Service members assigned to Naval District Washington gathered together to witness the signing of the Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, at the Washington Navy Yard, April 1.

The Navy's effort to eradicate sexual assault within its ranks is a task that should be taken very seriously by the every service member or civilian and at NDW there is no exception.

Awareness of sexual assault prevention methods and SAPR programs continue to grow Navy wide, with both increased participation at annual events and creative new outreach ideas. Though sexual assault awareness and prevention is a year-round effort, SAAPM is a focused time when both military and civilian sexual assault organizations engage their respective communities in these efforts.

"Some of the things that the National Capital Region has planned for this year's SAAPM include proclamation ceremonies, 5ks, victim advocate meet and greets, clothesline projects, resource tabling, collaborative events with stake holders and educational forums," said NCR Sexual Assault Response Coordinator/NDW Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program Coordinator Angela Lackey. "We will be hosting and collaborating on events from the Washington Navy Yard, the Pentagon, the White House Military Office and more."

This year's theme is "Eliminate Sexual Assault: Know Your Part. Do your part," focuses on the building blocks of prevention by communicating how individuals, communities, and the private sector can take action to
promote safety, respect, and equality.

Personnel within NDW, who need resources for survivors of sexual violence, are always able to reach out to the NCR SARCs, Angela Lakey and Faye Julies for confidential referrals and information. Another avenue for individuals is the Civilian Victim Advocate, Sarah Mccallister, or the Victim's Legal Counsel, Ann Lundwall. The civilian victim advocate can work with individuals to provide emotional support, referrals, or just to help them to understand the overall SAPR process.

If individuals would like confidential services outside of the military staff, a great resource is the DoD Safe Helpline, which provides confidential advocacy services to members of the DoD community through telephone, web based and phone applications. For more information on this resource, please visit www.safehelpline.org.

April 5th is the SAAM Day of Action; this day provides an opportunity for preventers and advocates to engage with their communities and to kick off SAAM events that are planned throughout April.

Lackey emphasized the importance of sexual assault prevention, not only during SAAPM but always and any time that personnel can create conscience about sexual assault.

"Although April is celebration of the importance of awareness and encouragement to support the sexual violence prevention movement, it should never stop there. Sexual violence prevention begins at the most basic levels of humanity and professionalism and challenges everyone to take the initiative to step into leadership positions when they confront challenging behaviors, said Lackey.

"These seemingly insignificant behaviors from individuals in the workplace or in our personal environments, that are so critical to the prevention movement, are root cause of the perpetuation of sexual violence in our ranks and must be addressed."
Lackey added that it is important to know our role preventing sexual assault.

"The foundation of the Secretary of Defense's initiatives of treating individuals with dignity and respect are the cornerstone for implementing a leadership framework which provides service members the opportunity to become a leader and intervene in problematic behaviors before they escalate, said Lackey.

"Everyone is responsible for the culture in which we are a part of and as leaders in our military, we all need to support, not only survivors of violence, but everyone who takes the courageous first step of intervening in everyday situations that help to eliminate violence in our ranks and in our society. In order to eliminate sexual violence, we must first know and understand our part in the solution and then we must act, even in the most basic violation of another's dignity.

The NDW Sexual Assault Prevention and Response team can be contacted at any time during a crisis. Contact the duty victim advocate at 202-258-6717.
For more information about the NDW SAPR program and how you can help contact 202-615-9820 or 202-257-0843 or contact the DoD SafeHelpline at 877-995-5427.

For more news from Naval District Washington, visit www.navy.mil/