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The Army introduced Wednesday that it's launching a one-year pilot program establishing useful resource facilities for victims of sexual assault and harassment.
The program goals to centralize quite a lot of assets for victims, together with authorized assist, investigations and medical providers. Previously, victims of sexual harassment or assault have typically confronted a labyrinth of army forms to entry primary providers or begin an investigation, a course of normally kicked off by a gathering with their chain of command.
"The intent is we bring together a host of services in a centralized location so it's much more responsive for victims," Col. Kelly Webster, deputy director of the Army's People First Task Force, instructed reporters Wednesday.
The facilities nonetheless would report back to the senior management of that set up, however may give a sufferer means to maneuver round their fast chain of command, which may embrace the perpetrator or supervisors who might need to defend the perpetrator.
"It doesn't eliminate, but reduces the likelihood of any retaliation," Webster mentioned.
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However, the Army thought just isn't new.
There have been sexual assault useful resource facilities previously, a few of which nonetheless exist. This pilot is successfully a sequel to a 2014 program that established sufferer facilities, however they have been largely starved of assets and by no means grew to become commonplace on bases.
"In some places, this already exists, but they didn't look like what we're envisioning for this pilot," mentioned Col. Erica Cameron, the lead on the Army's redesigned sexual assault prevention program. "There's additional personnel. In many cases, they didn't have direct support."
Army paperwork supplied to Military.com famous a few of the motivation for the brand new facilities have been delays in providers for victims, gradual responsiveness of providers, and poor communication of assets for victims.
For active-duty troopers, this system might be examined at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland; Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Irwin, California; Fort Riley, Kansas; and Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
The Army Reserve can have a small pilot program within the 99th Readiness Division headquarted at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. The National Guard won't be concerned within the pilot program as a result of 50 states and 4 territories all having their very own guidelines, in addition to Guardsmen having a mishmash of various kinds of state and federal orders that may confuse coverage.
The pilot program is among the Army's first large shifts to deal with sexual assault and harassment a yr and a half after the brutal slaying of Spc. Vanessa Guillén.
Guillen was bludgeoned to loss of life with a hammer by Spc. Aaron Robinson, who later killed himself when legislation enforcement was closing in to take him into custody. While investigators by no means concluded whether or not Robinson harassed her, Guillén beforehand reported being sexuallay harassed by one other soldier -- twice -- however her management by no means took motion.
Her homicide was a flashpoint throughout the complete Defense Department and Congress, triggering a depending on the failure of army leaders to guard the rank and file.
The unresolved issued of sexual assault and harassment within the drive culminated in a damning Fort Hood, Texas, investigation in December that unveiled systemic management failures answerable for an atmosphere the place it was permissible to harass and assault troopers, principally ladies.
In a letter to the drive Wednesday signed by Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, Army Chief of Staff James McConville and Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston, the trio acknowledged that "structural changes" are wanted to revamp the drive's sexual assault prevention insurance policies in gentle of Guillén's loss of life and that they want suggestions from troopers on the pilot program.
"Over the past year and a half, our Army embarked on an unprecedented review of how we care for people," the trio mentioned in an announcement. "Our Army needs your help and support as we test this new approach to improving our response and support to victims."
Women stay an excessive minority within the Army, making up solely 16% of the drive. Sexual assault and harassment festered throughout the rank and file for many years, with little proof that leaders have put a dent within the problem.
This yr, underneath strain from Congress, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered an impartial evaluate of how sexual assaults are dealt with and in June accepted all its reform suggestions, together with eradicating commanders from selections over sexual assault prosecutions.
However, the Pentagon in September mentioned it is going to be 2027 earlier than its first tranche of military-wide sexual assault reforms might be carried out.
"The DoD efforts in this space will be the largest ever attempted. No university, no major institution is at our scale," Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks mentioned. "We want to move fast, but we want to make sure these changes last and we build back that trust."
Reports of sexual assault within the army marginally elevated in 2020, a yr by which most troops have been largely in lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Annual information launched by the Pentagon exhibits that assaults involving troops went up 1% in comparison with 2019.
According to the report, there have been 7,816 reported sexual assaults.
-- Steve Beynon might be reached at Steve.Beynon@army.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon.
Related: Pentagon's First Wave of Sexual Assault Reforms Will Take 6 Years to Complete
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