Army Nominates Candidate for SAPRO Promoting Excellence in Prevention Award

By Antwaun ParrishMay 17, 2022

Arlington, Va. – The department of the Army has selected Stacey Rosenberg, U.S. Military Academy, as the nominee for the 2022 DOD SAPRO, Promoting Excellence in Prevention Award. Rosenberg serves as West Point’s SHARP Assistant Program Manager/ Prevention Specialist.

Rosenberg was recognized for developing an education course for Cadet-Peer Leaders titled “Prevention Skills 101”, or PS101. The course is a 40-hour, week-long leadership training and discussion on a variety of sensitive topics in support of sexual assault prevention and other violence prevention efforts.

This course was created to complement West Point's mission to develop leaders of character committed to the values of "Duty, Honor, Country" and who are prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the nation.

“It is crucial that these future officers are prepared to lead in the realm of primary sexual violence prevention,” said Russel Strand, West Point SHARP Program Manager.

PS101 is designed to:

·      Set the conditions for cadets to explore their own values, beliefs, and–attitudes that relate to their relational character–the application of Army values for the development, sustainment, and promotion of healthy relationships and holistic health.

·      Educate cadets in the mechanics of prevention strategies.

·      Provide background knowledge specific to preventing the breadth of harmful behaviors the Army/Department of Defense is committed to preventing including sexual assault, sexual harassment, bullying, hazing, and self-harm across the social ecology.

·      Prepare cadets to develop and lead trainings/ discussions on these sensitive topics for both education and support purposes.

“It’s important to recognize those who go above and beyond to not only understand our prevention programs but to build upon their knowledge and discover methods to improve our programs,” said Dr. James Helis, Director, U.S. Army Resilience Directorate.

“Stacey Rosenberg demonstrated excellence by developing, implementing, and assessing a prevention activity that significantly supported and continues to support the USMA SHARP Program,” said Jill Londagin, Army SHARP Program director.

“This innovative initiative not only supports DOD’s goal to build and sustain a system that prevents sexual assault but also serves as a model we’re interested in scaling to active Army organizations.”

As an academic/training-style course, PS101 addresses several of the sexual violence risk and protective factors across the socio-ecological model within a classroom-like environment. Content is delivered via hands-on experiential learning activities, lectures, and small and large group discussions.

Rosenberg collaborated with other West Point staff and faculty to facilitate smaller group discussions throughout the course. After the first pilot year, she held informal focus groups with the cadets who had participated in the course to get their impressions of the course, what was missing, and what should be removed.

The program allowed time to pass before collecting effective feedback from attendees. To date, all of the feedback has been positive.

One former cadet wrote: “I just wanted to thank you so much for everything I learned from you during (the course). Today I led a very helpful conversation that changed a lot of people’s minds in my company. Some even said this was the first brief on sexism/ SHARP that made them optimistic rather than cynical … And I owe it to you that I was able to help make that a reality for people.”

This West Point prevention activity has been such a success it was mentioned in the 90-Day DoD Independent Review Committee report as a Lesson Learned to Highlight Innovative Leadership and Climate Related Practice Across Services.

The next step for Rosenberg is to face competition among the other Services. “We are very proud of Stacey and know that she represents us well. We wish you the best of luck in this next level of competition,” said Londagin. “We congratulate her for being the Department of the Army’s nominee as 2022 DOD Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, Promoting Excellence in Prevention Award.”