325 S. Spruce St., Kenai, AK 99611, US
Community Partners and Programs
Green Dot
Yaghanen Youth Program
Yaghanen Youth Program
Green Dot Alaska is a project aimed at engaging individual community members in preventing power-based violence in our communities. Power-based violence includes domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking, elder abuse, child abuse and bullying.
Yaghanen Youth Program
Yaghanen Youth Program
Yaghanen Youth Program
Yaghanen – “a safe place” – is where youth come to develop life skills, learn culture, make friends and stay on track academically. We are a prevention and early intervention program open to pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade students, offering a wide range of fun and educational activities.
Change 4 The Kenai
Yaghanen Youth Program
Kenaitze Behavioral Health Services
Change 4 The Kenai is a group of community members, local agencies, law enforcement, government and businesses that have united to work toward connecting our community.
Kenaitze Behavioral Health Services
Teen Dating and Healthy Relationships
Kenaitze Behavioral Health Services
Open to Alaska Native and American Indian people as well as the general community. Referrals to other tribal programs and local agencies can be included as part of treatment plans as well.
Teen Dating and Healthy Relationships
Teen Dating and Healthy Relationships
Teen Dating and Healthy Relationships
The LeeShore Center has been providing curriculum that was approved by KPBSD in 2002 and includes educational information on: dating violence, self-esteem, kindness and respect, bullying prevention, conflict resolution, sexual harassment, domestic violence, healthy relationships, communication skills and many more.
Adverse Childhood Experiences Survey
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.
