Military Consulting

BWJP has a group of staff and consultants with extensive experience working with the military and surrounding civilian communities on domestic violence.  Connie Sponsler, who leads the team, served a three year appointment on the Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence and provides on-going support to military advocates and projects across the country.  With Sponsler, BWJP’s team of staff/consultants has developed and provided victim/advocate training for the Department of Defense, the Army, and the Marine Corps, and has participated in training for the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps, the military police, and Family Advocacy Programs. The team also works with individual installations to create specific focus trainings and to provide education and strategic planning activities to coordinate the military/civilian response to domestic abuse and sexual assault.  

Currently BWJP is providing technical assistance and project coordination for the Military/Civilian Coordinated Response to Domestic Violence Demonstration Site Project. This initiative is funded by Department of Justice (OVW) in collaboration with the Department of Defense.  From 1995-1998, BWJP’s  parent organization, Minnesota Project Development Inc. (MPDI) worked on a three-year-project with the Marine Corps to organize the first military initiative to establish a Coordinated Community Response (CCR) to domestic violence on installations.

Our experience with training military communities has taught us that it’s important for a community to adopt a consistent approach to cases that is reinforced by each intervener in the chain of institutional response and that the appropriate linkages are established to promote victim safety and offender accountability.  To these ends, BWJP is available for trainings and consultation for both military and civilian communities on strategic planning and assessment, collaboration, outreach and victim services, and readiness to work with the specific issues of military victims.  For more information, please contact BWJP at (800) 903-0111 ext. 1 or (612) 824-8768.