SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo.- -- A year after its implementation at Schriever, Green Dot Program representatives are looking ahead to a promising future.
“I feel last year was a successful year,” said Dr. Ken Robinson, Schriever Specialist for the Primary Prevention of Violence. “It allowed Airmen to look at difficult topics in a fresh way. We want to transfer the three D’s-Direct, Delegate and Distract, as well as last year’s topics and make them just as applicable now.”
This year’s focus will be on suicide awareness and prevention, a major facet of power-based personal prevention violence.
Tech. Sgt. Antonio Ramirez, Green Dot lead coordinator, can attest to the effectiveness of the integration, having previously completed the training at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina.
“It’s an effective way to kill two birds with one stone,” said Ramirez. “It melds together pretty well. It teaches people steps to be confident enough to go ahead and step forward if they see a possible situation happening. If they see someone in need, or might be depressed, it educates them on how to go out and intervene in those situations.”
Those who have not received any prior Green Dot training will be required to take a 90-minute class, which will cover all the subject material of both the previous suicide prevention training and Green Dot, while a second, 60-minute “refresher” class will be available for those who completed last year’s training. Classes are scheduled to start Jan. 30.
“It allows Airmen to be able to get more condensed training,” said Robinson. “It will expand the topic of suicide prevention and create a core terminology making things more efficient.”
The program’s Early Adopter course will also be revised to expand upon peer influence in units. Renamed Peer Influencer Training, it will be a five-hour-long course with four hours of the standard early adopter training and an hour focusing on suicide prevention.
To successfully implement these changes, he needs Airmen to step up and become program implementers and coordinators, Robinson said.
Implementers, or trainers, are tasked to help lead classes. Robinson is looking for Airmen who are emotionally mature, have teaching experience and are teachable themselves.
For coordinators, who schedule the classes, track data and advise leadership on the program, Robinson is looking for skilled logicians and managers.
“They need to be able to comfortably brief senior leadership, as well as have administrative skills,” said Robinson.
Both positions require an interview with Robinson to judge these merits. If the interviewee qualified, they are required to go on a four day tour of duty to any base in the area where Green Dot employees are present to conduct training. The window for implementer and coordinator training closes March 1.
“We want to not only build our staff up from last year, but make it larger,” he said.
Coupled with this increased Airmen presence as implementers, coordinators and unit peer influencers, Green Dot representatives hope the new, more efficient class structure will lead to a more thorough understanding of suicide prevention and the program.
"We’re ready to get up and running," said Ramirez. “I think it (the integration) will be pretty effective. It will give people tools to know what they are going to do, or what they can do, in any given situation and get people trained up to go out and spread the Green Dot message.”
To learn more about Green Dot and how to become an implementer or coordinator, contact Robinson at 567-2647.