 All right, welcome everybody. It is April 5th and about 115th. And we are here today with the Vermont National Guard with the adjunct in general night, and we have a school of other people here some will testify and some were here as guests of the adjunct in general coming to see us work so Please. For them. From us representative collage. Thank you, chair. This is, we are here today to get the official report back on the sexual assault and sexual harassment report. This is a document or this is something that we've requested, put into law some years ago now, and annually or by annually. We've asked for a report back on the internal reports that are contained within and so really without the laboring the fact I just want to welcome out in general night. And let you start over so and committee I think we'll have them present. And then we'll open the floor up for questions to the relevant witness and let's go around the room. I'll start today, because I'm sitting in a very different angle. I'm sitting here. So I'm seeing profiles I haven't seen before. So I representative Tom Stevens from Waterbury I represent Waterbury Bolton Huntington and Buell score. Just lonely from the south end of birth. John Calacate from South Berlin. Representative Lisa Hango I represent Franklin Berkshire richford and high gate. Representative back by wrong virgins represent five towns in Northwest Addison County. And Joe Parsons I represent the towns of Newberry Thompson and Rocky. I'm Tommy wants to represent very city. I'm Mary Howard, I represent Rutland City district five three. I'm representative Chip Toriano, I represented Hardwick standard and Walden in the Northeast Kingdom, and I'm vice chair of this committee. And representatives Hango and by wrong are two thirds of the Triumvirate who chair the National Guard caucus, which was started a year and a half ago. To allow, I mean, our committee's name is general housing, general comma housing and military affairs, and obviously guard issues are garden veteran issues are part of our military affairs portfolio and so and Hango and by wrong and civilian had come and said they wanted to make sure that access to this conflict the conversations that were happening in the State House. And for people who are interested in that could form a caucus and we said sure. And so they've had monthly meetings for last year and a half just to be able to let the guard for us a little bit better about what their work has been over the course of time so um it's been a good development I think in terms of it's less committee time which isn't always fun. But, but we reserve that time now for really for important reports like this. So, thank you for coming in. Thank you for the microphone is here. Thank you, Mr Chair. So, hello committee, been too long I think I'm happy to be here and not on zoom. So today we're going to present the annual Vermont National Guard report on sexual harassment sexual assault. And that's inclusive of our gender report. So I'm joined by a number of our personnel today miss Nikki Sorrell to my right sir state sexual assault response coordinator. Mr. Duffy Jamesons our state equal employment manager. He's to my left miss Serena for an Ari who's our Air National Guard sexual assault response coordinator. In the back there, our major Curt Kaplan's our judge advocate general. Mr can Greg our deputy adjunct general, Colonel Tracy foyer, who's our Vermont Army National Guard chief of staff and Colonel Adam Rice was our air guard chief of staff I also have a number of our air guard and army guard soldiers and officers airmen and then sales here. And the reason I asked him to come down. This is an example of continuing professional development in our organization. A lot of folks. Unfortunately, a lot of what I do is transparent to our guard. So we're working pretty diligently to change that and this is an example of that. Before we transition to miss well briefing on the content of the report. And the initiatives we've undertaken in the past year, what I'd like to do Mr chairs first provide data on the equity of opportunity in our guard I see I think sometimes we run short of time. And we missed that I view that as a critical piece of the information we share. So the information we're about to brief highlights the women in CEOs and officers selected for challenging leadership assignments. We were selected because the best qualified for the job. And when elected this position one of my primary focuses was improving improving equity of opportunity in our organization. We're correcting correcting literally centuries of combat arms, being exclusively male occupations. Won't happen quickly but I'm convinced, as I've discussed with representative Blumley we can continue growing opportunity for women in our guard. And we know we can't do it alone. It'd be immensely helpful to our enterprise that women leaders across Vermont refer young women who have a desire to serve to a career with our National Guard. So while it may be a little tedious but I want to get into some of the statistics and this really is some of them I didn't want to hear but I think it reflects the direction of the organization. In our international guard, 21.2% of assigned personnel are women. Conversely 23% of the leadership positions that's position e seven and above so a senior non commissioned officer and above is commissioned officers are women. 66% of the first sergeants that senior non commissioned officer leaders at the wing are women 50% of the group superintendents. That's the senior Colonel level, non commissioned officer leader women 35% of the overall chief master sergeants the E nine population are women. 31.5% of the company great officers these are lieutenants and captains fairly new to the organization, serving in the wing are women, 28% of the majors and Lieutenant colonels, the field great officers are women. The 158 four support flight commander and the director of operations are women. There are two women currently in training as F 35 fighter pilot candidates one is nearing completion of her flight training, the other beginning, a very challenging two year process that is a first. The maintenance group commander, one of the four Colonel level commands at the fighter wing is a woman that is a first. That is one of the new enlistments into the Air National Guard or women in FY 21, the airmen of the year, the non commissioned officer of the year and the senior non commissioned officer of the year were all women. It's important to note here is that they were selected by three objective separate boards of their peers. That is a first. And just as an aside, the Air National Guard per capita representation of persons of color exceeds that of Vermont 4.3% at the wing 1.4% in Vermont. In the Army National Guard 14.6% of assigned personnel are women. In FY 21 we recruited 44 women into the Army National Guard 22.1% of our total. That is an increase from FY 20, in which only 14% of our new recruits are women. 20% of the lieutenants in the Army National Guard are women 17% of our non commissioned officers are women. We have 13 female soldiers currently serving combat arms positions. Those are your armor, cavalry, infantry and field artillery that to recently commissioned directly into combat arms and one enlisted. Those are also first. The incoming director the joint staff of the Vermont National Guard as a woman. It's important to note that is a Brigadier General Billet. What she's confirmed by the Senate this spring or early summer should be the first female general officer. I believe in the history of our Army National Guard. The Vermont National Guard Logistics Directorate Sergeant Major is a woman who also does her drill weekends as the Brigade Support Battalion Sergeant Major. The Vermont National Guard Deputy U.S. Purchasing and Fiscal Officer a colonel is a woman. That is a first. This spring two female Lieutenant colonels will command our Brigade Engineer Battalion and our Brigade Support Battalion. Battalion commands in the entirety of the Brigade, the Infantry Brigade, and that's our largest unit. Of note the entire Brigade Support Battalion leadership team the commander, the executive officer and the Sergeant Major are all women. That is a first. And we remain the first and only guard state to open every position in our Army National Guard to the recruitment of women. I'd like you to Mr. Chair as I'll transition to some of the work we've done to address sexual harassment and sexual assault. Now turn it over to Ms. Sorrell, so to brief the body of the report. I will tell this committee that I'm extremely proud of the work our guard has done in addressing sexual harassment and sexual assault. Our team is shared best practices with other guard states and with National Guard Bureau. Most significantly is our focus on prevention. And we do that while sustaining our response resources and our capability. So for the past year I've served on the General Officer Steering Committee with National Guard Bureau, one of two Agents General asked for by name of the five total serving on the committee. Following years work with the sexual assault prevention task force. We've drafted a complete revision of the National Guard approach to addressing sexual harassment and sexual assault. Our efforts resulted in a prevention plan of action incorporating six lines of effort, leadership, training and education, culture and climate, communication partnerships and resources. The task force identified 19 actionable items within these lines of effort and I will furnish that report to the committee if you'd like Mr. Chair once I receive the final copy. Appreciate that. As a result of our efforts for months when the first guard state selected to receive funding and staffing for an integrated violence prevention workforce. We may receive funding as soon as the fourth quarter of this year. Mr. L our state sexual assault response coordinator as part of the sexual assault prevention task force working with guard bureau. Working to incorporate and implement the 82 recommendations from the DoD interim review Commission the IRC is supported by Congress that I know of I was the only Agents General to speak with the DoD IRC. We initiated a reach up campaign in August of 2021 providing an anonymous means for soldiers and airmen to utilize our National Guard app. And they can reach out to our state sexual assault response coordinator, our provost marshal, public affairs, our state equal employment manager, equal up equal opportunity officer, our inspector general, our provost marshal team and direct to me if they need to. Simply can't address issues issues that we don't know about. Last year, my sexual assault response coordinator informed me of a file sharing website containing pornographic images taken without consent. A significant number of those files contain compromising images of military members of all branches for multiple installations, inclusive of the National Guard. Entire discussion threads and file sharing dedicated to the military. I reported this to the Chief of Guard Bureau, the Army Provost Marshal General and our Attorney General for their action and taking that site down. The Vermont National Guard is in the process of establishing a joint directorate, which places all behavioral health family programs resiliency, diversity equity inclusion, equal opportunity, state equal employment management position, and our Sark VA sexual assault response coordinator and victim advocates under one umbrella with direct access to the Agenda General. Our sexual assault prevention response program specialists are working on a new training initiative involving more conversations with our guard members focusing on emotional intelligence and healthy relationships. In 2020 we established a provost marshal team with the assistance of this committee. They're engaged with local law enforcement they chain a command to help close the communication gap between Vermont law enforcement agencies and our guard. We're working with National Guard Bureau to make this team a full time resource I met with that team this past your weekend. The need is there. The workload is there for them. They're valuable resource and we can find the funding. We're going to do that. We also did a series of awareness events in FY 21. Mr. Earl will provide details on these events as a part of her testimony. They start on page 10 and continue for several pages in the report. All of these are designed to inform educate and build solidarity across the organization to eliminate sexual harassment and sexual assault from our guard. We've moved forward with quarterly publication of the status of discipline. It reflects administrative action taken for those members of Vermont National Guard acting contrary to standards and regulations and provides transparent transparency for the members of our guard. Vermont National Guard has revised our approach to professional development focusing on more frequent engagements, allowing us to fill in gaps and development. This provides education to the future leaders of the organization. Some of these discussions focusing on prevention of sexual harassment, sexual assault, understanding their roles and responsibilities, ethical decision making suicide prevention, and many topics that are outside the scope of traditional military education and training. As April is sexual assault awareness prevention month, we do a number of events to highlight our focus on this year's theme of Step Forward, Prevent and Advocate. And Ms. Sorrell will provide additional details on the program she has in place. Last year, I was asked to serve as a Vice Chair of the National Joint Diversity Executive Council working with the 10 regional councils and the National Guard Bureau Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and the sharing of best practices, drafting policy and improving diversity across the National Guard. So I'd like to conclude my comments for now, Mr. Chair, and I'd like to provide Ms. Sorrell the opportunity to provide you information on the annual report on sexual harassment and sexual assault. Thank you. Hi everyone. Good afternoon. I am Nikki Sorrell. I am the Joint Force Headquarters sexual assault response coordinator. I'm going to be walking us through this year's fiscal year or 2021 fiscal year annual report. If at any point anyone has questions, do feel free to jump in and ask them. I am the first civilian to author this report. And the gravity of that was felt the moment the task was put in front of me. I don't speak military language. And though I've come to understand a lot of it, I felt it really important that this report clearly reflect what it is we're doing in regards to sexual violence. Because we are doing really good work and I didn't want any of that to get lost in translation. The report is still divided into the four main areas. So sexual assault, sexual harassment. There's a newly added sapper office strategic plan. And then there's the addendum section. So that'll include the FY 21 gender report, a policies and definitions portion that pertains to all sexual assault and harassment. And then there's also an acronym guide to though I plan to avoid most acronyms it is there just in case we will mostly focus on section one, two and three and the addendum will be discussed as needed. I think general night hit a lot of the gender report points. We may not need to but it is there. So at the bottom of the executive summary page on page one are our incident numbers. You'll see that in fiscal year 21, the supper office so that's the sexual assault prevention and response office. We have tracked five reports of sexual assault reports in which occurred during fiscal year 21, and two that occurred in previous fiscal years. All the accused subjects in these cases were Vermont National Guard members, the survivors involved, four of them were Vermont Guard members, and one of them was a civilian survivor, not stated in the executive summary, but in the section right to federalized reports. It is noted that our office began tracking an additional sexual assault report at the close of the fiscal year. So that incident did occur in FY 21, and it was reported while the survivor who is a Vermont Guard member was on active duty status outside of the US. The accused is also a Vermont Guard member and that case is currently going through reports martial with the active duty army as we speak. A survivor is home and she's being supported through our office. The Equal Opportunity and Diversity Office, known in-house as the EO office, processes reports of sexual harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation. In FY 21, the office received zero reports. We believe that that reporting is not indicative of actual events, and because of that the office has changed the policies associated with the reporting procedures. These changes have already begun to build trust and have gained traction in FY 22. General Knight really did a great job at summing up a lot of the highlights of this report. So we're going to move past that and jump into section one. As stated above, the SAPRA office receives a sexual assault reports. We define sexual assault as intentional sexual conduct characterized by use of force, threats, intimidation, or abuse of authority when the survivor does not or cannot consent. This does include rape, sexual assault, aggravated sexual contact, abusive sexual contact, forcible sodomy, and attempts to commit these acts. Currently, the SAPRA office is staffed by myself, the Joint Force Headquarters Sexual Assault Response Coordinator. That is a mouthful, so we do use the acronym SARC for that role. At the wing, our Air Force side of the house, we have Ms. Serena Fernari in the yellow back there. She is the wing SARC. Starting next week, very excited for this. We're going to be onboarding a new victim advocate coordinator. So her name is Natasha, and similar to Serena and I, she is a civilian, and her background is in mental health. She also has a graduate degree in social work. She will have oversight of the pool of victim advocates on the Army side of the house. So that is a group of about 30 members who are all specially trained in our reporting procedures and who receive continuing education around trauma awareness and survivor support. In regards to reporting options, when a survivor comes forward, they get to choose between a restricted report or an unrestricted report. Regardless of which report they choose, they will still get access to mental health counseling, as well as medical, legal and advocacy services. The main difference between the two options is that restricted reports remain confidential and unrestricted reports involve an investigation. So please just note that at the guard, we do not have jurisdiction over civilian or criminal crimes of sexual assault. So as a result, all of our unrestricted reports are always reported to local law enforcement. If the incident doesn't get investigated through local law enforcement, the adjunct general will then request the office of complex investigations from the National Guard Bureau to come and investigate. And those are the select team of specially trained individuals that investigate only sexual assaults at all the National Guard states. Their findings cannot result in a criminal action, but they do, they can and do result in administrative action. There's also a subcategory for our reporting. So if we don't, if we do not have a survivor present to file a report with us, we will open something called an open with limited reports. And again, so that's when we don't have a survivor president present. Perhaps it's a military offender that has assaulted a civilian victim, or it's a third party who comes forward to report to their command that they know about an assault. On page six of the report. You'll find a few charts that break down this year and prior your incidents on figure 1.1. We can see the five reports broken down by type by report type. So you can see that there were zero restricted reports this year. There were two unrestricted and we had three open with limited reports. Figure 1.2 shows the total reports of sexual assaults the sapper office has received since its inception in FY 10. The red circle so that's going to indicate that the perpetrator involved was a Vermont National Guard member. Figure 1.3 shows the total number of reports received by the separate office, and that's broken out by the fiscal year that the assaults occurred. On page eight. There are two charts there. First is a breakdown of our reports with case details. The second is a disposition information on the accused members so that's sort of a snapshot of what was happening to the accused or with the case at the time that this report was written. Of note from chart one is that we had two male survivors this year. One of those males declined to be involved in the process. And that is his right. The other member who reported the incident. The other member was someone who reported an incident that happened 15 years ago. It choose here to highlight the males, because these are the cases that statistically do not get reported in the military. And the fact that that does feels very meaningful. Chart two, the dispositions. These are the same cases as above. Case five you'll see at the top of page nine. One note here is that three out of our five cases are currently going through the civilian process. So two are in the court systems now, and one is being investigated. The cases not involved in the civilian process have an R being worked through the case that involved the survivor member who did not want to participate. The case is still concluded with the perpetrator facing administrative action. He resigned from his full time job, and he was separated from from being a drilling member of the guard. In case 00469. That was the incident that occurred 15 years ago. This case just recently, last week, actually, was investigated by our office of complex investigation. We have no statute of limitations on sexual assaults. So though our local law enforcement couldn't pick this case up we were able to. And what I'm really compelled to share with you all here is that the ability for this person to be able to report and for it to be best investigated holds a lot of value for someone who has carried that with them for that long. Yes, represent. In that one I it's. I'm sorry I don't understand this but the subject is no longer with front National Guard he's now at the Air Force reserves. Yes. So once the person leaves the guard are they not under your jurisdiction anymore or what does that mean. So I'll throw that to major Kafferlin for the legal side of it. So if the person is at the command and control of a different organization, either a different reserve component, a different National Guard or even an active component of the US military would be up to them to be able to decide on any action that would take in as far as disciplinary action would not be under the province of the Vermont National Guard. So was it was this incident started to be investigated by our National Guard and then this person left our guard. So this case the survivor involved is still a Vermont National Guard member, the perpetrator is not the account happened when both were Vermont Guard members 15 years ago. Thank you. Yeah, of course, on page nine, we have our federalized reports. So this is when a member on active duty status reports a sexual assault. As you have, I did receive word of a report at the very end of the FY and at the time I had no case details. Since then, we've learned a lot more, and the survivor is now home. She's set up with a victim advocate. I speak with her regularly, and she also has an excellent special victims council that is supporting her as her case case goes through a court's Marshall. So a special victims council is a military lawyer, and that is someone specific to working with our sexual assault survivors. So this is now being held on an active duty base outside of the US. So now we'll move. Yeah. So you say being held. Does that mean custody on duty. He is not on duty. And they're in custody, meaning like in a jail of some sort. So, again, pass that to me. That's within the discretion of the of that command. Okay, there's various things they can do they can restrict them to quarters. Have them work in whatever shops so they're being useful to do the trash and recycling so there's various, various, various things they can do with that person. Okay, in the interest. I understood. Thank you. Thank you. I will always go to legal, regardless, but our office specifically, we are built to support our survivors so while we get information on our perpetrators. I can't always answer those questions. So thank you. So now we're going to move into the sexual harassment portion. That starts on page nine. Before we started section. General night you said you can't can't help people situations where they're not reported. We're certain that there were more in by statistical value. There's more incidents that are reported. And I guess the question I have, especially when it comes to sexual assault but it'll play out for sexual harassment to is the feeling of safety. We're learning through this process over the years. That it's really difficult under sexual harassment case to come forward. And the numbers here have stayed roughly the same they're going down a little bit. I'm just curious to know are you. And I guess it's only anecdotal because the official numbers are here. Do you feel like the system that's been set up. How do you accommodate the safety that people feel like they need through the victim advocates through in order to come out and say, I mean 15 years. This person that's not uncommon and the rest of the world either. So I'm just curious to know like how do you. How do you address something that is. If you catch 22 you can't work on it unless it's reported but if people don't feel comfortable about reporting. Where are where does that lead us and for is a very can be a very nasty cycle, which is why I think some of these issues remain in our organization. Solution to me is building trust and confidence in our process however complex and clumsy it may be. It takes time, and it works. But we have to have that information. The trust piece again as I mentioned in my testimony comes back to the professional development and making sure that that our rising leaders understand what their responsibilities are. And then Mr. Jameson can speak a little bit to his experience as our state equal employment manager. I know that their instance, instant incidents that occur. And I know that the proper action was taken. I also know it wasn't reported. The goal is to eliminate it as quickly as possible at the lowest level, as soon as it happens, which is as it should be. Well I want all of our folks to feel that they have that ability to be that candid with somebody if they're being unprofessional. That's the easy answer. When you have something which is a crime of violence and power and control, such as sexual assault. That's a very challenging thing to do to come forward. The importance of having what we have here with our response capability, but also the importance of getting after that prevention piece and having a violence prevention workforce that can help educate the force and eliminate those behaviors. Because Mr. Chair, that's what we're trying to do. Unfortunately, it's one through a weekend at a time is change behaviors, and that's simply going to take time, but I do believe we will do that. Some of it generationally will certainly get a time out of it. We have to keep trying to be in your perspective on reporting of sexual harassment. I can speak to the sexual harassment piece, but not the sexual assault piece and, and one of the things I've, you know, I'm concerned about when I look at the numbers and I'm not seeing that the sexual harassment, you know, there's, we didn't have a sort of case last fiscal year to me that, you know, raises some questions about, you know, is it really likely that nobody experienced any kind of sexual assault or sexual harassment I would say no that's probably not the case. And so it makes you look inward to see if people are comfortable in making the report so this last year we did a focus on what I call working on the infrastructure, which is creating policies. That I think make the process a lot more accessible it's very clear and providing multiple opportunities for people to report. General Knights spoke about handling things at the lowest level, and that's always, that's a good thing, but we also wanted to give people opportunities to report other places. People can report directly to General Knight, they can report to me they can report to their commander they can report to we have a network of people are equal opportunity leaders, and, and then equal opportunity advisors so that was very important to me to see that we, even though that structure was in place that people knew that there are a lot of opportunities to report. It's not simply about creating those policies it's about disseminating those policies. And so there's been, we've been taking a lot of steps in that direction. I kind of half jokingly call it the reach up tour, meaning that we have this app on the people you can access on your phone that we can report, but you have to know about that. So we're going to the installations we're talking to folks. I had an opportunity, just last week to, to talk to commanders about the new standard operating procedure for equal opportunity, and, you know, letting them know, you know, hey we have this new policy policy that clarifies what your responsibilities are. And the last thing I'll say about it I'm going to, is that, you know, when I look at policy sometimes I gulp, because are in this case the policy that this the standard operating procedure that we just issued is 26 pages long. And you, you cannot, people cannot really digest that kind of information so what I did was I created one page information sheets that that makes it very straightforward what people's responsibilities are. And that's what you do, I think you know it's, it's those, it's those small steps to, you know, have that infrastructure in place, you have to, as General Knight mentioned then build the trust, you know, you have to let people know that we have this policy and have them feel that they're comfortable in reporting to us and then, then let us, let's work the policy let's, let's take the action, let people see that yes, you know things are happening. My anticipating when we're back next year, you're going to see that there's going to be reports. And hopefully you'll interpret it the way I interpret it which is actually a good thing, meaning that you know people, you know they we are building that trust. So that's the harassment piece. Simple little question. So, Duffy and General Knight really spoke to what we're getting into the next section so, but I'll still touch on it here so as I stated above allegations of sexual harassment are going to go through our office that is managed by Mr. The program does have three reporting options, so an informal resolution request so that is a that is when a report comes in and it gets reviewed and investigated internally so inside of the Vermont Guard. There's a formal resolution request and that's when a report will come in again, it gets reviewed and investigated through the National Guard Bureau. And then there is also an anonymous recording option. One of the great changes to the policy which Duffy spoke to is that the program now allows soldiers and airmen to report an incident to any leader or support member around them so you no longer have to directly go through your train of command you don't have to go to your unit's equal opportunity rep. You can go to someone who you really trust with that information, as he said you can go right to general night if you'd like. And that really gives the member choice, which I think is always important, but also you know if for some reason they don't necessarily trust their chain of command or their equal opportunity leaders with around them they can go outside of that and there's no problem with that. I had you had kind of informal groups with with members to ask why there's if the general was saying he assumes it is happening but there's no report. Is there an informal way to talk to the Guard members to say, is this in our culture and why aren't people stepping forward or what could make it easier because it may be top down policies 26 pages might just be too much. Absolutely. I mean we have those conversations pretty regularly I know myself and definitely get out to the units a lot. And yes, so short answer is yes. And representative collect it that's something I've been messaging since I've been in this job. I mean, just want to be tolerance for no patients for it. It's not a part of this organization and if you can't align with that, it's probably better that you find something else to do. But to give you an example of the levels of engagement and again starting on page 10 but page 11 page 12 all the numbers of initiatives that Nikki and her team have undertaken both here and at the national level, based on those lines of effort. It's a constant theme and a message throughout this organization. In this case, are there things that are transparent to you that I see my email discussions with with young company commanders, unsolicited by me, I didn't initiate it, talking about these very things and how they want to eliminate it. That's the future of the guard for human endeavor. We're going to make bad choices. Our job is to make sure that that's probably the most painful thing that they experience and if it impacts their career. Otherwise before they do it again, it's egregious enough, they can't be a part of the organization. So I think this question is for you, Duffy. Does the guard or the military have its own definition of harassment. And where is that where does the protocol for adjudicating these complaints come from a day in your rules of order or how does that all come about can you answer that. So the definition that's used is the is the legal definition. Okay, I was wondering, yes. And so, so the way I like to simplify the process is to talk about it as when a person wants a case to educate they file. And then internally, or that's the informal complaint, and the focus of that internal process where the organization handles at first is to see if we can come up with an agreeable resolution. If that resolution is not agreeable, then the person can opt to have it go external go to the National Guard Bureau, and then that's when the adjudication phase kick in. I just wanted to highlight the import of the fact that you can be reported to anybody. I think that that's something that we saw over the years was the issue that you had to report to your next level who could very well be the person that had done it or was good buddies with or whatever. And so I just think that, you know, that shouldn't be glossed over what a what a real achievement that is to be able to say, you can report this incident to anyone that can bring it forward with you. Absolutely. It's a huge shift and thank you because I know that the chain of command is so important. So I know that it. How do you keep that balance but still make this effective. Yeah, absolutely. And nationally that is something that the program itself will be going to but we have your front runners in that, and that feels really worth, worth highlighting so thank you for that. So, if everybody's ready we can look at section three. So that's the office, the separate office strategic plan so the sexual self prevention response office strategic plan. So it starts on page 10. And this plan. It came about at the time as actually a tool for, for me to visualize what it was that Serena and I were doing in the military there's a focus on logistics and this is sort of that. It's a fuse between a program philosophy and our overall efforts. And it helps us, and all of you really see what we're doing and sort of see where we're planning to go with all of this. You'll notice that it starts with a line of effort and then we have action steps followed by a table full of campaigns, events and things that we have done that align with that specific line of effort. One, work to create a culture that allows all members to feel connected, respective and valued action steps that we take to achieve that we really focus on offering education and events that all members have that all members and to give all members the resources and information that give them the tools that prevent that promote well being self awareness, emotional intelligence, and a general feeling of connectedness. We conduct specialized educational briefs and group discussions. And then we also also offer specialized trainings for leadership and also our service members who have more of authority, authoritative role so our victim advocates per se. I am in the mess just executed my first one last week, giving a specialized training to all of leaders down to squad level. And that is a training based on a lot of the changes of the supper program is made in the last year but specifically with a real focus on retaliation as well. So we won't go over the whole chart because there's a lot there. A few highlights I like to pinpoint I think both Duffy and general night spoke about the reach up tour. That's been a really fun thing to do and just a nice avenue to offer people a confidential and if they want to anonymous way to report. And if the West come to speak to our members and if you're not familiar with him, I highly recommend Googling him, finding him on social media. He, he's really incredible and it's worth checking him out to see what he does. He's an advocate and an activist, and he uses spoken word poetry as his platform to educate and talk to people. He is actually a retired warrant officer from the military he's been retired for 15 years now it's been a while. When he came to us, he led to 90 minute discussions based on sexual violence, male victimization and the importance of survivor support, and he did that by speaking a poem and then he would hold a discussion around that topic. It was really powerful was really engaging. And I think everybody that came up to Serena and I after we're just like yeah that was, that was really great. Can we do that again. He said yeah when there's more money for it. And I think what's important to note here is the two folks that are listed here. I'll be West and on a NASA. We share that I don't sit on good ideas. I shared this with my counterpart Nevada and other states. In my view, what what Nikki and Serena and our team are doing here are leading gardenation. That's been exemplified at the national level is just two examples of that. The other thing I wanted to point out, it was general night spoke about it briefly was our SAPM campaign last year. So April is sexual soul awareness and prevention month, SAPM course wheel for acronym. And last year we did a bunch of stuff. Excuse me my allergies. The nicer weather is coming out. So this year we did a bunch of stuff in my opinion I think the best thing we did was that we asked our members to take a pledge to believe in support survivors. At this point, major death while there was supposed to show you all a copy of that pledge but he got it. All you right now. This really lovely pledge in teal, which is our color. And we put it on eight by 10s, and it said, you know, I will believe in support survivors who come forward or poor sexual assault and individuals from both air and army signed them. I mean we had a few hundreds. It was it was a really, really wonderful showing. We had them posted all over the air in the army buildings. Some of our units had asked for really large. We printed out really large ones for them and the whole unit would sign. That was a really powerful thing that we all did. We called it the I believe campaign, and it gave Serena and I the ability to go out and talk to members about what it really means to support each other. And it also gave us the chance to talk about false reporting, which has such a has a false narrative around it, and to be able to tackle that head on and ask to answer some of those questions. That was a really meaningful way to spend last April. We are of course in April again. This year we're building off of that theme of I believe with the theme of step forward prevent and advocate. We're focusing on a heavy social media campaign right now. And that runs from this week to the third week in the of the month. We're focusing on one, one portion of that in each week. So this week we are looking all at stepping forward and what does that mean and what does that look at look like. The last week of the month we're going to be doing some, some of our events that we like to do we have a wellness event that's always a really big hit. We have arts and crafts going on we have a yoga instructor that comes in. We're going to do a hike last year so it's only the second annual but I'm going to stick with the annual thing and it's going to be a regular will do a hike at the end of the month and then we're all going to be wearing jeans on denim day, which is a national sexual assault awareness campaign. And that's on April 27 line of effort to rework to shift the response based nature of the SAP or program to incorporate primary prevention as a model. When I started in the office so I've been with the office two and a half years now I started as an advocate coordinator, and my passion was prevention. And so that is really what I wanted to focus things on. I was told at the time, you know, these are the specific tasks but also like go where your heart leads you and so that's, that's some of the doors we started knocking on was that prevention piece. Now, I think we're really lucky that the, the national lenses also has moved there. So we've joined a national working group where we're working on rolling out a prevention based workforce. We also help facilitate discussions, and I've conducted a lot of specialized trainings to focus on healthy relationships focus on that by center intervention and building emotional intelligence. So those are some of the proven mechanisms for prevention of sexual violence. Generally, I did speak briefly about it. And it's something that we're incredibly excited about at the guard. We've been selected as one of the few guard states to pilot the prevention workforce. So this is a program structured to support our force in four main prevention areas. That's sexual assault, domestic violence, interpersonal violence and suicide prevention. And the program is something that all branches of the military will have in the next five to seven years, but we've been able, we will be the one of the first to have this, and we're getting that because we've made it really clear to our national folks that we're passionate about prevention, and that as a state we're really ready and we're capable of implementing this. So more to come on that, but definitely something we're really excited about. Can I just, of course. In terms, this is, I know, a side, a side issue but suicide prevention. What is, what is the rate of suicide in the National Guard US but then in Vermont's. How much of a problem do you perceive it to be. It's been a problem. I think that it maintains a consistent rate every year I lost airman Liam McKelvie and Staff Sergeant Jordan snow on the same day to suicide one army one air. That's just one example. It's there. I'm on the suicide prevention task force at the National Guard level. I completely revised that policy as well that should be forthcoming. And other things that we're doing it outside the traditional approach of mandatory training, ask here escort, all those are great. The bigger issue is what are we doing to get resources into the hands of those who need it. As per month, we simply don't have enough behavioral health specialists, those brain health specialists that focus on PTSD anxiety, adjustment disorder within our military. Probably, I would say one or two maybe if they're in the track here network are actually taking new patients and that's simply inadequate. So knowing that we've worked with PTSD now. But then we've got a part of that is his operation purple resolve in two weeks I'll be there going through their training. It's a new and revised resiliency. Train the trainer program that will bring a whole host of different resources and educational opportunities for our members. It's more of the take care of your buddy approach. And then the other part of that is the Cohen network where we have out of state behavioral health specialists actually doing telehealth with our members, free of cost to us. So not a perfect solution, but it's certainly more than we had a year ago. But we'll get those statistics where I think we probably pulled both national and what's happening within Vermont. I think the national numbers of state, roughly 22 to 23. That's correct soldiers a day. Today. National. Thank you. My effort. Is providing survivors of sexual assault support and resources that are holistic individualized and that incorporate both military and community based connections. So we do this through conversations with our survivors to understand what it is that they're looking for from our program. We lay out the options and we let them take control. I say this in, I believe now every training that I give, and that's when somebody is assaulted choice has been taken from them control has been taken from them. And Serena and I really view our office as the place where they get to get take that back. We're going to offer them everything that we have to offer them and if they don't want to take any of it if they want to take bits of it we support them and those choices. The office will also meet the holistic needs by connecting members with mental health professionals advocates legal guidance and medical attention through both military community and our state resources. So, again, coming back to anything that survivor is looking for we we work really hard to get them a line of effort line of effort three is not new to our office. It's definitely a staple of our program, but I put it in here because it's something that we should always be coming back to survivor support is our bedrock and it deserves constant evaluation and commitment. We've recently reestablished our relationship with the Vermont network against domestic and sexual violence to help bring the community resources to our members. And that's already been a really fulfilling relationship. We have Kelly Prescott coming to to talk with our advocates in May, actually. So that's really exciting. And Serena and I also bring that community piece as well. We know we're both civilians, no military time. We've both practiced as private therapists, and we have a lot of years of experience in the mental health field. So that concludes this year's report. I will pass it back to General Knight for closing, but thanks for thanks for listening. We've got a few questions before closing I think represent collect. When you were in line of effort one mentioned false reporting. I don't actually know what that means, like in your scope of what you're doing. Yeah. Well, a lot of times when we, you know, when we say, you know, just believe in support survivors. Sometimes the response to that has been, I don't know the situation. What if I what if I don't know what if I don't. I can't believe them what if it is fake, you know, somebody knows somebody is tends to be a conversation that we hear. And so we took the that that space to have the conversation around what false reporting actually looks like which national numbers say that about 2% of reports are actually false. And so that being said 98% of reports are not false, but then we also take what we know, and that only about one in five people do report their sexual assaults to. So, just sort of looking at those numbers and offering members those numbers and that gives them the space to be like okay I can just believe what's in front of me and not just jump to conclusions or I can just jump in for one second. The difference between false reporting and something unsubstantiated. So false would be, I, I, I accuse somebody who did not do this thing versus unsubstantiated which is a lot of sometimes it comes back as me there. The evidence wasn't there or what I was saying. So the false reporting is, it did not happen and that is actually a very small percentage. Okay, thanks. I'm not sure who this is really for but you mentioned that you're not military. I mean it's not military. Previous folks in your position have been military, but perhaps a lieutenant rank or what have you in lieutenant rank. I'm curious to know your experiences as civilians in the middle of a military organization where our concerns in the past have always been well, if it because everything is set up in a hierarchy. What would a lieutenant have to say to a major under these circumstances. Especially a power dynamic there. Never mind an assault related situation. I'm just curious to know. You feel it sounds like it's a new, a new situation, but is this something that you feel is actually helpful because again military people tend to only want to talk to military people that's the stereotype. So I think that you are managing the fact that there may be some form of, of, I guess, trust building and must have to go on. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. There is a component of trust building. And that's why, you know, I think in the beginning I even said like I don't speak military language, but I've learned some, you know, I do try to assimilate in that way to help build that trust. And I also think being a civilian in this position, like anything I mean we respect rank, but it doesn't always. It's not going to affect some of the questions we might ask, you know, and we can't I can't necessarily say that that's been the case for other people. We know that that's just flat out not a case for us. And that feels comfortable. I guess if that's the right word. I've never worn the uniform. So I'm also a civilian. I don't speak the language. I, my experience has been that it has been probably more an advantage than a disadvantage to be a civilian. I actually think that people tend to open up a little bit easier with me then perhaps maybe someone is military. Maybe it's because I'm bumbling through, you know, the whole military process of a barrier to educate me and I'm very inquisitive, you know, I don't know what I want them to to help me understand. And so I think of it as an advantage. And again, you know, I'm seeing a lot of traffic now, and I'm talking to a lot of folks and I'm making a lot of good connections. And so I think it's it's helped. I will say that, you know, compared to my prior experience, I'm an attorney and I actually litigated cases in dealing with sexual harassment. This job is hard. It's a hard job. It's hard to be proactive. It's hard to prevent something from happening. It's a lot easier. Yeah, in my other capacity to, you know, be the one who's saying somebody did something wrong and showing them that that way. So I enjoy that challenge. And to do that, I think you have to, you have to be, it has to come from the organization itself and I'm feeling that we're doing that or we're making those strides. Is there any difference in the communications between part-timers and full-timers? I mean, difference other than, you know, it is a constant effort to make sure we're getting our part-time folks, right? And making sure that we're taking those extra steps that we're going out to units, which we've been doing. And, you know, technically, Daphne and I, we don't have to work the weekends, but we certainly do. You know, we work those drill weekends. Because that feels like a meaningful way. It is the way to connect with all of our folks. Yes. And, General, I'm very open to this committee in the four years I've served and I certainly appreciate that, but I've heard many CEOs say they have an open door policy and their employees don't believe them. So they don't actually come. I'm just wondering, as you've done this work, if you've seen an uptick in people actually walking into your office and saying, do you have a moment that I could talk? Well, sir, it's happened about a half a dozen times in a little over three years that I've been in the job. Probably more important is between my senior enlisted advisor, both Air and Army, my general officers, both Air and Army and myself going and as Nikki pointed out, actually doing unit visitation. That circulation is important. And there are times I've had conversations. I don't want leadership in the room. I want to talk to the members of the guard that are doing the work and kind of gauge their sense of things. The other important thing to note is I have an inspector general. That's a Title 10 officer. While she works for me, her reporting is to me. And she's really the sensor for the organization. People may report to her anonymously. So that really is an extension of the open door policy. I've had folks come in and they've had issues that they didn't feel comfortable briefing their chain of command. That's perfectly fine. I want to know. But I will always ask one question when we're done sharing information is what do you want me to do about it. And the answer normally is well, nothing I just wanted you to know. So that's hard. If I can't, if you're not going to put your name on it. And if I'm telling you it's egregious enough I can take action. I understand. I know and it's frustrating for me to have that information and I'm not going to violate that confidence and trust, whether it's a sexual assault survivor, or somebody who's having to work through a personality conflict. So it's tough. But in a corporation, if the supervisor knows harassment, they are legally bound to do something. It would be a different conversation. I would immediately go. Okay. I understand. Thank you. I wasn't actually questioning. Yeah, this is this is very helpful to hear. Not on zoom. I am, I am wondering how. How do you communicate to, you know, so there are these five, you know, cases. Who knows about the results of particular case or investigation, who is told the information. And I'm, and I'm wondering, because, because I, you know, without understanding that something has happened. Then, there has been some resolution. Then it just makes it much harder to encourage people to bring forward a charge. And that's what I was referring to when I went through my comments it's the status of discipline. So, historically, we have never published how our incidents were adjudicated, whether somebody lost rank, whether they were discharged, whether there was a loss of a letter of reprimand whatever happened. And that's for both civil violations and violations of our policy regulation in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So we've changed that. That was, I heard, I was listening. It's been just issue for a little while because folks well you know right to privacy and all that so I get it. Read day in court lately. So you violated the rules you committed an act. You're accountable. So we were adapted to a degree to protect the perpetrators. It's a specific identity, but we also publish what happened, irrespective of rank enlisted and officer and we do that quarterly for me that and we gave it a test run this past quarter I sent it out to the leadership team. Get this to your subordinate commanders and to your command teams, because to your point I want every member of this organization to be able to look at that. And I guess something happened. There is some risk, because as major capital will tell you every case is adjudicated based on its own merits it sounds own facts and circumstances. So what one person receives as a penalty for on the face of it what looks like a similar violation. I would rather have that than have them living kind of in a vacuum and not knowing that yes there actually is action taken representative awesome. Thank you cheers team. I'm looking up your sexual assault case details chart on page eight. I was looking at the ranks of the perpetrators and the victim. I'm just wondering, are you seeing any kind of general generational differences, because they have a mix here obviously some of these people serving. And not so long select. Different in a younger generation. You know it's interesting because nationally the numbers are saying that it is in that 18 to 24 range whereas we're, we're still just seeing a bit of a spectrum, and we're not necessarily finding that here in Vermont. So it seems to be spread. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Yeah. Yes, am I going to be okay for me to to address the gender report to this point. So I just want to make sure that I understand because general I have talked about the issue of recruitment. Years back. And so, if I look on page 14 at figure 41. Montier Army National Guard representation, the percentage of male to female has remained constant. Wow. I then put up I look at then figure 4.2. It, it looks like 22% of the new recruits are women. But that is perspective right that they have, they are not actually counted in that 2021 figure of 14%. Are these two. I'm just trying to understand where the difference is 14% versus 22%. And I guess my broader question is, you know, I, I know from our conversations that that's not where you want to be that ratio. And I mean I think that the, the statistics in terms of women and leadership positions there, that's very encouraging. And I know that you've made a big effort to do that and I'm just wondering if how concerned you are about how flat this line is given the energy that you've put into recruitment and how to understand that last. I'll look look into that one myself. I am not a math person, but I do know that the increase is accurate. And overall recruits were how that applies to the overall percentage within the guard. I'm wondering if there isn't a crossover of that. Not making the transition into the pie chart will find out for you ma'am. So the, the figure 4.1 represents the overall representation versus any one incoming class. Right. So what you're looking at for this one incoming class, they saw 21% of the total amount of recruits is 21%. And how does that compare. It says an FY. So it's so there was a big boost 14%. Yeah, I mean probably raw data though we're not probably seeing I don't have the raw data here, but you're probably not talking, you know, a lot of numbers, you know, when you get done to the raw data itself. But the percentage wise of the class that came in 22% of them will win this round this fiscal year. But ma'am, there are a number of variables that are impacting recruiting right now, as we discussed earlier one of them is actually building and sustaining our lines of effort. I will call it a campaign plan that actually goes beyond me. My direction to our folks, my strategic planner and the staff was don't build it based on my personality build it on something that lasts in the organization so whoever departs an office who owns that. Who has the rose pinned on them you own it, whoever comes in behind them now picks it up and we're better able to sustain it. We're simply not leveraging all of the centers of influence that we have to reflect the opportunities that we have in the organization that would in turn help me grow, help us grow gender opportunity in the garden. I know we can do it. Until we can align this, this body, the Vermont Commission on women, all of our business and education leaders all the centers of influence that we all know exist in this state. And we should be one of the first options for those who have an interest in serving my closing Mr chair. So as discussed I've made addressing sexual harassment sexual assault and sometimes simply poor treatment of others priority, since I've been in this job. I would also share with you that would be true, whether I'm required to report to this legislature or not. And there's more to be done, and our efforts will certainly transcend my time in this office. I'd also be remiss to not acknowledge the incredible talent we have on our team, our full time title five federal technicians, Mr Rao, Mr Frenari, Mr Jameson. Really not enough time today to recognize the entire team as Nikki had mentioned the victim advocates are equal equal opportunity leaders and advisors, our behavior health specialists. I lean on them quite a bit value their experience, their innovation, certainly, they allow me to be the voice for our guard on the national stage. It is said before it's less about me. It's more about their efforts. They're making a difference. But that diligence in making our guard better in turn makes guard nation better. And for me, Vermont remains an example for the rest of our National Guard both air and army. I also know if it's of interest to the committee. I know you have a lot going on during the session I understand it. I'm certainly going to send you all of our policies that are updated. But again in the interest of transparency. If you go to the Vermont National Guard public website you will find a number of our policies specifically the human resource policies the ones that Duffy had mentioned. I think he's done remarkable work taking for instance a 26 page standing operating procedure and boiling it down to a one page. Here's what you need to do commander. So those are valuable for us. And again it helps with communication and makes us a better organization. We're better than we were, and that will that work will continue beyond me. Thank you. If there's no further questions. Coming in. I'm not sure we're going to hear about each six, six. I'm not sure what he is. Committee. Right now. So, um, But that said, I really appreciate the annual report. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you general everyone who came. I think it's some. It's, it's this this report was asked for after a period of time where they're just into. No handles on the situation at all. And she had the time and effort on it to try and shape this report. And we will constantly look at it. And I'm not sure it's going to be. Priority for us. Mr. Chair, I think we were the first in the nation to do this. And this is our 10th year, I believe, and furnishing this report and other states have now followed suit. Well, I'm kind of disappointed that we're not going to have a 666 while these people are here and I guess I, I just was going to ask a question. Um, whether it's appropriate and you can guide me on this, but there's a couple of portions just into the intent of that legislation and thinking about the information regarding best practices for preserve preventing sexual assault and sexual harassment employed by other branches. It's fascinating that we're kind of being held up as the example of who's doing that best practice. And also just, I guess the piece while we do have you would be if you do have any suggestions for specific legislative actions that we can take that would support the Vermont National Guard in in your ongoing efforts, because I think you have made incredible strides and I think that, you know, the lights are getting beamed in every corner and I just would ask if there's something that you would see rather than us just keeping the flashlight going and moving it around whether there's something specific you would have in terms of of help from the legislative perspective. We'll let you know. Wonderful. And just so in committee I'll have to ask if you're comfortable with this. I just saw today that former representative Sullivan who who started this sexual assault who who who was a sponsor of the first. On this bill. I didn't know that she was here today. Behind the brick wall. And what you heard me say that representative or he wasn't here she stepped out to make me don't know. Hey, I leave it to the committee to determine whether or not we treat former representative of Sullivan as a witness who can speak to the bill as one of the components or we can schedule a time to do it and this is the bill that the former representative of Sullivan have been working on. And to be complimentary to these reports. We've seen and we've seen the guard itself take on not so much specific elements of the bill because it was asking for pretty unique thing. The guards work has furthered along much more so than it had been passed. Only first started the report. And so, so committee rather than making an executive decision on my own, if, if. Hearing from former representative of Sullivan on this is acceptable as a bill presentation or bill explanation, then I would be happy to entertain that if it's on good people are uncomfortable that at this time. And I would also be appreciative of that too. I don't mean to. To hijack anybody or the process itself I just want to lay it out there on representative Howard. I personally would like to hear from former representative genome Sullivan I know how, how hard she works for the guard. And I said she is here, I would love to hear from her. So, my vote would be yes. I think it would be wonderful and I appreciate her making the effort I would just suggest that it be considered as background and as testimony rather than as a bill introduction because as a non representative currently. I think that wouldn't be appropriate way to title it would be representative hang up. So my objection was just the, the, as always the process of it that we typically hear a bill introduction by a sitting representative, and then we call in witnesses so I guess, if we do this it will be in reverse order, but I do know that former representatives so Sullivan worked with the women's caucus on this particular bill, and it came out of meetings that we held jointly with the National Guard and Veterans Affairs caucus with the women's caucus and with the tags office. So, if we could just do it in reverse order because representative Odie is not here and treat this as witness testimony that's fine with me. Okay. And so, as a professional training opportunity, what you're seeing is not legislative jujitsu. As representative angle pointed out the general process of introducing a bill is that is that the sponsor of the bill might come in and tell us what a bill is about. And then we may have either that same day or a follow up day, the attorney who wrote the bill with that with that person to do a walkthrough. And then we would call witnesses in support and you know for and against the bill and then we would if we if it became a priority if it gained momentum if it was something that we were going to take up. Then we would call more witnesses and we would have what's called markup which as as you know as you edit your own documents you know that it can go through several or 12 layers of writing before it hits the floor and so what we would do here is ask former representative O'Sullivan to speak generally to the bill and not worry about the walkthrough or the details of it but sort of to give a history of where the bill came from again your part not partnership but your work in the past with women's caucus. I'll say right up you know whatever the proposals are here or in the past have been protocol changes and I mean we are when it comes to the general and the National Guard. We are unique legislature Alex your leader, but after that he serves, he serves the commander in chief. And there's no in between anymore, we don't we don't have any kind of accountability with the general it's a unique circumstance that has its pluses and minuses I think we've experienced those. And this proposal I think is for some for is to try to do have a sexual assault person at a level and it's just, I'll just leave it there because it's, it's, it's as potentially different than any other state could possibly be because of the situation with the general and how he or she stands within our curfew. And then we get to add in federal law to but you know, I bought it here. I waited long enough. So, so, Mr. Chair. Happy days in the way the area which we would differ would be the accountability to the legislature because actually, at the end of a term, you have the ultimate accountability for that. But I'm back in office. By that I mean, I mean that no one. You serve because you're an elected official like we are not at the pleasure of commander in chief correct for us, you know, except through the elective process so. All right, well, you will head off to your next meeting here is a calm I so appreciate let's get take five minutes to let folks clear out if they're going. Thank you.