Connecticut teams end SAAPM with walk to remember

Connecticut teams end SAAPM with walk to remember

By Luis Delgadillo Operational Business Center Public Affairs

Defense Contract Management Agency offices in central Connecticut wrapped up April's Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month activities with a walk to raise awareness April 29.

Inspired by victim advocates from across the agency's global workforce, employees from DCMA Aircraft Propulsion Operations Pratt & Whitney and DCMA Northeast joined forces to host 60 of their colleagues for the event.

DCMA's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, or SAPR, program is designed to address sexual assault, prevention and response procedures. Additionally, the program raises awareness.

"Our first awareness walk in 2019 was around the outside of the Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut. We asked participants to attend instructor-led SAPR training, sign a pledge and walk around the stadium as a show of support for sexual assault victims," said Brenda Koboski, a manufacturing and programs supervisor for DCMA APO Pratt & Whitney.

Koboski, a victim advocate for more than seven years, began planning reoccurring SAPR activities five years ago with her colleague Jacky Forcucci, a contract administrator with DCMA Northeast.

Over the years, they kept activities fresh and relevant, which is how the awareness walks moved from the stadium loop to walking trails by the Connecticut River.

They aligned with local community groups with similar goals for ideas and presentations.

"When Brenda invited the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence, I felt it was a great opportunity to connect our workforce to community resources that are available to them and are similarly aligned to the SAPR program," said Forcucci. "The group is a statewide alliance of individual sexual assault crisis programs."

Forcucci said by co-hosting training and awareness events in April, they capitalize on the national campaign messaging goals.

While the end of April marks the end of the national awareness campaign, the pair of advocates still spend the rest of the year supporting formal training modules within supervisory training classes at DCMA.

"Between Brenda, myself and the agency's SAPR Program training events, we have combined efforts to train more than 700 DCMA employees," said Forcucci.

Such work, she said, demonstrates the agency's commitment to confronting and eliminating sexual assault.