MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --
Five Misawa Airmen took part in the first step of a five-year effort to decrease interpersonal violence across the Air Force.
During the month of March, Kadena Air Base, Japan, held a Green Dot preparatory session while 23 other bases worldwide held courses for roughly 1,500 Airmen implementers throughout the months of January to March. The Airmen who attended these classes will be training personnel across each base on the Green Dot program.
The Air Force contracted the non-profit Green Dot organization to provide these violence prevention tools to the 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, the 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 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 a violence prevention program developed by Dr. Dorothy Edwards. It takes a new look at the age-old problem of power-based personal violence,” said Capt. Trevor Hone, 35th Fighter Wing Green Dot trainer and 13th Fighter Squadron chief of intelligence. “Most people think of programs like Green Dot as only ‘violence against women’ programs, but power-based violence affects everyone.”
The Green Dot program invites all Airmen to get involved to ensure prevention is at the forefront of everyone’s mind, as well as the ultimate solution.
“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, the Air Force’s prevention expert. “Although that sounds complicated, what it really means is that we know Airmen are a vital part of the solution and 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, the Air Force CAIB chair. “There are more good Airmen out there who want to take care of their wingmen than there are predators seeking to inflict acts of violence inside our family. I have confidence our Airmen won’t let me or each other stand-alone against this criminal behavior.”
Hone expressed how each and every Airman across Misawa AB is responsible in creating a cultural change across the base as well as the Air Force.
“It may sound like a lot, but it takes as little as two to three minutes. That's the same amount of time it takes to check Facebook, tweet or watch YouTube,” said Hone. “[Green Dot] will become effective if people will take those few minutes to make this program their own and change the culture in their own unique way. We don't tell you how to be you; we just help you see the possibilities. The goal of this program is to reduce violence and foster a positive Air Force culture.”