MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan -- Five Airmen from Misawa took part in the first step of a five-year effort to decrease interpersonal violence across the service.

During the month of March, Kadena Air Base, Japan, held a Green Dot prep-session while 23 other bases worldwide held prep-sessions for roughly 1,500 Airman implementers throughout the months of Jan to Mar. The Airmen who attended these classes will be training personnel across each base on the Green Dot program. 

The Air Force contracted the non-profit Green Dot organization to provide these violence prevention tools to the Air Force over the next three years.

“As a service, our number one priority has and will continue to be response. However, in order to stop violence before it occurs we must dedicate time to prevention,” said Chief Master Sgt. Melanie Noel, the Air Force Sexual Assault Prevention and Response senior enlisted advisor. “Helping our Airmen understand what they can do to prevent violence and how they can do it is the first step.”

Green Dot prepares organizations to implement a strategy of violence prevention that reduces power-based interpersonal violence, which includes not only sexual violence, but also domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, child abuse, elder abuse, and bullying.

“Green Dot is a violence prevention program developed by Dr. Dorothy Edwards. It takes a new look at the age old problem of power-based personal violence,” said Capt. Trevor Hone, 35th Fighter Wing Green Dot trainer and 13th Fighter Squadron chief of intelligence. “Most people think of programs like Green Dot as only ‘violence against women’ programs, but power-based violence affects everyone.”

The Green Dot program invites all Airmen to get involved in order to make sure prevention is at the forefront of every one’s mind, as well as the ultimate solution.

“Green Dot is the Air Force’s first step in arming Airmen for violence prevention using an evidence based public health model,” said Dr. Andra Tharp, the Air Force’s highly qualified prevention expert. “Although that sounds complicated, really what it means is that we know Airmen are a vital part of the solution and we will use methods like this that have been subjected to rigorous scientific testing and were proven to be effective in reducing violence.”

Reflective of Green Dot’s wider scope, command-designated Airmen at each installation will conduct 50-minute long sessions across the Air Force. Installation leadership will also have oversight of Green Dot through the Community Action Information Board and Integrated Delivery System, and track completion through the Advanced Distributed Learning System.

“It’s on all of us to take responsibility to prevent interpersonal violence in our Air Force,” said Air Force CAIB chair, Brig. Gen. Lenny Richoux. “There are more good Airmen out there who want to take care of their wingman than there are predators seeking to inflict acts of violence inside our family, and I have confidence our Airmen won’t let me or each other stand-alone against this criminal behavior.”

Hone expressed how each and every Airman across Misawa AB is responsible in creating a cultural change across the base as well as the Air Force.

“It may sound like a lot, but it takes as little as 2-3 minutes. That's the same amount of time it takes to check Facebook, tweet or watch YouTube,” said Hone. “This program will only become effective if people will take those few minutes to make this program their own and change the culture in their own unique way. We don't tell you how to be you; we just help you see the possibilities. Our hope is the long term impact will be reduced violence and a new positive Air Force culture.”