Navy Emphasizes Sexual Assault Awareness Efforts During National Observance

April 19, 2010 - WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The director of Navy's personnel, plans and policy division underscored the services efforts to eradicate sexual assault among its ranks in a podcast released April 16.

Rear Adm. Dan Holloway said the Navy stands behind the nation in its efforts to raise awareness and promote the prevention of sexual assault across the country by focusing on internal initiatives, programs, and policies during Sexual Assault Awareness Month and the theme, "Hurts one, affects all. Preventing sexual assault is everyone's duty."

To align with the national observance, Holloway encouraged individuals to embrace their role in stepping forward to stop sexual assault and for commands to participate in local Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) activities,

NAVADMIN 119/10 provides Web links to customizable SAAM materials for use across the fleet and informational resources on sexual assault prevention, system accountability and victim support.

Additional resources are available at http://www.navy.mil/navydata/sapr/index.htm. They include research on gender relations, sexual harassment and assault, training materials and DoD and service directives on preventing and responding to sexual assault.

Navy's formal Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program, originally called Sexual Assault Victim Intervention, was created in 1994 and served as the template for the other military services. In the past year, Navy has placed greater emphasis on sexual assault prevention as well as maintaining quality victim response with a goal of eliminating sexual assault from its ranks.

According to the NAVADMIN, a sexual assault can affect an entire command, degrading readiness by harming the life of the victim and the command's ability to work effective as a team."

Furthermore, "it's the right thing to do," said Rear Adm. Michael Browne, director of Navy's community support branch.

The program has inspired several initiatives to include waterfront leadership interaction, first responder workshops and a pilot peer-to-peer training program, currently underway at U.S. Fleet Forces and Pacific Fleet.

"Navy's goal is to create a climate intolerant of sexual assault where the number of incidents are dramatically reduced but when the crime does occur, victims receive appropriate care and offenders are held accountable," said Browne.