The first Respect Week comes to life

  • Published
  • By Jillian Coleman
  • 72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs

The Family Advocacy Outreach Staff partnered with the School Liaison Officer in the Airman and Family Readiness Center to bring a new program to life: Respect Week.


In promoting and recognizing the month of February as Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, Family Advocacy Outreach Manager Mary Phillips was seeking different opportunities to expand their reach in pushing “Love is Respect,” a theme which generated from the YWCA, loveisrespect.org and breakthecycle.org. While there are numerous events or seminars held at Tinker Air Force Base to promote healthy relationships, the number of teenagers who actually live on base is much smaller.


“Typically our military members who live on base are younger so they have younger kids,” Phillips said. “Older members may have more options to move off base, so data has shown that less teens live on base. We wanted to reach out to schools in the community and get the message out to both military and civilian kids.”


From there, the idea took flight. Phillips contacted School Liaison Officer Julie Franklin, 72nd Force Support Squadron, who already was infiltrated in the Mid-Del school systems. Since she had all the contacts and connections, it made sense to establish the partnership and see how the program would unfold.


“I was really excited to hear Mary’s plan of bringing this message out to the schools,” Franklin said. “We took it to our Student 2 Student program and they really ran with it. All the students we worked with and trained previously are graduating, so they’re in jeopardy of losing that program. Respect Week was a way to get students involved and also re-energize our S2S body. They are passionate about it and really want to spread the message and importance of healthy relationships.”


The Student 2 Student program, a Military Child Education Coalition initiative designed to meet transitioning students’ needs with immediate peer credibility, positive peer relationships and valued information, was implemented at Carl Albert High School after Franklin secured Air Force funding. It was the S2S board members who were empowered to plan the activities throughout the week.


The high school was decorated in orange, promoting healthy versus unhealthy relationships and respect. S2S also ordered orange bracelets with the hashtag #CAloveisrespect to remind students and teachers to be an ally of respect. A banner was created that students could sign, pledging their respect, and students could tack on post-it notes throughout the week of what love is and is not. Additionally S2S board members organized charity days at local restaurants. Profits made will be turned over to the YWCA.


“The message we wanted to take was entirely focused on healthy relationships: what is a healthy relationship, what is respect, how can you show respect,” Phillips said. “What was really impressive though was witnessing first-hand the paradigm shift that we’ve recently been trained in, which emphasizes prevention through culture change.”


Throughout the week, students at Carl Albert High School met each shift, moving toward creating a better culture and raising awareness for violence prevention. There was an increase in solution-focused behavior by building skills with a S2S discussion with YWCA Director of Prevention Rachele Eskridge. Students were proactive, taking initiative to plan out the week’s events and actively engaging the entire student population. Intrinsic motivation was demonstrated through the support gained by the administration and students took action when they noticed disrespect.


“It’s so easy to always hear the negative, but to have something centered around promoting a positive message and to see such incredible engagement from the students, it was really impressive,” Franklin said.


Another success story of a Team Tinker partnership, the first Respect Week will certainly blossom in years to come. The goal is to expand into all Mid-Del schools and our other surrounding school systems, and with a year under their belt, the team is hopeful that it will produce positive change and reach an even wider range of students.