SAAPM: Eliminating Sexual Assault BY ANNA TAYLOR • PUBLIC AFFAIRS SPECIALIST PHOTOS BY SHAYNE HENSLEY • NNSY PHOTOGRAPHER
Bates-Pratt speaks to a new group of new NNSY employees about her duties as SARC and the importance of the shipyard's SAPR program.
Since she was a young student at Randolph Macon College, Shalise Bates-Pratt has been interested in violence prevention and anti-violence advocacy. Looking back, she acknowledges the seed was planted when she was a child. “Where I grew up, because it was so rural and isolated, we didn’t have all of the resources urban communities have,” she said. “I saw my extended family go through violence, abuse, and molestation, but it was strange to suddenly know there were names for things like that.” April marks the 12th annual Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month (SAAPM). This year’s theme is “Eliminate Sexual Assault: Know Your Part. Do Your Part.” Eliminating sexual assault requires every service member to be a steadfast participant in creating an appropriate and respectful culture and upholding Navy core values for the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program. Bates-Pratt began her career in victim advocacy as a volunteer at a local shelter and then as a Sexual Assault Response Coordinator on campuses like Randolph Macon and Virginia Commonwealth University. She worked in Germany as the SARC for the U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria before returning to her home state of Virginia to be closer to family. She was a SAPR victim advocate at Naval Station Norfolk for a year before taking the position at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Bates-Pratt describes herself as compassionate, which makes her job as the shipyard’s SARC a natural fit. She acts as a case manager, overseeing all reports of sexual assault at the shipyard from start to finish, ensuring each victim receives the correct services and assistance. “I make sure they are protected and are getting what they need,” she said. “If you go through something traumatic, it throws you off. Nobody imagines they will be sexually assaulted one day. So when
something like that happens, victims often don’t know what to do. A big part of my job is making sure we are helping victims navigate a process they aren’t prepared to be a part of.” Her responsibilities also include prevention and education, which means organizing year-round SAPR activities to raise awareness and training first responders, victim advocates and other organizations by request. The services Bates-Pratt provides are primarily for active-duty service members and their adult dependents, but she also opens her door to civilians at NNSY, to whom she provides the Civilian Employee Assistance Program information and contact numbers for a local crisis center. “We are all about empowerment,” she said. “We give victims the knowledge and resources they need to make their own decisions about how to move forward. It can be difficult for people to come to me, a random stranger, to talk about something very private, personal and painful.” Both the restricted and unrestricted reporting options for sexual assault provide victims with access to medical care, counseling, a chaplain, and victim advocacy. However, a restricted report does not trigger command notification and an official investigation, whereas an unrestricted report does. Restricted reports can be made to a SAPR victim advocate, SARC or healthcare professional. As Department of Defense and Navy prevention efforts continue to grow, SAAPM is an opportunity to continue the conversation about prevention at NNSY. “I would love nothing more than to work myself out of business,” Bates-Pratt said. “I do this because I care, and that’s the bottom line.” FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SAAPM, VISIT CNIC.NAVY.MIL/SAAPM