putting the economy in place and clean up the mess that is put to us. i want to finish the job that we all started. we have created 2 million jobs let us create a job for everyone that wants and needs one. let us have britain back in the black. let us keep investing in a national health service, and make sure that it is a genuine seven days a week service for your family all day around. what my plan is is basically one word -- security. security for you, for your family, for your country. this is an amazing country, and we are on our way back. there is a fundamental choice in this election -- stick with a team that brought you that plan because it is working and is helping, or put it all at risk by the people that dave is the spending, debt, taxes and waste. i say stick to the planet that is working, let's not go back to square one. let us finish what we started.

host: my thanks to all of you. it has been a fascinating debate. and a big thank you to our audience here for all of the questions and to you at home for watching and of course those who joined us online. stay here for analysis and news at 10:00. there will also be a debate night on agenda. thanks for watching and good night. [applause] [applause]

unity that a bit of a at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> coming up, peace corps director terry hessler on increased safety measures to get a discussion about the potential emergency response to the biohazardous threat. later president obama is speaking about the deal over iran's nuclear program. on the next "washington journal

david smith and his former deputy shoots of the asset forfeiture office talks about new rules regarding the government's use of civil asset forfeiture lost. the executive director of the month for religious liberty and reverend gary lynn, executive director of americans united for separation of church and state discusses how the concept of religious liberty is legally defined. you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter, washington journal live at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> fidelia atlantic council posts and a discussion examining the iran nuclear framework deals. john delivered fully among the panelists and they see it live starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern following the washington journal. >> here are some of our featured programs for this holiday weekend.

on c-span saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern ormer texas state senator and gubernatorial candidate when he gave us on the challenges facing women central politics and easter sunday at 6:00 p.m. eastern jack nickless receives the congressional gold medal. for his contribution to the game and community service. on c-span2 petrol -- c-span2's cook tv, activist and author cornell west on the radical political waiting period and sunday at noon on index, alive three-hour conversation with former investigative reporter for the washington post and new york times best-selling author ronald kessler. he is written 20 books including escape from the cia, sins of the father and the first family detail. in american history on c-span3, east carolina professor charles calhoun on the obstacles faced and challenges faced by troy

ulysses s. grant. sunday afternoon at 6:00 historian patrick schroeder takes us on a tour of the courthouse in virginia, a site of the confederate surrender on april 9. >> during this month c-span is pleased to present the winning entries in the student documentary competition. student cam is the annual competition that encourages middle and high school students to think critically. students were asked to create a documentary based on the theme the three branches and you to demonstrate how a policy law or action has affected them or the community one of our second prize winners is from nevada. her entry focused on animal conservation.

if our land is in healthy how can we as a people be healthy. it impacts us all. the actual health of our wildlife -- wildlife population. >> to many the endangered species act is excellent when it works to help species recovery but will it be what is best? that is what we set out to discover. >> the greater sage grause is another declining species. a century goat there were over 60 million and today there are fewer than 600,000 and the number continues to drop.

>> the current situation with the sage grouse, the numbers for the bird are down to 5000. the habitat the bird has has been reduced by true half do to development, ranching, wildfires and invasive species. they thrive in a sagebrush habitat and only have half of what they originally had. so they stay on the threatened species list. and last case scenario the endangered species list. if that happens, that could really harm the economy. >> wildfires or evasive species. >> our wildfire is number one which is driven by an invasive grouse. >> catastrophic wildfire and invasive species. >> based on the current threats, there are many who believe placing it on the endangered species list may only hinder its

recovery but there are still those who advocate for its listing. >> i think the one way it might help is it will bring it more into the spotlight for the general public. people tend to pay more attention when a species is in peril and is obvious that it is listed. that might generate more conservation activity. >> if the bird is listed, the bureau of land management will do a consult with the u.s. fish and wildlife service on any management activities that occur within arius determine to be safe which is a large percentage of northern savannah. this will slow down the process of doing habitat restoration. it will also slow down the process of any other type of activity such as mining on the land that is managed by true

elm. there is conflicting opinions on whether or not it's will help the bird or will hamper the bird , because it will slow down the process of restoration. >> looking at a species, i think the worst thing we can do for sage grouse is to list it under the endangered species act. it will be one of the western states that sage grasses in, there have been in the last four to five years, enter unprecedented amount of cooperation that has been happening across the board between federal agencies private landowners, state agencies and there is a huge one that has been built up and my fear for our wildlife population

in general is that a listing of the sage grouse as endangered will set back cooperative conservation one generation or two. we have made such great strides in learning how to get along and communicate and how to work cooperatively. that i would hate to see that lost. >> the species is the focus of unprecedented range white conservation expert -- efforts to turn the status around to prevent it from being listed within the next three years. for example, the usda conservation arm has spent over $100 million to conserve the species. >> you need to establish some core habitat-isms and that is the problem -- the problem is finding the money to do it. we have the nature conservancy

and they have rehabilitation projects that would a sickly be designed to prevent wildfire to restore arius that have been burned and to protect some arius , especially arius were nothing is going on. there is no mining or grazing. to really protect those areas. >> the number one problem we have is they are surrounded by the juniper trees that have encroached on the sagebrush ecosystems. i believe we could have a large impact on improving habitat quickly by removing the trees that surround these systems and reducing the impact predators would have on the hands and improving the meadows to produce more food for the hands in the summer period. >> we work together and communicate and collaborate, we don't set to stink, we help each

other out to do multiple conservation projects for the sage grouse. and i have worked with other species that have been in decline and i have never seen this kind of collaboration that i see with the sage grouse so i think it is a really positive thing and it is something that needs to continue no matter what the decision ends up being. if that happens i think that is good news for the sage grouse. >> there are currently huge conservation efforts. if the species is listed on the endangered species list, these efforts may be halted or stopped completely. the people in the economy will surely be impacted. >> it will end up on the list if we don't actually do something. >> to watch all of the videos

and learn more about the competition go to c-span.org and click on student cam. let us know what you think about the issue of this student addressed in facebook and twitter. >> peace corps director kerry hessler outlines changes at the organization aimed at reducing the risk volunteers face. during the remarks at the center for strategic and international studies she talked about her own account. this is an hour and 35 minutes. >> good morning everybody we are delighted to have you here. a sincere thanks to all of you for coming today and a special

thanks to you carry, we are delighted you are willing to do this. if you ever want to feel good about america, it makes you feel good about this country. there are an awful lot of things that get sour these days, that do make us wonder where we are headed in what we are trying to accomplish as a nation, but when i think about what the peace corps is doing every day i feel so happy because i think it really is one of the most underappreciated positive attributes of america's soft power in the world. this is in part an opportunity to celebrate what we should celebrate every day consciousness about what the peace corps is doing. this particular session grew out of a painful experience. about two years ago, one of my goddaughter's was gang raped in

a university here in washington. i'm still very angry about it. in the context of that -- i reached out and in the context of that i learned of the work you were pioneering at peace corps. i want everywhere to try to find what i can do, i was so unhappy and wanted to confront the university about what i thought was an quite uncaring attitude. and approach. in the context of that i learned of the work you are doing. i had not really understood how complicated the environment is. for this issue, for peace corps volunteers, they are posted forward and often alone and

there isn't a support structure around the overwhelming image that america sends through the movies and tv is of a licentiousness that makes young woman vulnerable, frankly. so i started to learn more about what you're doing and in my grief i learned about what you have been doing. excuse me, i think that the director will talk more broadly about what the peace corps is doing and about the reforms you have been bringing to the peace corps i know this will be difficult because it has been's important commitment that she has brought, she started off in the peace corps in western samoa if i recall and has spent the rest of her professional life around this sort of trying to

create wholesome societies positive cultures and environments, we came to know her from the work she was doing on global public health. especially aids. that is how we had this earlier connection, but now we have a much richer connection. i am so grateful -- this is not a happy topic, but we have to talk about it, i must say there is a bit of personal disappointment, wrote to all of my staff and in my anger i said without responsibilities. i asked for help. i probably had a dozen women who contacted me saying i would be glad to help. not a single man. that is part of the problem. it is not viewed as being our burden to solve, it is viewed as your burden to solve. that is not right. that is wrong. we all have to embrace this and

i'm so glad that you are here. thank you for coming, would you please welcome kerry hessler -- carrie hessler-radelet. carrie: i want to thank you for that warm welcome, for being such a champion for this cause and for sharing your personal story, that is very painful and it is real and that is what we are addressing every day. thank you to see sis for convening this forum. this month is national sexual assault awareness month and we at the peace corps are joining with president obama and agencies across the government in raising awareness and the importance of supporting our victims and ways to prevent those crimes. we dedicate this month every year to raise awareness about sexual assault but i assure you

it will not be much of a surprise to anyone at the safety and security and medical care of our volunteers is our number one priority every signal day. i am told when i introduce myself and people learn i am the director of the peace corps they say, you have the best job in washington. when i visit volunteers and i see the incredible work they are doing an incredible passion for our mission i feel i am honestly the luckiest woman in the world -- world. there are other days it is really tough. the environments you described are really acute, and the weight of responsibility for the thousands of lives on my shoulder can weigh me down tremendously.

nowhere do i feel this more acutely than that issue of sexual assault, an issue we are confronted head-on as an agency since we had the passage of the peace corps volunteer protection act of 2011. as a mother and a woman and a return peace corps volunteer in public health professional, there is no issue i take more seriously than sexual assault. as a survivor myself there is no issue i care about more deeply or personally. my story is not very differently from those i hear about everything will day. during my service i was sexually assaulted by a person in authority over me and i chose not to report. i was embarrassed. i blame myself, i feared that i had somehow behaved in an culturally inappropriate way that led my assailant to believe

i was interested in him. and i mistakenly regarded his overtures as attraction rather than sexual violence. i was 24 years old and i was afraid that nobody would believe me because my assailant was a prominent member of my community. i wanted to be a model peace corps volunteer. being a model peace corps volunteer did not include being a victim. i was afraid i would be taken away for my community where i developed incredibly strong relationships with people i loved and respected. i finally reported my sexual assault but only when i was attacked by the same individual on three separate occasions. looking back there as part of me that is incredibly baffled by the fact i did not come forward. when i think on my own experience i can also understand very well why it is that so many volunteers are reluctant to

report their sexual assault, it is not only in peace corps but here in this country as well. when i first came to the agency as the deputy director almost immediately i was confronted by the real, painful and deeply personal accounts of peace corps volunteers who had been sexually assaulted during their service and even more painful perhaps was my first meeting with the family who have lost their incredibly beautiful daughter kate, a whistleblower who had been tragically murdered. both groups shared their deep grief, concern and disappointment with the way the peace corps had handled their situation over the years. some of these cases stretched back decades. i am so grateful to those who came forward for having the courage to come forward publicly with their heart wrenching stories. because their accounts pointed

both the love they feel or the peace corps and their desire for real measurable improvement. their stories were clear evidence of our need for a new approach. it was born out of love for our mission. after hearing their stories and seeing their pain it forced me to confront my own sexual assault, because for 30 years i had buried that event deep within myself. i had told nobody, not even my own family. if i was to leave the agency in it's time of crisis than i needed to be able to speak publicly and honestly about my own past. as a director i see no higher priority for the agency than the safety and security of our volunteers. to implement the world-class sexual assault risk reduction that our volunteers deserve, we needed to take a top to bottom assessment of our agency

policies, programs and procedures. in grappling with the sexual violence in volunteer safety we have reevaluated not just our approach to sexual assault but also how we train and support our volunteers at every aspect of their service. the resulting reforms we have implemented over the last four years go well beyond the new model for responding to sexual assault. over the past few years what we have achieved is nothing short of culture change of peace corps. a shift to the volunteer center purposefully volunteer centered in every sense. we have always been deeply committed to supporting our volunteers and there is no doubt that our staff are among the most caring, compassionate people that there are. we knew to operate with even

greater transparency and inclusion than ever before while respecting volunteer confidentiality and maintaining our ironclad commitment to physical and emotional well-being. we recognize that social and sexual gender norms had changed greatly since peace corps in 1961 along with the tools that we now have at our disposal to provide effective support and deliver compassionate care. definitions of what constitutes sexual assault have evolved so much enabling more and broader discussion on these complex issues in our own country. technology has advanced enabling us to provide evidence-based support and care that was not at all possible before. the sub floor protection is now the norm. we thought out the practices pioneered by other leading institutions and hired experts in the field to help us adapt to

reflect the unique model and the daily realities of volunteers in the field who are vulnerable most of the time. although they are surrounded by an incredibly loving community and that is something hard for most americans to understand that they are safe because they are surrounded by people who love them deeply. living grateful to come up with so of our leading experts in the field of sexual assault. from the department of defense to the rate of abuse national network, the national center for victims of crime and our own assault advisory you are here susan in a few moments, she and others have done so much to help us along the way to improve the rigor of our program. we have true experts on our staff, working together we have developed a model with real impact, what we refer to as our sexual assault risk reduction program which went a what into

effect globally in 2013. it is based on a two-pronged approach. where working to reduce risks by training volunteers. that includes making sure that volunteers are aware of all the resources and options available to them and empower them to report all incidents of sexual assault from harassment, to forced kissing, to rape. we want people to come forward to get the care that they need so they can be productive volunteers. we have implement it policies and practices to include the policy of our response. we do this through sexual assault training for every single one of our staff along with specialized training for first responders, victim advocacy services to volunteers, the appointment of transsexual assault response liaison's and the development of policies

designed to facilitate an effective multidisciplinary response to reporting which i'm sure we will talk about. our goal is to create an environment that empowers volunteers in every sense of the word. it will give us trust at every level and encourage us to seek the support they need and deserve. we want it to be a safe space to come forward, whatever is troubling volunteers. our goal is to create an environment that empowers volunteers, to increase reporting and access to services and tells us we moving in the right direction. we have seen a 20% increase since we began our program. while we cannot delineate any risk, we still have things that we are improving upon. i am confident that today our volunteers are better formed better trained than ever before. we continue to monitor and

evaluate the impact of these reforms and we commit to work diligently, to improve our model and to seek greater efficiency and effectiveness. we are committed to doing our best for volunteers. over the past four years in volunteer safety we have continued to learn to grow critically examine our policies procedures and to lead and our commitment to the communities we serve. some of the reforms we have made have struck at the very core of our culture. from the very beginning, the culture of peace corps always put volunteers first. our very first rector famously inverted a triangular chart with the director at the top and volunteers at the bottom and he inverted it so that the volunteers are at the top and the director was at the bottom. our staff has always cared deeply about our volunteers and worked tirelessly to support them.

so what about our culture has changed? here is how i see the changes being manifested now. we proactively strive to empower volunteers as much as possible to take care of their own or take control of their own care safety and service. from in fomenting historic reforms in the recruitment and selection process, offering them choice and elevating volunteer voices in all aspect of communications to placing volunteers firmly in the center of the new i.t. strategy volunteers are at the center of everything that we do. number two, we provide volunteers with greater support they had -- than they have ever received before. providing volunteer services with the dramatically enhanced career services, to the development of a medevac support team and our new host service medical unit to our new intercultural and diversity support initiatives.

our focus is on supporting volunteers in peace corps and beyond. third, we have embraced proactive use of evidence-based best practice in the work, whether revamping our technical program in support of volunteers. updating new standards of medical care or prioritizing frameworks across the agency we strive to make sure data informs all of our decisions. the path we have taken in addressing sexual assault has not been easy. it has been very hard and i wrestled personally with it, but it is an important journey and i'm so grateful to you for providing a forum so we can discuss here how this transformation has come about and where we hope to go in the future. our hope is that by sharing our experience others will learn. our hope is that we can learn

from the experiences of others and it is our hope that this forum will give rise to an open hopeful, honest empathetic dialogue that deepens our understanding of sexual violence and sexual assault whether in a faraway developing country or right here at home. thank you for being given the opportunity to be here with you today and i look forward to our conversation. [applause] >> good morning i'm the deputy director of the global health policy here. it is my pleasure to be here this morning to leave this discussion. i'm going to kick it over to susan.

she is the director of public policy for the international center of victim crime she is also a member of the sexual assault advisory center at the peace corps. you have her full bio and front of you so i will turn it over. >> i would like to take a few minutes to explain the role of the sexual assault advisory council and how we have seen this evolution at the peace corps. the sexual assault advisory council was created by the act. the composition is to include both returned peace corps volunteers some of whom who victims and experts in government and nongovernment that is included people from the fbi, the state department, the dod. people from advocacy organizations, see, have the elements been

implanted and in and lamenting has the peace corps consulted with the best experts and are those new policies and practices in compliance with best practices jacob i believe -- actresses? -- practices? i believe a thought that would be easy but it is not. evaluation of assault and adult learning has changed and you can see there isn't a solid set of best practices for sexual assault in existence anyway. look at how much the military has been evolving, even though they are making great strides each year you can find new things that need to be changed. campuses have been dealing with sexual assault for some time but it is still continuing to evolve. even in our general population

we don't have solid best practices for sexual assault. and you take what we are learning and try to apply it to a completely new context of the peace corps. unlike say the civilian world campuses or the military, the peace corps has no control over the cultural norms so if -- much of risk reduction in this country is trying to change social norms. but if you don't control the local culture that is not a great avenue to get at the potential perpetrators which are host country people. then you look at the response and so much of the response in this country is related to the adjudication and judicial response that the peace corps has no control over. they have no control over

perpetrators. unlike the military or campus we do have some control and where much of the response is making sure the victim's rights are implemented and local services are available. the struggle has been to take what we know of as practices and try to apply it, so as the sexual assault advisory council has looked at the great work the peace corps is doing we have often had to fall back on -- is this compatible with what we know as beck practices and if there are not best practices how about the foundational principles of victim support and response and this the peace corps has done very well. it includes transparency. making sure that the victim fully understands what the processes in the peace corps and what the roles are. it includes options so that before the victim is required to make a choice they understand

the implications of those choices and what the options are. it is getting people a voice in what happens to them. and in maintaining confidentiality. because we don't have these best practices and cannot simply say this is what the peace corps ought to be doing, the peace corps's embrace of a robust system of monitoring and evaluation has been key. so what they have done is put their best efforts forward at both risk reduction and response and then have solid systems in place to monitor and evaluate so that then they can tweak, change alter what they are doing. for risk reduction and response it is pre-, for training it is pre-and post testing. it is looking at -- are the processes working?

distaff understand what their roles are? our staff following the procedures? looking at the impacts. are the trained volunteers using that bystander intervention? are victim satisfied with the response they are getting? does the data show they are receiving what they are supposed receive? are more victims coming forward? that is a clear sign of success. we know from looking at sexual assault around the country, if people do not see a reason to come forward, there is no benefit and they don't know whether they will be helped, they won't. if they understand that here is what we can do for you, here is what you're coming forward can do for us, we expect reporting to go up. that is why the council has been

very pleased to see an increase intra-victims coming forward some of those restricted confidential reports and many of them standard reports. it has been really a privilege and an honor to be part of the sexual assault advisory council and to work with the peace corps as they have struggled through these issues and are creating a world-class risk reduction and response program. >> thanks very much. i'm wondering if we can take it down a level and talk about the actual policies. what does training look like what is the reporting mechanism? what are the options and resources? can you take us through more concretely what the program looks like. >> i will start and i'm sure you're going to add to it. when someone reports sexual assault they have eight services right away. the first is the option of choosing they report only to

those who provide direct services. that is important for the maintenance of confidentiality. or a standard report which is enter option people select if they want to pursue a legal process. the second services from a victim advocate. that is really important. with of the most important things we did was create an office of victim advocacy. we have staffed the victims with our nation's leading experts and we are proud of it. and they reach out to every single person who has reported. third of all have a forensic exam. they pursue legal course of action, emergency health care if necessary, counseling and psychiatric care and medication if necessary. a safety and treatment exam if

necessary, a safety plan for when they return. evacuation for medical treatment if not available and an explanation of law enforcement and prosecutorial options and legal representation. those are the services available to anyone. one of the things i talked about earlier was the desire to put the volunteer firmly in control of his or her process. not just women but men as well. so volunteers get to choose which service they want to access. that is what it looks like on the ground. i don't know if you want to add anything? >> one of the things i really admire about the approach is that reports are the default, the default is restricted. it is pursuant confidential

unless and until the victim chooses a standard report. then providing them legal information and giving them information about what is the process in this country? how does the local jurisdiction handle sexual assault? how long do you have to report and connecting victims at their request with a local legal advocate and counselor who can really explain the process. >> part of our process actually is lifted crime against volunteers because we have sent lawyers out and they have a thorough legal environment assessment. the other thing we found is that in some cases they are prosecuting laws that have in some cases been on the books but never adjudicated. we are helping some of our host

country's legal systems evolve through cases that have never been tried. >> just to continue on the legal base for a second, a lot of these countries are places where they may not have laws on the books and they may have never been tried and it are there will be extrajudicial implications for either the volunteer herself or the peace corps community. corruption is rife in some of these countries. how does peace corps navigate that myth of the volunteer. supporting the volunteer might help but supporting the broader peace corps vision might be otherwise. how do you balance those competing addresses. for us it is in consultation with the volunteer. we don't want the volunteer to be surprised by anything.

anyone who chooses to go to the legal process has been every step of the way, who is really familiar with every aspect. our sexual assault response liaison and we have safety and security on the team as well. so we have people very familiar with the legal environment. the matter how much you want to prosecute it will be in your own best interest and part of it is being ready for what to expect and giving them the option to choose to face a tough situation or not. they need to have informed choice. that is why we have put such extensive care into this research and analysis on what the legal environment is. not only on what it says on the books, but what does it actually mean in terms of the public, in terms of calm and law may be on the books but it may e, it may not even be practical to try to

go through a legal process for a whole host of other reasons. part of our responsibility is providing complete information to a volunteer to make their own choice. >> that really is a best practice, to give all that information to the volunteer so that they can decide what's best for them. it can be as you mentioned extremely difficult for a victim in a third world country to step forward and be part of a sexual assault prosecution or sometimes these young men and women are motivated because they want to show the people in their community that you can stand up to sexual violence. and in that case the peace corps does its best to support them. but by letting that volunteer know, here is the lay of the land and here's a legal expert you can turn to for advice, and

empowering that victim or survivor to make the choice is really a wonderful pretzel -- principle to fall back on. >> i'm proud of effect with amazing host country nationals to who undergo training and himself become activist. activists within the own community for best practice. in many cases they are leading change in their own communities. >> do you have these conversations at a country level when they request? is this part of accomplish with the continental sexual assault response but a broader safety issues or cultural issues that would put any cohort or volunteer at risk? >> absolutely. it involves multiple visits to that community to talk to not only a potential workplace but

also to talk to the local police, post i was to we do extensive interviews with host families. would talk to other committee leaders because we want them to understand the responsibility comes with having a peace corps volunteer in their community. there is responsibly that is implied. so it is part of our conversation. i'm not certain to be honest with you how much depth we go into the issue of sexual assault. you know, on a site visit, but i do know that it's something that we spent a lot of time talking to our volunteers about every also raised it in issue in the context of domestic abuse which comes up quite a lot as a because there's different norms related to domestic abuse and laws actually. so it is a place where we have conversations and to our host country national staff who are conducting most of these conversations have to themselves the actists and advocates. they need to be really informed by best practice as well. >> if you read the peace corps

information about these programs and even listen to what you said earlier, the word compassion comes up quite a bit. that seems to me to be one of the harder things to implement. it's not a rule, not a policy. it's a quality of the staff who are all the way down to the community level. how do you implement that threw out the huge network that is the peace corps? >> well, i think that compassionate people are naturally drawn to the peace corps. i have worked in 25 years, for 25 years and the development and a don't think that's ever -- people who care deeply about world piece. and building strong relationships across and between nations. so i think that peace corps by nature attracts people like that. and always has. but i think also our understanding of what happens when someone especially is such assaulted i didn't understand the effect of, on the brain and

why it is that in the compassion care that is nonjudgmental is a very -- so very important to that's what our trade is critical because although people are compassionate by nature, often times we operate within our own cultural norms our own biases and we may be somewhat judgmental about a particular practice. and what's important to understand is even if their underlying issues that you eventually need to address, the use of alcohol for example. you do not want to address that when someone has been such assaulted at that moment. there is a time and place for addressing every single isue. your job as a first responder is to be compassionate and to listen and to put control back into the hands of a victim. because control is what you need

when you're sexual assaulted. users offense of control and so you need to build to restore dignity and control so that that person can begin -- if there are issues then they can be addressed by a trained provider at the right time. >> i think carriages outlined the real evolution at the peace corps, because even before the kate puzey act, well before these changes and to the government of the sexual assault risk reduction program, you had compassionate, empathetic professionals who were doing what they thought was best in responding to the volunteer. but without the training and the policies in place, they were making a lot of mistakes. but now that the staff is understanding here dynamics of trauma, here is how what you do affects the way that the victim recovers and their view of the peace corps and here's how it

fits into our mission has really been remarkable. >> so what other things susan g. mentioned the marching evaluation and i'd pulled the report from six-month six but for which i think is the most recent one that had a couple of themes for the report that the peace corps data to improve, including more focused on trauma, of becoming a trauma informed organization, staffing issues, they need to clarify and streamline policy and trainings anymore strategic approach, the other to 10 you talk a little bit about those findings, have you seen improvement over the last six months? what's left to be done and where is this headed? >> i should say the council only comes together twice a year. one is fact-finding, so we learned what has been all the change in the past year and then the others to come together to write our report. we really have not looked at the changes that have taken place in the past six months. but some of staffing issues that we noticed were i need to clarify roles and responsibility of different staff.

because one of the keys to a strong sexual assault response is a coordinated response with the various professionals. but we've learned and the peace corps has learned that unless you are very clear about individuals responsibilities you can have two or three people who think it is their job to do ask for the victims and to someone else is doing it, they feel this empowered, frustrated. so that's where that's the basis of the staffing issue. another -- can you run through a few more? >> more strategic approach to prevention. >> right. the peace corps is doing a lot in the way of risk reduction and prevention, but just to have an overall strategy in place to make further progress easier. because you know where a few senior research you know where that can plug in the it's a lesson that is then learned by the department of defense. and so we have applied it here.

>> and reviewing, clarifying streamlined policies and training. >> the policy of procedures that have been developed are terrific and thoreau and very long period -- thorough and really long. and it's just hard for professionals to really have really be eligible with a thick manual and knowing that they've done it. so now that you have created it, look to where you can streamline back and make it easier to work with. >> so maybe i could say -- first of honor to say that we rely so much on the guidance and advice of our sexual assault advisory council, and every time they meet archivists found inside that then provides us with both the guidance to know what to do but also the permission to do it, if i can say that.

so a couple things. one thing you mentioned, the policies, i mean literally they are this thick so we have gone through it since that time and streamlined. we have eliminated redundancy. we have clarified where there's maybe some murkiness. so next time you sexual assault advisory council meets they will see a new policy manual. intransitive we'll we were are working on approved training especially around risk reduction. and i believe that the new training is just now being sort of pretested. actually we're talking in the car on the way over how we're doing i stand intervention -- bystander. some of our own staff have requested mail only bystander interventions because they feel like they would be able to ask more questions, feel accountable. i think that's important because staff are certain to face, of i was going to this end this is the kind of change, this is what

i need in order to feel like i am gaining most out of it. that makes me really happy. both staff are asking for it but they are also asking for it in a form that it would be most useful to them. >> we met after this meeting, we had the, specialist, the advisory council commended for a whole day with our staff and really to talk about what exactly we do, we can understand from his approach. i think he gained an appreciation for the depth of what we are doing as well. i can only say that our staff was grateful to have had the opportunity to spin an extensive period of time on this topic. one of the issues is the account comes together and there's a lot

to do and we don't get an opportunity to spend one on time bishop one-on-one time with experts. that may be something we want to spend, view, identify personal area, make time with that individual to really do a deep dive into our work. i know that they have, we have responded to that and have spent significant time. the staffing, we have added a new team lead for our sexual assault risk reduction response program, kate raftery was or did it is and is doing a lot to bring us together as a team to identify where are the gaps and overlaps, but especially the overlaps in terms of roles and responsibilities so that people feel that they're able to do their professional job because the incredible professions have so much to add to this is a i come in and this is where you come in, and we value each other's work and this is how we're going to live together. going through a process, i could spend all week doing this, that has by all accounts really helped all of us to, first of all, feel good about our own contribution also really a lot

of appreciation for what others bring to the table. so you know next time we come together you will see the progress that has been made in this area and you will find other things we need to work on and that's the nature of the beast and that's what so important to us is this continued quality improvement. there are always things we can do better. we wanted want it to be that way. we will never be satisfied. i can't imagine a time when there isn't something we could do better. >> want anything to peace corps stint as a limiting a management system that will allow data about the response provision to be analyzed without violating confidentiality. so they won't be able to read look at where are the gaps are where are the successes and how have we improved the year one to year two. >> i referred to this brief in my remarks. the technology is changing so much. for decades, forever peace corps that opry with operating with

paper file. now we are implementing both case and get systems also an electronic medical reporting system that will allow us real-time to be able to sort of evaluate cases and identify whether appropriate care was given and how we can do better and where we did it will, which is also important. >> i don't know we need to get into the whole controversy with the inspector general and the sharing of information but will this system help with that conversation? >> it will come absolutely. right now it's not like redundant system. we do have a system but it is probably better. it's not seamless and we have various databases that are not

talking to each other. we are having to do a workaround so it will make it much easier. honestly what's at the heart of the issue with inspector general is the reporting, and whether or not, how we interpret the law but only those people responsible for direct provision of care will know about the details of the personally identifiable information. that's really what the situation is about. we want to follow the law. i also want to say that our spector general is fantastic. we have a great relationship with her, and her team. we work very closely on a whole range of different issues. we want to comply with the law. that is bottom line. who we are talking to them about perhaps clarifying that. i would say that actually a relationship with inspector general is very well. >> i think that's because both the office of inspector general and the peace corps want to do what's best but they have

different roles and they both want to comply with the law. but the question is, when the inspector general comes in they normally think they should have access to all of the information but you have to look closely, how much of the personally identifying information or the real details of you sexual assault come isn't necessary for you to know to be able to do your job. and then if there is a given case where you want to talk to a victim who thinks that they're operating under complete confidentiality, how best can that be facilitated that it doesn't traumatize affected. so candid the advanced notice, can you give the victim an option to speak with the attorney general saying that this is part of the quality improvement process. and that's how it is right now that they can ask for the information and the volunteer can say yes or no.

we want to make sure that volunteers feel that they have the confidentiality so that they can come forward. we have seen an increase come about. but it is also the inspector general's job to make sure that we're doing our job and we're delivering the promises that we've made to our volunteers. and so, the truth of the matter is we all absolutely are alike in what we do. we all care deeply about making sure we provide the support and the care needed for volunteers. and actually when the law is clarified, you will work together company, we are already working together but some clarification will be useful to all of us, put it that way. >> that's another benefit of the ongoing monitoring and you wish and activities of peace corps. because you've already created an atmosphere that we are

looking for our own mistakes all the time, and it's not to play gotcha. it so we can improve. so then i think there's less concern if the office of inspector general looks at data and finds a problem because it fits into what they are already trying to do. >> a lot of it is what i was saying earlier, trying to build a culture of trust where we trust each other. volunteers trust staff. the agency trust aig. the ig trust us. if we can create a culture of trust, it makes everything so much easy. i would say we've got a long way to building trust. spent i could keep asking questions but i would like to open it to our audience. if you can raise your hand if you've something to as. we have a couple people with microphones. please say who you are, where you're from. we will do, we are going to take three or four questions at once and then i will get back to the panel and then we'll

come back to the audience for a second round. and if you can keep your questions short, that would be appreciated. there's a gentleman right here on the i/o. >> -- on the i/o. >> my name is doug sanderson. i divide my time between a little company called into logix and a larger company called -- there's a trade off in reporting. there are some incidents that you really wouldn't want to prosecute but you don't want to be ignored either. and if the bill is severe want to get over the threshold for prosecution, there's a tendency for people not to want to put anything until you hit that, for people insisted not to want to take further until you hit that threshold. below that threshold, minor incident, a guy grabbed her hand and said i would really love to go out with you, that's technically sexual battery as soon as he touched her, but actually more like sexual harassment is all you would get in court. >> council the guy, don't do that a guy -- don't do that again. that's the opportunity to prevent that area from the opportunity prevent more super things later.

so how can what is your view of the trade off of when it should be reported when they should be handled in a less open fashion? i'm thinking of this from the standpoint of the military where if you sent a peace corps volunteer home halfway through his tour, it's probably made his career producing a light colonel home, he is a done. >> let's go to the two in the front. >> i'm with the naval postgraduate school, but my first job, i was hired two days before the peace corps was announced on the peace corps staff but i was their first off the street employ the everybody else had come out of the campaign. i was trying to understand what do you explain about, how do you protect it from happening? i guess the other thing i'm

concerned about is, you're incredibly long direction, government does that. academia does that. i think you have to start demanding from the people who do this work what both eisenhower and reagan demanded you tell me what i need to know in two pages pages. and all of the other detail is an addendum. nobody has time to read. the department of transportation just put out a chance petition report, 340 pages. who the devil is going to read that? and you also have, if you of new ideas, you want to highlight them up front, and what you can do, what you can do with these new ideas to get these new ideas that you don't want to have to struggle through these academic reports. >> if you could hand the microphone to the woman's right behind you. there we go. >> the flame is passed on. i have the opportunity to do a lot of development work, particularly in central asia

and caucasus. and in the case, in the course of that work i met with united nations population fund and i'm wondering what kind of liaison you have with them? many folks don't know that one of the three pillars of the u.n. population fund work is violence against women, and that is part of the broader u.n. context which secretary-general of the u.n. has also flag is really important. and, of course, this is a chance to work with that there is ngos, some of them, for example, i met with a moslem woman's ngo very interested in some of these issues because i think this is a great chance for dialogue. so my question is how you're accessing the u.n. system, the u.n. agencies, particularly those that have programs with something called the 16 days against violence. that happens across the world usually in december. i think these are good and actions to make. >> we have three questions there.

there's the trade off between reporting and prosecution, when you can handle things before the rise to that level. question the prevention and the most effective thing that people are really going to read and engage with comment and engagement with the u.n. but i would and other partners. u.s. agencies as well as other international agencies. >> do you want to start and i will pick up after you are done? >> sure. with the responsibility to report and prosecute, we don't want to put too much, we don't want to put a burden on the individual victim or volunteer to say it's your responsibility to make sure that the societal system changes, because we not difficult they can be. so that's just one factor that they had to figure him. the volunteer and victims know they will be supportive whatever th choose a fully informed. but your mark also talked about

what happens to the perpetrator. the peace corps has developed a separate system for volunteer on volunteer sexual assault the that the volunteer can choose as a disciplinary proceeding. because many volunteers don't have confidence in the local criminal justice system. they don't want to subject a fellow volunteer to the vagaries of that system. but i want some form of accountability. so the peace corps is developing a disciplinary system. >> anything to add? >> no. i think that's right. >> if it's within the peace corps, can access the u.s. justice system? >> they could. if the perpetrator volunteer returned to the united states. >> i don't have anymore to act on that. i would like to go to the next question actually come and that is about training and how can you prevent -- for peace corps one of the important tools we can get our volunteers is language, the ability to speak delight was to understand the like with to understand the

culture, understand the cultural norms. in some places if you accept a dance with someone, let's say at a party, then that's an invitation to our volunteers need to know that. so understanding the cultural context is probably the most important thing we can do for our volunteers. but we also trained and advised -- we will watch out for each other, that we will not leave people behind, and we agree agreed not only to intervene if we fear that someone is in a situation that is risky but also they will be intervened upon if it appears to you know it's really, it's an ingredient to support each other. we also have pure support networks so volunteers can talk among themselves about some of the challenges they're facing integrating to the host committee. one of the things -- >> pardon me.

>> it might be, yeah, or we have peer support networks in country but even that because of volunteers are placed throughout the country, often it is either done by phone or online or text message or however it is they do it. you know, one thing that dr. hamre mentioned issues sorted influence of american media and how that affects how communities you americans. that's a challenge for us because how we are portrayed as a people is not very attractive. frankly. and so our volunteers can support each other. what our volunteers are doing is offering alternative view of america, which is such a wonderful thing. >> you talked about how difficult it is if you overwhelmed someone with a bunch of written material and expect them to digest it. what is the threat of the peace

corps training as they worked with adult learning experts to figure out what part of this can be put online and what is the best system before people start their service what can we do that is part of their preservice training and pre- service training and what can we do a disservice, how can we reinforce messages rather than assuming they will remember from this point how can we reintegrate the important messages, so it is not cutting it so much on the volunteer to learn themselves but how can we make it easy.

>> we do a lot of work around transitioning back to the united states because in some ways that is the most painful experience of all coming back to a place that is different you your self have changed. we have a lifecycle based training program. then the other thing is your question about the un agency just yesterday there was a big

meeting of international partners. on the topic of volunteerism and volunteer support the partnership is our main strategy. we never do anything all by ourselves. our volunteers are trained to work within the cultural context of their community with the partner organizations and often their local ngos but sometimes they are a un agency. but we work with many that are committed to women's health and reproductive health and gender equality to girls education and we recently launched a new initiative we are excited about with the first lady that is a community focused approach to

education for girls around the world. it's girls education and empowerment. so as part of that we talk about domestic abuse and it's not just about reaching out to the girls it is also to reach out to the boys to create allies among young men and adolescent boys. we want to encourage young men to be analyzed to speak out against domestic abuse and sexual violence to be supportive of female peers in terms of education to be good fathers and partners. so we work with partners who are experts and they are helping us develop some of our gender materials and we also have a very strong women's empowerment agenda are a quality team that peace corps that we are working very actively with partners

including the un agency. >> to go back for a moment on the prevention piece. you could see a situation where you have an incident takes place but for whatever reason does or doesn't prosecute and then a node perpetrator who is still in that community. does the peace corps have tools to do anything about that? are people kept away from peace corps activities? you obviously don't want to target people that have been accused and prosecuted but how is that when a situation arises how do you protect other volunteers and other people in the community from someone will? >> we have firms and we put in place a volunteer their. that's the idea. we have stronger tools to do this and we use technology to

do that more effectively more than we have in the past. it used to be paper that now we have the electronics that you can update and search. we are very attuned once the volunteer has done the fault we want to make sure that it can be returned to that site and we wouldn't knowingly put a volunteer back into that site if they were someone we were really concerned about still being there. we often work closely in collaboration with local police and law enforcement. when they are confronted with these individuals this is in the first the first time it's happening in their community soap work very closely with local authorities as well.

>> my name is janet and i went for the global health policy center and just following up on that point i wondered if this is expanding a dimension of the peace corps so if you are enhancing your own understanding and response to these issues of sexual violence, isn't also affecting the kind of programming that you're doing and isn't linking with the issues of the communities they are facing and are you seeing a new dimension of the work on the ground, in part based on your own increased awareness of the prevalence of these problems? >> i'm with the american institute for contemporary german studies. i'm a big advocate of peace corps. i have a question that's a little bit broader than sexual

assault risk and programs because there are a lot of different areas where the peace corps volunteers to take huge risks and do have many challenges. but i wanted to question the program where the young people receive regular salaries. i would like to know whether there's ever been a book at the peace corps in these competitive young people who come back and go off to graduate school and everything and after two years of service walk away with after taxes $5,000 if there isn't a little bit of a question about shouldn't we be compensating them more i remember when obama announced he will give all

government contractors have to at least get a minimum wage i'm not advocating for the full salary. i understand the concept and i definitely think it shouldn't be on a monthly basis but with the cost of education going up it seems to me that we should be giving every wording some of the risks and everything these volunteers take with a little more help towards graduate school and the career choices they then have to make after they've given two and a half years of their life. >> why don't we go in the back here. >> i am a return preschool volunteer. i came back in november so i was a volunteer during the

rollout of the policies. you were talking about the volunteers and staff earlier and i was just wondering there is an ongoing culture of mistrust whether it's because of staff points of view about harassment were reporting forms or even confidentiality breakdowns where they have private conversations with volunteers. so come all of these things are still creating a coulter of mistrust between the volunteers and staff. so i'm just wondering i know you mentioned that the building distrust is extremely important for the effect of a lot of the policies so i'm wondering what exactly is being done to change this and think these policies more effective and are they enough to report. the other two questions are the broad impact of the policies on the peace corps activities in the country and the question of the payment for the service.

>> sure. thank you so much for your service and for your honesty. this is not an issue that can be addressed overnight. a lot of it is ways that are inherent in a culture so we are working really hard and that's why we have the continual evaluation. it's not like you train once and that's the end of it. it's a continual quality improvement initiative. we've developed several mechanisms for volunteers to confidential the report when they feel that they have not received adequate care. one of them is medical care we have the quality nurse. we now have a sexual assault hotline that is just actually going to be rolled out in the

next couple of weeks so people can speak to someone contracting out not affiliated with peace corps so you don't trust the system at all. that's an excellent place to go. we also do evaluations of medevac and ask them to make their services. i also visit a lot of programs and i write extensively in the peace corps times and some other blogs and what have you. they talk about experiences that haven't gone well. we are not there yet but it enables us to get to where we want to go. it's not as fast as i would like and we are still dealing with people that have this experience but may be

different, it may be more judgmental attitudes about things that it takes a long time to change those attitudes into those kind of behaviors. we've worked with our own staff to try to create a culture where trust can build. if there is a situation where confidentiality is reached, i really want people to to come forward. there is an avenue available to everyone on a regular basis is the regular ig and we have posters of you may recall that the victim advocates if you see violation of confidentiality or any of the right call the ig or if you need to reach out to the victim advocate in washington you can contact the victim advocate. wery to create places if they are not receiving the care they

need and deserve and then we do a mediation. we take those very, very seriously and we always follow up on them and also want to ensure confidentiality so then it becomes a conversation with the volunteer. are you comfortable with us going back to the person who you're saying wasn't providing adequate care or support, etc. are you comfortable with us addressing it, do you wish me to address it in a different way coming into becomes a conversation where that's our approach. it's not easy changing it and i think the universities are seeking that, too. universities have been dealing with this for decades. it's hard, but we are trying to create an environment where there is this space is about is

our goal and that is what we are working towards. >> i think that's why it is so important having those surveys of the peace corps volunteers if there isn't a place that talks about the confidentiality or other issues that could go different working with the employee and the staff evaluations to incorporate many of these issues. but the point is to try to set the systems in place and then measure to evaluate how to have opportunities of input, change from and continually monitor the process. >> and counseling staff. we need to counsel the staff so that they can change their practice. we also have an all volunteer survey every year. we have a very high response rate, come into that as an opportunity for the volunteers to rate the director and give

comments about the level of support around the staff program staff, medical officer etc.. we also take this very seriously as well. >> for the peace corps volunteers with artist considered the â >> i think we try to incorporate a vote of these principles with issues related to gender a quality and empowerment that has been a big part of our work in all of our technical sectors. let me say what they are. education, health, environment community economic development. so in the context of the program we do incorporate best practices and some of them are issues related to sexually violent domestic abuse etc..

we don't want our volunteers to intervene and develop because we don't want harm to come to the volunteers, so we trained them what to do for example they see domestic abuse happening in the community. the most effectively is getting people within their community who are themselves natural leaders and advocates to raise the conversation and volunteers support them with traditional information. but when you are talking about difficult entrenched issues like gender roles and especially where this is related we really worked to reduce the organizations. our volunteers volunteers took up with other organizations that are indigenous so that they can support. that's the way that we do it because we were worried about the volunteer safety. >> even if you are not addressing the issues there is a lot happening so when they

law enforcement and saying here are our standards of peace corps for how we are responding to the art influencing change. when the peace corps medical officer may have to find a local medical provider who is authorized to do for indic exams and explaining here is the sensitive approach that we use and may i be in that room while the exam is happening, and then we were talking about today's volunteers coming to the peace corps with so much more awareness into tools and for what they are learning as being active on campus or another organization that they will have an influence as well. >> bear in the experience into the community and that is probably the way we are most likely to be influential in that area.

>> even something as simple as looking at the gender dynamics in the family my own experience i was a volunteer. i served with my husband. the fact that my husband was washing clothes by hand in helping with shopping in the market and being a partner in domestic chores was itself a big statement and he took a lot of grief for that. but you know, it helps to have the discussion. he was able to talk to some of the chief about why is it that it's important to share domestic responsibilities and that leads to the conversation about gender the quality and then you can go from there to the conversation about how do you treat an equal partner so they are doing it in ways that are culturally sensitive and safer and that enable us to

lead by example. >> the last is compensation. we are all about service. it really is about service. we are taking care of the living allowance and we actually have made changes to the adjustment allowance when you emerge after two years, you get $8,000. frankly, my son is 24-years-old, he's working and making it dramatically higher salary and he is not able to save a penny. volunteers come back after two

years and have much more than their peers working at $40,000 a year. part of it is the lifestyle they are living. the other thing is we have a lot of benefits that others don't have, for example we have a student loan deferment, not the commercial loans although we are working on it but the payment is deferred. we have masters programs and there are two programs, the masters international which is the volunteer graduate service at the same time as the masters master's work and they get academic credit and merge at the other end with a masters degree and peace corps service. we also have an if range a follow-up programs which are scholarships and teaching

assistants to return to the peace corps volunteers. so there are benefits to service to other people. the other thing is the applications rising every day. we've done some massive changes to the application process. we have streamlined it and introduced the option of choice where they would like to apply. it's a much more transparent process you can see where you are. you are going where you are going quickly etc.. and what we have seen is a dramatic increase in the number of applications. in a number of countries quite frequently we do regular

cost-of-living assessments to see how much we should be paying volunteers for their living allowance. quite frequently if the volunteers themselves if they don't increase our money anymore because it will set us apart from our community. if we pay them a lot of money they wouldn't have the same relationship with their neighbors as they have now now added that is central to who we are so for those reasons we haven't considered paying them a regular high salary. if people come and are interested in that we can refer them to a host of other partners we are just based on the premise if you have a high salary it's going to change the dynamic in your community. >> i think we have time for a

couple of more questions. >> you've been waiting for a while here. >> first i want to thank you for sharing your personal story that means a loss to think you for doing that and for taking on this initiative on behalf of an agency for all of us as americans. i want to say thanks for taking this on and to know that the work. the volunteers will have the future effects on the communities in which they serve. >> sarah and her team are really fabulous in terms of helping us launch the partnerships with us and. one of the things they can do

is link people with other services so even though we may not see anything, we along with other partners can identify someone else. they help us build the content of the program. it provides resources to the volunteers to help their communities. i was a peace corps volunteer several years ago, many years ago, and i'm thinking about the comments that were made at the beginning from the president about how i often feel a need

to apologize for my gender but that's tricky to do. there are so many of us. i feel they are really important in this issue and i'm curious about, twofold what's been done in a pre- service training because i think many of us perhaps they have paid more attention to the issue if we were made aware of the issue and perhaps more importantly in the context of the culture that we are all introduced to. it's taking place in college campuses and i that you take from college campuses and their -- before i can hang up, thank you very much for bringing this to the forefront.

thank you for coming up to the front here. i am also a returned peace corps volunteer. because sexual assault doesn't only happen in the communities but also between peace corps volunteers that is an issue that isn't addressed because we want to think of the peace corps volunteers as the best. but these instances do happen, so i'm wondering what program is being put in place to prevent volunteers from being perpetrators and also, how to ensure that if an instance between peace corps volunteers does occur how to make sure the provider feels protected and that there is a sense of justice to it.

thank you. >> let's do one more. okay. right in the back. >> my name is jenny with planned parenthood federation of america. i was wondering if you could speak a little bit more to the healthcare services that are provided to sexual assault providers especially reproductive health. if there are ever any challenges to providing those immediate services given the varied levels of access and legal context in which the peace corps volunteers work. >> a number of issues in that group. not only in correcting the problem but that's an issue that we haven't talked about a lot today. what you are learning in college campuses come up, the separate system even generally are with perpetrators and how that training in the prevention and response is done and then accessing health care for victims. and i will add it to the last

point the importance of the healthcare equity work that's been done for the last couple of years and kind of where that stands and what role do those issues play in the sexual assault response. >> do you want to start and then i will follow up? >> short. first males as victims. one of the recommendations that the council made is to incorporate the volunteer training. it was stated before but to make sure there is sufficient examples in hypotheticals throughout the training just to reinforce it yes, peace corps recognizes they can be victims and it's okay and we expect you to come forward and he will be supported. we have learned from the volunteers that they are

putting those tools and skills into practice and a very high percentage, maybe 20% said that they have used something they learned in the training in the past year. and also i've been impressed in the way that the headquarters staff have taken this on. they are holding an awareness month event and having the it's on us campaign where many staff members have photos of them holding up pictures of themselves holding a message come in anti-sexual violence message that is posted in the lobby and others are encouraged to write your own message. it really has been, the male involvement has been incorporated in the response. >> basically everyone is training. that's been part of the approach. you mentioned it's part of a campaign by the us-based

campaign. i've taken the pledge and i encouraged all of our volunteers and staff to do that. i've done that and i encourage everyone else to do but it's important not only in terms of sexual assaults with all the work we do trying to create a place where people can achieve their potential that we need to continue working on gender equality. >> the volunteer issue is the toughest issue we face and this is why they have had so much trouble and we do the same for volunteer on volunteer. we have a lot of training that's part of our curriculum designed as part of our training program to talk about

the volunteer. the norms have changed, and it's hard. it's more complex and nuanced. i sort of understood that the rules are and they've changed a lot and they are changing as we speak. so it means we all need to have a continued dialogue. we have set up a whole panel process when there is an allegation of the volunteer on volunteer we guarantee the safety of the volunteers that come forward. we also have a responsibility to allow some processes. but i have to be honest and say those are the issues that are

most difficult for any of our universities, for the military for peace corps. there is an impact as there appears line up. with all of the situations that we face. it's a smaller percentage of those reported and it may be that those are the most underreported. to understand the implications of coming out against one of their peers you know from being a peace corps volunteer in the group it's usually not a very big group, we are a tight group and it's a very painful experience to have to report against someone with whom you

serve. and there's a lot of social pressures against doing it frankly and we are trying to break that down through conversation. but it's a process. and one of the reasons i'm so happy that this is being addressed in the universities is because more and more people are coming into peace corps with an understanding already so they are already more able to talk about it than five years ago. we have to create an environment for the victims through a volunteer process and we have created procedures for supporting that. we monitor and evaluate make sure they are being followed well, but that's why we have our process and we have to make

adjustments, so we have to do counseling or we have to remediate when we find situations where it hasn't been followed properly. >> in every situation we have learned something more. this part went well but i think we need to delve a little bit more which is why we are so happy to have the council because they can come to them with specific issues and say how do we address this. what is the research showing about that? it is a constant process and generational. it's going to take a long time to address this. it's where we have an honest dialogue people are coming forward for their compassionate and effective care that they deserve.

where there is a sense of justice for those that have been violated in a profoundly personal way and we can deal effectively with really tough issues. >> one of the things that strikes me,p ace corps does have a culture. you talk about the burden of wanting to accuse another volunteer because that is the story in the circle but it's something that we see in so many other cultural contexts, this religion or this community or community of immigrants and so what peace corps is doing in training all of the income volunteers this is the norm, we support each other and if anyone comes forward we will believe and support them, which doesn't mean that we would have a skewed disciplinary process that is safe. we must be safe for each other

that that can help eliminate the barrier but it is a struggle. the advisory council has been looking at that and looking at how disciplinary proceedings do and don't function well on campuses and what part of that can work here. the peace corps does have and any of the policy which is good so so many of these situations there has been drinking or other activities, but to make sure that that kind of -- taht will not be seen as an excuse and won't even be considered while the underlining sexual assault is being considered. to talk about something even if they were violating a policy for example or they were in a

situation that they didn't want to report for fear of their service. that is a policy that has really helped in terms of making it possible for people to come forward. >> can we touch on the healthcare service and then we will wrap up. we provide a whole range of reproductive health support services, the peace corps equity act to say that this past year we are eligible for the amendment which allows for the use of federal funds to pay for abortion in the event of rape or incest or to protect the life of the mother. we were the only agency that didn't have that section because of the good work of many, now we finally do and we

are so grateful. if plan b. for those that have been raped and we also have those that receive it as part of a medical care so it is available to them also. it's taken place over the last year. i guess that's what i would say. >> thank you for being with us and opening up this conversation. to be continued. there is a lot more to talk about that we hope to continue the conversation with thepeace corps and other institutions that deal with these issues. thank you all for being here this morning.

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you need to be firm in your principles but flexible in the details because i think it really reflects like the solution, the harsh polarization we're seeing across our country. if all the congressmen and women and all the state legislators can adopt we can come together as a country and solve many of our issues. >> my favorite quote came from julie adams. she said remember too be humble

and have a strong work ethic. be kind to the people you meet on the way up. you'll meet them on the way down. >> we have a lack of true statesmen. as much as i may disagree with him senator mccain did something impressive he committed to the reform bill. in reading the senate torture rereport and saying how staying away from torture is essential to our democracy. we have people who are willing to cross the aisle and make decisions with people who they may not agree with that's what we need to maintain the security the integrity of our nation.

>> i remember when the institute of medicine first reported in 199 toer r is human and 100,000 people were dying of preventable causes i was shocked. but a lot of great smart people jumped in and i thought they're going to take care of it and i went on doing what i did. a few years ago, the new data came out that showed over 200,000 people were getting killed in our hospitals from

preventable causes. that's when i realized maybe it's time i step up and i try to do something about it. i have been fortunate enough to get to know a lot of companies in the medical technology space, a lot of great hospitals and clinicians. a lot of amazing people like you president clinton. and i thought if we brought everybody together, bring in the med tech companies, bring in the hospitals government, the patient advocates that provide powerful voice because when you think about 200,000 people dying every year, it's a number that runs through your head unfortunately. i think stalin said one death is a tragedy. a million is statistics. but when you think about that one life how it impacts the family that was left behind it really grabs you.

we've got a lot tucked into a five and a half hour time. so we are grateful for your patience and more importantly for your participation. we will talk about the pre-event activities, public health response, pharmaceutical response, recovery and mitigation and finally we will take a look at some advice of people with regard to

leadership in the public and private sector rest of relates to the efforts of the panel. we invite the first panel to come to the front. i will make the introductions brief. please join us. pre-event activities and emergency response. keith brand, fire chief oklahoma city fire department is president and chairman of the international association of fire chiefs. dr. matthew henson, seeing her visor for health affairs and texas a&m university. dr. carter meets her, senior advisor office of public health department of veteran affairs. former director for medical preparedness policy, homeland security council national security staff. for both president bush and president obama. gentlemen, the introductions could be a lot longer. we thank you for your contribution and service this morning. chief, we'll start with you. >> thank you, governor ridge. it is an honor for me to be here this morning and i appreciate the short introduction. that is just fine with me. as the president and chairman of the board of the international association of fire chiefs, i represent over 11,000 leaders of the nations rescued service and it is on their behalf this morning i am honored to be here to speak to you about the response issues relating to the threat of terrorism using chemical â >> everyone here in the back? make sure the microphone is working. people in the back having a difficult time.

>> as you stated in your opening remarks another previous speaker just mentioned also, the threat of terrorism using biological agents or chemical agents in the u.s. is very real. we have seen several examples over the years of biological agents such as an rx in rice and beans and insert new band concert at the availability of industrial chemicals that are out there in society today represent also a very real threat at modestly different levels of vulnerability in various communities across the country. according to be a spirit transportation statistics, u.s. census bureau 2007 commodity flow survey, 2.2 billion times corresponding to 323 billion-ton miles of hazardous materials are shipped by air, road, rail and pipelined in the united states annually. obviously hazardous chemicals are a vital component

to the american economy and quality of life. we must realize extremist take advantage of weak essays in the nation's transportation system or chemical facilities to obtain toxic chemicals for nefarious purposes. we see these things in media reports and on though shall media that there are pro- jihadist groups transfixed, isil, that our tweeting. they published a document known as the explosives course which teaches interested parties to use commercially available chemicals to manufacture explosives. the threat is very real and something we have been prepared for. in terms of response to a terrorist attack as far as the emergency medical services are concerned, it would be treated as any accidental material and once

the release of the nation is concerned, the fire department in the area would isolate the area involved, stabilize the area to minimize civilian exposure to that agent. establish safe zones to make sure we limit the spread of the agent to unaffected areas. many cities like my city in oklahoma city would deploy hazardous materials response team. in other areas that may be somewhat more of a regional response team that would be in place. that seems to be deployed to use chemical detection technology to ascertain the type of agent of the salon with personnel trained in the signs and symptoms of chemical and biological agents and their affect on people. the hazmat teams and other specialized contractors to be in charge of

decontaminating the scene. we absolutely would be reliant on local law enforcement to play a huge role in seen security and begin the investigative activity associated with the event once the incident is identified as a terrorist attack. during the response, depending on the nature and complexity of it, the local joint terrorism task force and others say federal authorities including national guard units would be alerted and brought in to assist. if the attack involved a chemical weapon support teams may be required to help with the response. it would also be very important in this type of incident to prevent further panic in the area. emergency responders would have to be very cognizant of vigilant about the threat of