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

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

April is awareness, action and Prevention Month

Get involved, see how you can be a part of creating a safe and healthy community for ALL!

Always ask for Consent

April is National Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM)

Sexual Assault Awareness Month is an annual campaign to raise public awareness about sexual assault and educate communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual violence.

Too many peopled are affected by this each year in our State. Alaska continues to lead the nation, here is some of the most current data we have: 8.2% of Alaska’s students reported experiencing sexual violence in their lifetime, compared to 7.4% of high school students in the U.S (AK 2017 YRBS) and the rate of rape reported to law enforcement in 2018 was 161.6 per 100,000 in Alaska, compared to 42.6 per 100,000 in the U.S. The Alaska rate was 3.8 times higher than the U.S. rate. Alaska we can do better than this, let's get together and create change.

Consent is the first step.

As community members we have the ability to educate ourselves and others in our life about this serious issue and how we can help each other stay safe in our community. Green Dot community engagement strategy is a great place to start. It can help us as individuals develop tools and skills that will better enable us to step up when we do see and how we can begin to shift community norms that support safety and has zero tolerance for these types of violence.

Promoting Protective Factors

April is National Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month

National Child Abuse Prevention Month recognizes the importance of families and communities working together to strengthen families to prevent child abuse and neglect.

To strengthen families we have to strengthen and build upon the Protective Factors in our community. Protective Factors are conditions or attributes in individuals, families, communities or the larger society that help people deal more effectively with stressful events. In order to understand why Protective Factors are so important we need to also understand that there are Risk Factors in our community. Risk Factors are characteristics at the biological, psychological, family, community, or cultural level that precede and are associated with a higher likelihood of negative outcomes.

Effective prevention focuses on reducing those Risk Factors, and strengthening Protective Factors, which are most closely related to the challenges being addressed which for us is reducing and eliminating power-based violence to include intimate partner violence, teen dating violence, and sexual assault.

About Us

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.

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.

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!