‘‘It’s part of the continuing education for our advocates,” said Liz Russo, a sexual assault response coordinator at Fort Meade, Md. ‘‘This is a high-visibility issue for the military, and we’re trying to give them some advanced knowledge to help them become better victim advocates.”

Most came to the training in civilian attire, regardless of military affiliation, so that matters of rank and service were did not hinder the training.

The sessions also served as informal networking among the victim advocates, where they could share experiences with unusual situations, or just learn from someone more experienced than themselves.

Anyone who is trained as a victim advocate goes through an intensive, one-week course to get them up to speed with the basics of the position. Annual sessions like the one at the community center serve as refreshers, and they incorporate any changes to policy that might have happened since the training.

‘‘The training they go through initially is pretty intensive, but we like to keep them up to date on new policies, this is 2.0 level training,” Russo said. ‘‘This year, there weren’t any major changes, but the [Uniformed Code of Military Justice] was tweaked a little bit, so we’re getting them up to speed.”

One of the sessions was about the difference between sexual assault and sexual harassment, since there are different kinds of environments and consequences for each.

Harassment includes unwanted gender bias over a period of time, usually at the workplace, while sexual assault is more of a one-time thing and generally isn’t in the workplace.

Maj. Laura Wade, Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program director for the Army National Guard, gave a few examples, and asked the audience to decide which one was which.

‘‘There are probably as many views on each situation as there are people in this room,” Wade said, adding that it is training like this that helps answer questions the advocates might have.

For deployed Soldiers, everywhere is considered the workplace, Wade said, and crimes like sexual assault only serve to undermine the atmosphere in theater.

During the training sessions, victim advocates shared experiences regarding specific examples they’ve dealt with, as well as questioned certain applications of the rules in specific situations.

‘‘This is why it’s so important to partner up with your [Judge Advocate General] office, healthcare providers and Equal Opportunity offices,” Wade said. ‘‘It’s up to all of you to make sure we’re supporting servicemembers appropriately.”