Tinker welcomes Specialist for Primary Prevention of Violence

Tinker recently welcomed its first specialist dedicated primarily to the prevention of violence. This new position falls under the Comprehensive Airman Fitness umbrella.

Alvin Chandler believes his experience as a domestic violence detective and serving in the Army will help him succeed in his new role. Mr. Chandler served in two deployments, and received a Medal of Valor for the rescue and recovery efforts in the Oklahoma City, Alfred P. Murrah bombing April 19, 1995.

“I’m learning and adjusting, but I am really looking forward to this challenge,” he said. His refreshing presence in the Air Force community at Tinker brings a different perspective to the table when facing obstacles and ideas.

In his new role, Mr. Chandler will look at risk factors — where on the installation are there risks for any forms of violence?

“Green Dot is the Air Force’s first step in arming Airmen for violence prevention using an evidence based public health model,” said Dr. Andra Tharp, the Air Force’s highly qualified prevention expert. “Although that sounds complicated, really what it means is that we know Airmen are a vital part of the solution and we will use methods like this that have been subjected to rigorous scientific testing and were proven to be effective in reducing violence.”

Green Dot serves as the protective factor, methods or resources which are already in place within agencies to protect and prevent violence. Green Dot prepares organizations to implement a strategy of violence prevention that reduces power-based interpersonal violence, which includes not only sexual violence, but also domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, child abuse, elder abuse and bullying.

Mr. Chandler said his focus is violence prevention and looking at resiliency training to contribute as protective factors.

Mr. Chandler said he will pull data from organizations where people are experiencing violence, or are having high risk factors of violence.

“Maybe they aren’t experiencing violence but they have the risk factors which could expose them to violence,” Mr. Chandler explained.

Analyzing data related to violence and associated and protective risk factors are an essential component of the new role at Tinker.

s a primary prevention specialist, Mr. Chandler will spearhead the integration at all levels of subject matter expert input from functional communities. He will also conduct different assessments to determine which strategies are beneficial, and which strategies need to go back to the drawing board for improvement.

Instead of putting so much emphasis on what not to do, Mr. Chandler said prevention should be prioritized. What can we do to prevent these acts of violence from happening?  What we can and should do, rather than what we should not do.

“Of course, we want to see a decrease in statistics across the board in violence on the installation, but seeing suicide rates decline is definitely a goal of mine,” he said.

Mr. Chandler is passionate and engaged, and the hope is that he will increase violence prevention awareness significantly across Tinker. An all-encompassing position, not just geared toward one aspect of violence, is a big role to take on, but Tinker is well-equipped and welcomes Mr. Chandler warmly.