A ‘one-stop shop’ for information
YPG highlights community resources at S.A.F.E. Coffee Drive-thru event
In an effort to spread the word about on-site support programs, U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) held its S.A.F.E. Coffee Drive-thru event on Tuesday, April 30.
The opportunity afforded YPG employees and residents a chance to grab free coffee and snacks, mingle, and glean information on the resources offered at YPG.
The acronym S.A.F.E. represents:
• Sexual Harassment/ Assault Response and Prevention
• Army Substance Abuse Program
• Family Advocacy Program
• Employee Assistance Program
In a statement, YPG Commander Col. John Nelson outlined what the annual event is all about.
“This is called the S.A.F.E. event, and it’s basically an opportunity for the community to come out and be exposed to the resources that we have here on the installation,” he said. “We’ve got some robust individual programs for domestic violence prevention, suicide awareness and prevention, sexual harassment and assault response and prevention. We bring all those programs to one location to create a onestop shop so people can be exposed to all the resources at this installation.”
As far as what inspired this annual initiative, Col. Nelson said it came about as a way to “increase the exposure of these resources to the community” in a comprehensive, one-stop setting.
Arlene Moraga, a sexual assault response coordinator at YPG, further specified the array of resources available at the event.
“We have a lot more agencies out here that provide information regarding suicide prevention, sexual assault response, family advocacy, and equal employment opportunity. We also have a chapel, and if you need immunizations, we can provide them,” Moraga shared. “It’s important to have information readily available to our families and soldiers here.”
YPG program analyst Minda Federmeyer volunteers as a suicide prevention support specialist, and she discussed why it’s so imperative to get information on available resources out to the public.
“Suicide is still prevalent in the military, especially the Army. One suicide affects at least 135 people, and we really want to make sure that message gets out everywhere,” Federmeyer said. “People matter. One suicide’s too many.”