Mission Statement, Vision Statement, and Objectives
Mission Statement: Enhance Army readiness through the prevention of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and associated retaliatory behaviors while providing comprehensive response capabilities.
Vision Statement: All Soldiers, Civilians and Family Members have a right to work and live in a community that is void of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Sexual harassment and assault undermines a unit’s readiness by destroying trust, unit cohesion, and morale. It interferes with productivity of victims and all those affected directly or indirectly.
SHARP Goals, Messages and Best Practices
SHARP Goals
Reduce sexual assaults and harassment by creating a climate that respects the dignity of every member of the Army family.
SHARP Messages
• Leaders at all levels must get angry about sexual harassment and sexual assault.
• Contact your unit SHARP prior to taking any action.
• Reduce stigma of reporting.
• Increase prevention, investigation, and prosecution capability.
• Increase training and resources.
• Refine and sustain response capability.
• Sexual harassment and sexual assault are inconsistent with Army values.
• We will not tolerate sexual harassment and sexual assault. We must be angry if one of our own is assaulted.
• One assault is one too many.
• We must foster a climate of trust that respects and protects our Soldiers, civilians, and Family Members.
• SHARP is a commander's program. We are committed to ensuring engaged leadership at all levels to prevent sexual assault and harassment.
• We will hold offenders accountable.
SHARP Best Practices
• Educate and train your unit on sexual assault prevention.
• Monitor command climate to ensure that it is supportive of victims.
• Reduce the risk of acquaintance or date rape.
• Deployed unit risk reduction considerations: Be especially prepared and alert in deployed environments. Deployed environments present special risks for Army Personnel.
• Enforce the Army policy on sexual assault and make sure subordinates enforce it too.
• Treat each incident seriously.
• Your first priority: care for the victim.
• Report all allegations (Except restricted reports) to CID/Law Enforcement for a thorough investigation.
• Keep all information confidential and disclose information only to those who have an official need to know - It's the right of the accuser and the accused.
• Consult your servicing judge advocate.
• Strong sponsorship programs are helpful to quickly integrate new Soldiers into a unit.
SHARP Reporting Options
First, what classifies sexual harassment?
Sexual harassment is
(1) Conduct that:
(a) Involves unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and deliberate or repeated offensive comments or gestures of a sexual nature when:
1. Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of a person’s job, pay, or career;
2. Submission to or rejection of such conduct by a person is used as a basis for career or employment decisions affecting that person; or
3. Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment; and
(b) Is so severe or pervasive that a reasonable person would perceive, and the victim does perceive, the environment as hostile or offensive.
(2) Any use or condonation, by any person in a supervisory or command position, of any form of sexual behavior to control, influence, or affect the career, pay, or job of a member of the Armed Forces.
(3) Any deliberate or repeated unwelcome verbal comments or gestures of a sexual nature by any member of the Armed Forces or civilian employee of the Department of Defense.
b. There is no requirement for concrete psychological harm to the complainant for behavior to constitute sexual harassment. Behavior is sufficient to constitute sexual harassment if it is so severe or pervasive that a reasonable person would perceive, and the complainant does perceive, the environment as hostile or offensive.
c. Sexual harassment can occur through electronic communications, including social media, other forms of communication, and in person.
Two types of sexual harassment:
- Quid pro quo refers to conditions placed on a person's career or terms of employment in return for sexual favors.
- Hostile environment Sexual Harassment occurs when a person is subjected to offensive, crude, unwanted, and unsolicited comments and behavior of a sexual nature that interferes with that person's performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.
What can I do?
In the event of sexual harassment: In order to stop sexual harassment, the aggrieved is encouraged to report the inappropriate behavior to your chain of command through your SHARP representative. Once you have spoken with your SHARP representative it is strictly your choice to choose Informal or Formal reporting option. If you are a civilian, report the behavior immediately to your supervisor, or to the Equal Employment Opportunity office. If the behavior persists, file a formal sexual harassment complaint through your brigade SHARP representative. If you are a civilian, report the incident to your Equal Employment Opportunity office.
In the event of sexual assault:
1.Get to a safe place. If you are in need of urgent medical attention, call 911. If you are not injured, you still need medical assistance to protect your health. William Beaumont Army Medical Center on Fort Bliss can offer you immediate health care.
2.Contact your local SHARP representative, or call the Fort Bliss Sexual Assault Hotline at 915 245-8991.
3.To protect evidence, do not shower, brush your teeth, put on make-up, eat, or drink, or change clothes until advised to do so. You, or your SHARP representative may report the crime to Army or local law enforcement. Casualties of sexual assault are encouraged to contact law enforcement.
Restricted sexual assault report:
We value your privacy. Restricted reporting offers Soldiers and Family members (18 years and older) the option to report a sexual assault without having to notify law enforcement and protecting the identity of the victim. This option is only available if you report the incident to your victim advocate, medical care facility, or sexual assault response coordinator (SARC).
Unrestricted sexual assault report:
Unrestricted Reporting is the military's preferred reporting method because it provides the widest latitude to help and protect victims of sexual assault. Through the unrestricted option, details of the incident are kept confidential and are only disclosed on a need to know basis. An unrestricted report triggers an investigation so that offenders may be held accountable and the safety of the victim is ensured.
Entitlements (independent of the reporting option)
. Medical care
. Counseling
. Chaplain care upon request
. Sexual assault forensic examination