The Alaska Native Justice Center (ANJC) proposes the Anchorage Domestic Violence Prevention Program (ADVPP) to address persistently high and disproportionate rates of victimization within the Alaska Native/American Indian community in Anchorage, Alaska. ANJC will enhance an existing Domestic Violence Prevention initiative that has operated since 2017 by emphasizing collaboration with law enforcement and health care agencies, as well as victim service providers, and increasing screening efforts. ANJC will continue to deliver case managed victim advocacy to survivors and their families, and build awareness of the negative impacts of victimization through education. ANJC will expand program areas of focus to include sexual exploitation/human trafficking, child maltreatment, and missing and murdered indigenous peoples, as well as sexual and interpersonal violence. To accomplish the proposed activities, ANJC will retain a full time Project Coordinator/Victim Advocate, and partner with both Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Inc. (CITC) and the Alaska Police Department (APD).
Over the project period of performance, ANJC will 1) Establish a community coordinated response (CCR) system to address sexual and interpersonal violence in Anchorage, Alaska by collaborating with the APD; 2) increase educational awareness about the negative health effects and social burden of domestic and sexual violence, child maltreatment, and sexual exploitation/ human trafficking by providing trainings in community, health care, and interagency settings through partnership with CITC’s Strengthening Our Youth prevention program; 3) expand use of victim advocacy services among Alaska Native/American Indian survivors of sexual violence in Anchorage by providing direct services and referrals to 30 participants annually; 4) integrate at least one intervention that is an evidence-based practice, or a promising practice, to facilitate the social and emotional well-being of victims and their families with a focus on trauma-informed care; 5) integrate community based culturally appropriate practices to facilitate the social and emotional well-being of victims and their children by offering holistic healing services and facilitating peer support groups, and 6) develop a formal plan to ensure the sustainability of these objectives and activities beyond the life of this grant.