Photo By Lt. Col. Andy Thaggard | Sgt. 1st Class Philena E. Perdue was named the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2023...... read more read more
Fort Novosel’s own Sgt. 1st Class Philena E. Perdue was named the Department of Defense 2023 Liz Blanc Exceptional Sexual Assault Response Coordinator of the Year for the U.S. Army in a ceremony at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, May 11, 2023.
Perdue, who serves as the 1st Aviation Brigade Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, was lauded for her efforts from January-December 2022 to create an environment where people feel more comfortable discussing Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention topics, survivors are comfortable with reporting and feel they are supported, and leaders are continuously engaged.
Maj. Gen. Michael C. McCurry, U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Novosel commander, commended her hard work.
“Sgt. 1st Class Perdue, thank you and congratulations. Incredible job, incredible program to prevent one of the categories of harmful behaviors, and to protect Soldiers and help us take care of them if there is a traumatic incident,” said McCurry, when Perdue won at the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command level back in February.
While operating at master sergeant and division levels, her proactive approach that emphasized prevention helped instill confidence in victim advocates and improved the level of care offered to victims.
Perdue played a key role in restructuring Fort Novosel SHARP training by setting up several unique rooms to house scenario-based training at the USAACE Training Center. The “Knowledge Quest” training event tests Soldiers’ and Department of the Army civilians’ knowledge and provides a chance to practice intervention techniques to help prevent sexual harassment and sexual assault.
“We saw a need to reenergize SHARP training to where the training could be applied,” said Shana Morris, Installation Lead Sexual Assault Response Coordinator at USAACE headquarters.
She commended Perdue’s “willingness to take on such a big project and getting the collaborative efforts from everyone on the installation to take part in bringing an old building back to life,” she said.
This included help from the Noncommissioned Officer Academy and Warrant Officer Candidate School, but Perdue and her husband Dana Perdue also put in a lot of their own time and energy, including painting and providing donated furniture for the scenarios—a reflection of her ethics and overall professionalism.
Perdue, who served last year as both brigade SARC and lead SARC, ensured leaders understand the training from a holistic point of view, that prevention is emphasized, and victims are supported, fostering a culture of trust, and helping to build cohesive teams.
“Her care for victims truly goes way above and beyond. She meets with each victim, she makes sure that they are being cared for in every sense of the word, and making sure that they’re getting whatever services and support that they want and choose,” Morris said.
The time an energy Perdue poured into standing up the training facility stems from her own experience looking out for others. As an E5, a Soldier confided in her, and that motivated her.
"I'm a mom, I'm a sister, and I'm a leader, and that is what drives my passion," she said. "When you have people that confide in you, you can't help but want to help them. I knew it was something I wanted to do. I wanted to help people and really make a difference."
Perdue said having command buy-in has been critical to the success of her efforts.
“As SHARP professionals, we have a very difficult job to do, and we need the support of our leadership. Our soldiers need to see that SHARP is a priority, and not only the SHARP professionals make that a priority, but the leadership is as well. I’m just so thankful that I am on an installation where that is in fact the case. Where leadership is taking SHARP seriously, making it a priority, and it really shows in our ability to have a stand alone training facility,” Perdue said.
The facility includes a space for any personnel who, after taking the training, feel they need to talk to a SARC.
“It was important to ensure that we had a quiet space set aside for those that come through the training that may have identified that, oh, what happened to me was sexual harassment, and I didn’t realize it. Or, I finally have the courage to say something and I want to file a report. We have that quiet room in there where we can do a full intake if someone decides they want to file a report or a complaint,” she said.
The facility provides spaces where people can sign their names and write messages to show support for victims.
“It was also important to show all the support when you come through the building, with the murals that we have, the ‘I got your back’ and ‘we support you’ and the ‘message to a survivor’. You never know who’s in your formation that has been a victim of sexual assault. So for them to be able to see hey, here on Fort Novosel you have the support of all these people, because you see they took time to sign the wall. I was so thankful that Gen. Brito signed the wall. They get to see that! Good leadership really matters and command support really matters,” Perdue said.
Perdue’s felt it was important for the training to provide an opportunity to practice intervention skills.
“We’re Soldiers, we practice soldiering, we learn how to shoot our weapons, we do physical training, but there’s nothing that teaches us how to intervene when we see inappropriate behaviors. Nothing that shows us how to communicate effectively. And I felt like that is something we needed to practice in order to build that skill. Intervention is a skill,” she said.
“When you think about everybody’s upbringing, not everybody is brought up to be confrontational, not everybody is taught to stand up for themselves, so if we have those people within our formations and they don’t know how to, that’s another barrier to intervention. And I just wanted to find a creative way to break that barrier and teach our soldiers and civilians how to intervene and give them a safe environment to be able to practice,” she said.
Perdue said she feels honored to be recognized.
“I feel very honored, and an overwhelming feeling of gratitude, and I have to just keep going,” said Perdue, as she focuses on developing a next-level training.
| Date Taken: | 05.11.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 05.11.2023 18:25 |
| Story ID: | 444575 |
| Location: | FORT NOVOSEL, ALABAMA, US |
| Web Views: | 87 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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