This coming spring, sexual assault survivors at six Army installations will be able to access all of their victim services under one installation directorate as part of a new pilot program, the Army announced in a Wednesday afternoon press call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pilot \u201cSHARP Fusion Directorates\u201d are just the first domino to fall in what will become a comprehensive overhaul of the Army\u2019s Sexual Harassment\/Assault Response and Prevention program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is intended to increase accountability, transparency and efficiency by coordinating all victim response elements, including victim advocates, medical care providers, law enforcement investigators and criminal prosecutors under a single directorate,\u201d said Col. Erica Cameron, chair of the Army\u2019s SHARP redesign committee. \u201cBy synchronizing \u2014 and in some cases, co-locating these support services, either physically or virtually \u2014 it will be easier for victims to get the help they need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each pilot location will have a \u201cfusion director\u201d who directly reports to the installation commander, said Col. Kelly Webster, deputy director of the Army\u2019s People First Task Force, which was formed in response to the Army\u2019s failures at Fort Hood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The one-year pilot will take place beginning in approximately March 2022, Cameron said, and sites will be located at:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese pilot locations were selected to represent a broad range of sizes and types of Army installations,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Army leaders involved in the design process explained that a key benefit of the fusion directorates will be their independence from a soldier\u2019s immediate chain-of-command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAdditionally, the fusion director will operate outside the victim\u2019s immediate chain of command and outside the victim\u2019s immediate footprint, offering them an additional reporting mechanism for reporting sexual assault or sexual harassment incidents,\u201d Cameron told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Survivors of sexual assault do currently have a way to report outside their chain of command, such as garrison sexual assault response coordinators or the DoD Safe Helpline. But the Army thinks that adding and advertising a centralized reporting and continuing care solution will help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA soldier who may before have thought that he could only call somebody or talk to somebody within his brigade footprint, will now have an opportunity to go outside that footprint, someone that\u2019s not within their brigade, and is assigned to the fusion directorate to provide that general support at the installation level,\u201d said Cameron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea was inspired partly by a pilot effort that took place at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, in Washington state, in 2015, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere [were] a lot of great lessons that came out of that,\u201d Cameron noted. \u201cThat pilot was not extended Army-wide due to\u2026shifting priorities and limited resources at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reserve component efforts<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Army is \u201cstill working\u201d to figure out the best way to implement the concept for the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve, leaders said. The Guard isn\u2019t participating in the pilot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Army Reserve\u2019s 99th Readiness Division, headquartered at Fort Dix, New Jersey, will pilot a virtual fusion directorate concept that will launch next summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officials are still working to determine how to make the virtual fusion directorate accessible to soldiers while balancing the need for digital security and privacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many key Army websites are protected by Common Access Card certificate authentication, which requires Reserve and Guard soldiers to purchase card readers and download software if they wish to access CAC-enabled sites from home. This creates a significant barrier to accessing such sites for part-time troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cameron said she was concerned \u201cabout locking information behind a CAC-enabled website,\u201d but that \u201cwe\u2019re still working the details on what type of system interface we need to use.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s still something that\u2019s going to have to be worked out through the planning and development of the concept for the Guard and Reserve,\u201d she said. \u201cOne of the things we\u2019re considering is a QR code that can give victims easy access to resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why not the Guard?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A soldier with knowledge of SHARP reform told Army Times that the Guard was resistant to allowing a pilot program unless the Army was \u201cwilling to do 54 different pilots\u201d in each state and territory that has its own Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cameron said, though, that the Guard \u201chas been participating in the entire development of this new concept,\u201d but complications related to duty status issues and funding \u201crequire them to adjust and amend the fusion concept for their specific circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More to come?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Calls to reform SHARP are nothing new, but the problems were revealed as too catastrophic to ignore in the wake of Spc. Vanessa Guill\u00e9n\u2019s death and the subsequent report of the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\t