“Can I Kiss You?”

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Christopher S. Sparks
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  Liberty Wing Airmen attended “Can I Kiss You?” interactive training sessions hosted by Mike Domitrz, founder of the DATE SAFE Project, and the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response office at the 48th Fighter Wing, Sept. 26 and Sept. 27.

The DATE SAFE Project is a foundation aiming to provide positive how-to skills and helpful insights for addressing verbal consent, respecting boundaries, sexual decision-making, bystander intervention, and supporting survivors.

“Most people in every room want to do the right thing, but they feel like they haven’t been given the skills to,” Domitrz said. “When they walk out of this presentation they say, ‘These are all things I can do the right thing and I want to do this,’ and that’s the key.”

The training is designed to change social behaviors and help prevent sexual assault in the military by having participants engage in interactive real-life scenarios through role playing and story-telling. This approach gives participants the tools on how to address situations they are likely to encounter.

“It brought new light to different platforms,” said Airman 1st Class Austin James, 48th Communications Squadron cyber systems operator and presentation attendee. “He showed you how you can address these situations in a friendly way and it felt applicable to real life.”

Domitrz maintained interaction with the audience, facilitating conversation about each scenario and encouraging them to actively voice their opinions.

“It’s thinking outside of the box,” said Nicole Beeson, sexual assault response coordinator assigned to the 48th SAPR office. “The training has people putting their own ideas and challenges forth that are more applicable to real life than what you can get from a one dimensional PowerPoint slide.”

The 48th Fighter Wing hopes this interactive presentation can open the door for Domitrz to return annually to conduct training for Liberty Airmen.

“Hopefully this will be the catalyst for the follow-on training we plan to do,” Beeson said. “When we talk about sexual violence, that’s only one vein of a plethora of issues that can deal with violence against a person. With this we can make a deeper dive into a different skillset we can bring to the wing.”