325 S. Spruce St., Kenai, AK 99611, US
PENINSULA POINTS ON PREVENTION Pointing the way to a safer community!
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
This model was developed and implemented in the state of New Mexico after the unfortunate death of a child who was returned to an abusive home, the broken systems that allowed her to fall through the cracks, and all our children are 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. We must have this dialogue on the state and local levels, as that is where true power exists to make measurable changes that impact 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 statewide. The greater Kenai/Soldotna area is the first community to begin work on this assessment model, called 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 crucial 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 vital service; these teams are now working on the 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, don't hesitate to get in touch with Nicki McTrusty by phone at (907) 283-9479 or by email at nmctrusty@leeshoreak.org
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 critical issues surrounding power-based violence and to incorporate all of our prevention efforts to develop a safety net within our community (knowing that many of our efforts intersect with each other).
We all strive to live in healthy, safe communities where our families, friends, and neighbors can reach their fullest potential.
We can make a change by living in and moving through our community. Whether 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.
DID YOU KNOW?
Did You Know?
Did You Know? Is an awareness campaign designed to inform Peninsula Residents about issues in our community affecting our neighbors. Check out the interactive campaign for Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month.
*Prezi isn't supported on Internet Explorer; we recommend using Chrome or Edge
The Problem
The Kenai Peninsula Borough saw high rates of intimate partner violence and sexual violence in the 2020 Alaska Victimization Survey
- 52% of adult women reported experiencing intimate partner violence and sexual violence
-6% reported experiencing such violence in the past year
- More than 3 out of every 10 adult women had experienced sexual violence in their lifetime
- More than 4 out of 10 had experienced intimate partner violence.
The Alaska Victimization survey in 2020 also noted that for the state of Alaska:
48% of adult women (or 127,248) experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetime, with:
-28.5% (or 75,347) were experiencing threats of physical violence
- 46.8% (or 123,987) were) experiencing physical violence
- 6.9% of adult women (or 18,314) experienced intimate partner violence in the past year
- 2.6% (or 6,873) experienced threats of physical violence
- 6.5% (or 17,198 experienced physical violence
In 2023, Alaska's violent crime rate was 5.4 times the national rate, at 1,975.2 per 100,000 residents.
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
The statistics of teen dating violence are surprising and frightening. According to www.teendvmonth.org, nationally, 4,105 teenagers are victims of dating violence each day. 10% of U.S. teens have been victims of dating violence, 23% of females experienced dating violence before rape and 10% reported victimization for a dating partner. In 2019, in Alaska, 10 percent of Alaskan students ages 15-18 experienced physical dating violence and 8.47 percent of students ages 15-18 experienced sexual dating violence. (Alaska’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey).
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 1998 study asked middle-class Americans how many childhood traumas they had experienced. 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 adult health and well-being measures 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 that 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 to many health and social problems in Alaska. This information is essential for Alaska, where rates of child abuse and domestic violence are so high. No nationwide ACE study has been done, but Alaska’s first measured rates in 2013 were higher than those of an earlier five-state survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Our Partners
