WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Aug. 14, 2015) -- During one of the final briefings of his tenure as Army chief of staff, Gen. Ray Odierno heard solutions and offered his thoughts to some 140 sexual assault response coordinators, or SARCs, and victim advocates, or VAs.
The SARCs and VAs had met for two days to discuss issues, solutions, ideas and policies to better the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response & Prevention, or SHARP, program. It was the first-of-its-kind SHARP Program Improvement Forum held in Arlington, Virginia, Aug. 6-7.
When plans were drawn up for the forum under SHARP Director Monique Ferrell, the idea was to conduct a meeting in the same manner as the Army Family Action Plan, or AFAP, forums. And, like AFAP forums, Ferrell plans to conduct the forum annually.
"Commands sent in 78 issues and concerns," she said. "Many were repetitive because commands were having the same problems worldwide, so we consolidated them into different issue statements, coming up with six issues, which were presented to the chief.
"We had two additional briefings on issues that we're seeing across the entire Department of Defense that we are really trying to tackle - male victimization and retaliation - these are spaces where we don't have much policy because these are emerging issues," she said.
On the first day of the forum, the issues were framed to the SARCs and VAs. Groups of 10-12 were formed to discuss the issues based on what they were seeing through their lenses - what challenges they had with particular issues and what innovative ways in which they've tried to resolve problems. Finally, they were to offer recommendations to the chief of staff.
EXPEDITED TRANSFER
Generally, a victim of sexual assault has the choice of being transferred or staying put. If the victim opts for transfer, he or she meets with the SARC before the permanent change of station to discuss whether the case should be transferred to the SARC at that new installation. If the decision is to opt out of a new SARC on transfer, then the case is not transferred, the briefer said.
"For the victims, it is the importance of the speed of the transfers, but also doing it quietly," Odierno said. "We have to figure out how we do that and we hand it off appropriately so that they understand and do it in such a way that they do not get re-victimized."
SEXUAL HARASSMENT INFORMAL COMPLAINT PROCESS
The SARC briefer said a standard for tracking informal sexual harassment complaints needed to be developed for commanders to receive an accurate representation of the organizational climate. Informal sexual harassment complaints reported to a SHARP professional should be tracked in the Integrated Case Reporting System, or ICRS, according to the briefer, who added the ICRS should be modified to provide better visibility of hierarchy across Army installations.
"It is very clear in all the studies that we read ... that this starts with comments and if nothing is done, it could go into more serious things," Odierno said, adding that he agreed tracking was necessary. "Now there are a couple of things we have to be careful about. When I go out to units now, we are getting to the point that males and females won't even associate with each other because of this issue. We have to find the right balance. What is the appropriate balance so people aren't afraid to be with each other?"
Odierno added that the way the problem is solved is by making sure people understand right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable.
"To me, the issue is that if somebody does something and they are told to stop and they stop, then we are okay," he said, adding what worries him are the ones who don't stop, who get angry and continue to harass.
ANNUAL TRAINING FOR MILITARY
According to the briefer, the SHARP annual military training support package is linear and doesn't incorporate the needs of Soldiers and leaders at varying levels. Additionally, the online training was not an optimal delivery method for Soldiers based on extensive feedback from the field.
"Got the training… I agree… The power of this program has been at the squad and company level… taken seriously and is really interactive," Odierno said. "It has no PowerPoint and it is about discussion… it is about talking about the issues… it is about males and females sitting down and having honest discussions about this.
"That is when we will really start to resolve the problem," he added. "I think you are right on target with that."
SARC/VA TRAINING
The briefer said their team was able to identify gaps in the SARC/VA training program and that there was no standardization for attending non-Defense Department-sponsored professional conferences, which offer continuing education for SHARP professionals and that tier training was needed to allow career progression for SHARP professionals.
"We put the school together and that was done pretty hastily… I am pretty proud of how we did that, but we have to continue to progress," said Odierno, referring to the stand-up of the SHARP Academy on Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in October 2014. "I do think that we have to have a hierarchy of courses that we have to go to... I think it should be somewhat associated with promotions."
TRAINING FOR DEPARTMENT OF ARMY CIVILIANS/FAMILY MEMBERS
The issue here was to determine whether gaps exist in current annual training for Army civilians and Family members and to look at possible improvements. The briefer said that required annual online training was repetitive from year-to-year for Army civilians and there was no training offered to Army Families.
"DA civilians and Family members are just as important as our Soldiers," said Odierno, adding that Family members would have to volunteer to receive training. "What we have to do is to provide them the opportunity at our installations, and we have to think about how to do that."
ARMY NATIONAL GUARD & ARMY RESERVE ISSUES
The briefers said the primary issue with the reserve components revolved around manning/positions requirements without authorizations. It was recommended that approximately 100 civilian authorizations are added to the Reserve and Guard. The group also suggested establishing two civilian positions at the Pentagon to serve as a liaison for Guard and Reserve issues such as manning, training and advocacy resources.
"The Guard and Reserve are very unique and have difficult problems," the chief said. "That is a resource-significant recommendation that you are making here, so we have to figure out how we are going to do that."
MALE VICTIMIZATION IN 2014
The main issue the focus group had with male victimization was identifying the contributing factors that prevent males from seeking assistance. Those factors, according to the briefer, address the masculine narrative that discourage males from coming forward. Recommendations put forward were to focus efforts on research-based solutions, such as Mentors in Violence Prevention; formally recognizing active bystanders in both male and female assaults and publicizing the outcomes of male sexual assault cases. A recommendation was made to establish a working group to study male victimization.
"This is happening at a much greater rate than I originally realized," Odierno said. "Part of this is not necessarily sexual, but it is still victimization because of some of the things that we do in our Army, whether it is initiations or other things.
RETALIATION RESPONSE
The final briefing concerned insufficient policies, procedures and resources to prevent or respond to incidents of sexual harassment/sexual assault retaliation. The briefer said acts of retaliation pose serious threats to victims trying to get assistance. In addition, the Army has no means by which to track retaliation.
It was recommended that retaliation be defined and that all reports be investigated with flag oversight and investigation conducted no lower than at the colonel level.
"Retaliation response - this frankly, I think is our biggest issue," Odierno said. "I think people are starting to understand the fact that we are not going to tolerate sexual assault, sexual harassment… However, we still have a problem with social media, especially inside units where there is retaliation.
"It actually makes it worse than the actual assault itself because of what it does to the individual," he said. "It is worse and the fact is that the chain of command is involved in this a lot of times. Not only do we victimize the victim, but we actually weaken the chain of command… to me, this is a cancer… we have to really take [it] on."
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RELATED ARTICLE: SHARP Program Improvement Forum
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STAND-TO!: Army Sexual Harassment/Assault Prevention Program
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