SARC: Training those to protect others

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Nicholas Benroth
  • 23rd Wing Public Affairs
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  Sexual assault is any unwanted physical contact of a sexual nature that occurs without consent from both individuals or under threat or coercion.

This can happen to anyone anywhere in the world and for military members, whether on home station or overseas, it's always a possibility.

Sexual assault can be committed by an acquaintance or by a stranger in any location. Would a bystander know what to do or how to react if they saw or heard something like this happened?

To help train and educate members on base and those that will deploy, Moody's Sexual Assault Response Coordinator has implemented the bystander intervention module. This training is split up into three separate modules one for males, females and leaders.

"We are always trying to educate people on the roles and responsibility of SARC and what we are here for," said Frances Elmore, Moody's SARC. "That's why my office has been proactive instead of reactive trying to prevent an assault before it happens."

Bystander Intervention training, or BIT, began in January 2010 as a mandatory module for all military members and civilians who supervise military members. It replaced the annual sexual assault prevention and response training and members are only required to attend this training once.

"While it is only required for certain members to attend this training, we do encourage anyone to get involved at attend this course," said Ms. Elmore. "We like to keep the class sizes small to ensure each member gets the most out of the module and have better interaction."

The training is not the only thing that has changed for the SARC office. Training that was once done face-to-face for military members prior to their deployment has now been changed to online training.

"This training use to be done in my office either on-on-one or with a group, but since incidents varied base to base, not all the training was the same," said Ms. Elmore. "With this training going online, members now have the opportunity to get a general understanding and comprehension.

"Just because this training is online does not mean members can't ask me questions," she added. "There are scenes in this module that may cause members to relive something they suppressed and may need help. When members come in to get signed off, I ask if they have any questions about the video and if they need to talk about anything."

For more information, contact Moody's Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, Frances Elmore, at 229-257-7272.