-profit group that focuses on human trafficking.
“I’m so grateful to be here among these different organizations with a common goal,” said Susi Maiyer, Ambassador of Shared Hope International, “I truly believe that the issues we face in all of our organizations are all tied in some way, and it must be attacked from all angles, including generational changes in culture and educating our youth.”
Many of them echoed that shared sentiment, to educate our youth as young as possible. Dakota Stone of the Domestic Violence Shelter spoke of programs where they speak at schools about the dating age but acknowledged it may be helpful to speak to them even younger. The collaborative group tossed about ideas of organizing events that could impact how our youth are educated today and fundamentally change the way the next generation thinks about acceptable behavior. This effort would be in line with the groups’ slogan, ‘Richland County says NO MORE. Together we can end domestic violence and sexual assault.’
English said, “Our next quarterly meeting is April, which is the national awareness month promoting the message that each of us has to take responsibility to change our culture and enact real progress to end domestic violence and sexual assault, not only in our military but in our community.”
The ‘I am…” video by 28th Public Affairs Detachment is public domain and can viewed and shared from Defense Video Imagery Distribution System website: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/568988/am
| Date Taken: | 01.26.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 01.26.2018 12:10 |
| Story ID: | 263384 |
| Location: | MANSFIELD, OHIO, US |
| Web Views: | 225 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, 179th Airlift Wing hosts Richland County Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Collaborative, by MSgt Joseph Harwood, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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