325 S. Spruce St., Kenai, AK 99611, US

PENINSULA POINTS ON PREVENTION Pointing the way to a safer community!

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

DVAM

Domestic Violence Awareness Month, held annually in October, allows communities nationwide to join forces to raise awareness about the far-reaching impact of domestic violence. The #Every1KnowsSome1 campaign focuses on the theme that everyone knows someone affected by domestic violence, whether they realize it or not.

In the U.S., approximately 24 people per minute experience rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner. Beyond this, countless others face emotional, verbal, financial, and other kinds of abuse. These staggering numbers underscore the importance of our work, this Domestic Violence Awareness Month and beyond.

This DVAM, we are calling on our supporters to join us in taking action to help stop the epidemic of intimate partner violence. One small action can make a world of difference for someone in your family, workplace, or community. Throughout the month, we’ll be sharing different ways to get involved, but to get started, here are some simple but powerful steps you can take now:

Access and Share Resources

For anyone who has or will experience domestic violence, it’s critical to know that they are not alone and help is available. Yet too many people still don’t know where to turn for support. Here are some free resources that you can use or recommend to others when needed:

The LeeShore Centers Crisis Line (907) 283-7257

The NO MORE Global Directory

https://nomoredirectory.org/

Get Involved

There are many ways to get involved with Peninsula Points on Prevention. Attend one of our events, become a member, or join a committee. We'd love to have you on board!

Our Impact

Find out how we've made a difference in the community and the lives of those we serve. We are committed to improving the lives of others.

Contact Us

Have a question or want to get in touch? We'd love to hear from you. Contact us today and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

100% Alaska (Community)

10 Vital Services Needed to Survive and Thrive in a Community!

100% Community (Alaska) Ensuring 10 Vital Services for Surviving and Thriving

Authors: Katherine Ortega Courtney and Dominic Capella

Peninsula Points on Prevention (PPOP) in collaboration with Change 4 the Kenai (C4K), Southcentral Alliance for Family Resilience (SAFR) and the Alaska Impact Alliance are currently conducting an assessment of our community utilizing the 100% Community model. This model was developed and implemented in the state of New Mexico after the unfortunate death of a child that was returned to an abusive home, the broken systems that allowed her to fall through the cracks, and all our children facing trauma. Trauma destroys essential relationships, fills our jails, diminishes our workforce, inhibits learning in our schools, overtaxes our emergency rooms and drives people to drugs and other self-destructive behaviors. Everyone is harmed, directly or indirectly, as the trauma is passed from generation to generation. 100% Community provides a catalyst for ending the predictable and preventable public health crisis of adverse childhood experiences (ACES). Protecting all our children is entirely possible with data, technology and a belief that our kids are our highest priority. When we fully understand the challenges faced by families, we can work collaboratively to ensure that each child grows up trauma-free and thriving.

How do we ensure that all our children, parents and grandparents – all our community members – can survive any public health crisis, and equally important, thrive after chaotic times end? This is a question we face every day and one that requires an answer now. This is a dialogue we must have on the state and local level, as that is where true power exists to make measurable change impacting every child and adult.

100 % Community shows how we can create a local system of readiness by investing in strong local systems of care, safety and education, and how we can decrease health disparities along with a host of long-standing and costly challenges including adverse childhood experiences, trauma, substance misuse, violence and untreated mental health problems. These vital services are:

Five Vital Services for Surviving

Housing

Food

Transportation

Mental Health Care

Medical/dental Care

Five Vital Services for Thriving

Parent Supports

Early Childhood Learning Programs

Community Schools

Youth Mentors

Job Training/Higher Education

The Alaska Impact Alliance https://www.alaskaimpactalliance.com/ is looking to implement this model at a statewide level. The greater Kenai/Soldotna area is the first community to begin work on this assessment model and are calling it 100% Alaska we have already developed and administered the community survey. Some of the initial findings show that almost half of all respondents endorsed accessibility issues with four important community services; housing programs that provide safe spaces and prevent homelessness, public transportation which ensures residents get to vital social services, work and school and mental health care services to treat emotional challenges and trauma and accessible childcare. Our community has established Action Teams for each one of the vital services, these teams are now beginning the work on availability and accessibility of each of these 10 services. If you are interested in hearing more about this assessment or would be interested in being a member of one of the Action Teams, please contact Renee Lipps by phone at (907) 283-9479 or by email at rlipps@leeshoreak.org.

Learn More

If you are interested in more information about the preliminary survey results, who is leading our Action Teams or information about how to get involved click on the button below.

Find out more

Choose Respect, everybody wins!!

Mission and Vision

Mission

To enact a positive change in our community’s health and safety through collaborative prevention efforts in the Central Kenai Peninsula.

Vision

To ensure education and resources are readily available fostering a safe, supportive, and healthy community.

The Peninsula Points on Prevention Coalition (PPOP) is a collaborative effort of community members, resource agencies, tribal members, small business owners, law enforcement, and other local coalitions all working together to bring awareness and education surrounding prevention efforts. We are eager to build capacity within our community to address the very important issues surrounding power-based violence and to incorporate all of our prevention efforts together to develop a safety net within our community, (knowing that many of our efforts intersect with each other).

We all strive to live in communities that are healthy and safe; where our families, friends, and neighbors can reach their fullest potential.

Just by living in and moving through our community, we have power to strike change. Whether it’s through informal discussions with friends and neighbors, modeling healthy and respectful interactions with family, or working through various community institutions such as schools, churches, local government, or businesses, we possess multiple points and varying degrees of influence over those around us.

Successful prevention requires an approach of community connectedness – a model where everyone has a stake in creating change.

We Value your input

Please take a moment to answer our brief survey about your knowledge of Prevention Efforts in the Community.

Survey

The Problem

The Kenai Peninsula Borough’s results of the Alaska Victimization Survey conducted in 2013 found that more than 3 out of every 10 adult women in the Kenai Peninsula Borough have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime; more than 4 out of every 10 have experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetime; and astonishingly 52% of adult women in the Kenai Peninsula Borough have experienced intimate partner violence, sexual violence or both, in their lifetime.

Comparatively, roughly 35 percent of women and 28 percent of men in the general population of the U.S. have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

One specific population at a significant higher risk for domestic and sexual violence than others is American Indians and Alaska Native women. According to a study from the National Institute of Justice, 84% of American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime, and more than half have endured this violence at the hands of an intimate partner. More than two-thirds of the women, or 66%, say they have been the victims of psychological aggression by a partner.

Recently, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) National Institute of Justice (NIJ) examined this issue and commissioned an in-depth study on violence against American Indian and Alaska Native people. The study found that the scope is even greater than previously thought. According to the study, not only are there incredibly high rates of domestic violence in Indian Country, but non-Indian intimate partner violence accounts for the overwhelming majority of it. NIJ found more than half (55%) of American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime and 90% of those victims report being victimized by a non-American Indian/Alaska Native perpetrator, while only 18% report being victimized by an American Indian/Alaska Native perpetrator. In addition, more than half of all Native women who have experienced abuse say they have also endured sexual assault, and another 48% have been stalked.

Teen Dating Violence

Unhealthy relationships can start early and last a lifetime. In a recent national survey, nearly 10% of high school students reported physical violence and 11% reported that they experienced sexual violence from a dating partner in the 12 months before the survey.

Teens who are victims are at higher risk for victimization during college and throughout their lifetimes. Victims of teen dating violence are more likely to experience symptoms of depression and anxiety. They might also engage in unhealthy behaviors, such as using tobacco, drugs, and alcohol. (Centers for Disease Control).

We do not currently have local data regarding Teen Dating Violence however, Alaska conducted a statewide Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 2015 (this survey is conducted bi-annually). The survey found physical dating violence among adolescents (high school students in grades 9-12) was 9.5% for all Alaska adolescents and 9.8% for Alaska Native adolescents, virtually unchanged from levels in 2013 (questions on adolescent dating violence have been asked on the YRBS since 2003 but the question on dating violence changed in 2013 preventing comparisons with earlier time periods).

Statistics from the US Dept. of Justice, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Liz Claiborne Inc. teen dating violence survey revealed that:

· Girls and women between the ages of 16 and 24 experience the highest rates of intimate partner violence.

· 1 in 5 high school girls is physically or sexually hurt by a dating partner.

· 1 in 3 teens experience some kind of abuse in their romantic relationships.

· Teen girls face relationship violence 3 times more than adult women.

· Many teens think this is normal.

· The majority of parents of teen victims are unaware of the abuse

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

In the past two decades, we’ve learned two key things about Alaskans’ health:

• Childhood trauma is far more common than previously realized; and

• The impact of this trauma affects individuals over a lifetime and societies over generations.

A keystone 1998 study asked middle class Americans how many traumas they had experienced as a child. Traumas included physical abuse, witnessing domestic violence and having a parent in jail. Researchers then developed an ‘Adverse Childhood Experiences’ (ACE) score — the more traumas, the higher the ACE score. Researchers compared scores to measures of adult health and well-being, and found strong links with poor health, social challenges and low earning power. If children experience trauma, this undermines their ability to learn and cope, which in turn undermines their health and ability to earn a living.

Follow-up studies found, stress from trauma shows up at the cellular level and its influence can be passed on genetically from one generation to the next. This relates directly too many of the health and social problems we wrestle with in Alaska. This information is incredibly important for Alaska, where rates of child abuse and domestic violence are so high. No nation-wide ACE study has been done, but Alaska’s first measured rates, in 2013, were higher than those of an earlier five-state study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

PENINSULA POINTS ON PREVENTION Pointing the way to a safer community!