Students in Yaakoosge Daakahidi Alternative High School's Women Studies class hold up T-shirts of empowerment they decorated for their Clothesline Project. Kneeling, from left, are teacher Kathleen Maynard, Lorenda McKindley, Hayley Harrington, Cassie Fidler, Latonya Howard and school counselor Kristi Beuger. Standing, from left, are Rachel Lokke, Alexia James, Dawn Frank, Sabrina Tiedemann, Alysha Walker, Teesha Wilson and class teacher Candice Bressler.
Candice Bressler, DELTA class teacher, presents Yaakoosge Daakahidi Alternative High School Women Studies class' Clothesline Project, for which students decorated T-shirts of empowerment.
Upcoming DELTA program events
• Dec. 4 - First Friday "Building the Future" fundraising event hosted by the Rendezvous. A fundraiser for prevention programs, the event will feature live music, an auction with items centered around providing experiences for kids, information on its programs and ways to get involved. • Dec. 5 - Girls on the Run 5K Fun Run: Activities start at 10 a.m. Run starts at 11 a.m. at the Diamond Park Field House. • Jan. 30 - Training for new Girls on the Run coaches. This training is a fun comprehensive day where new volunteers become familiar with the lessons, practice coaching get themselves ready for spring season.
DELTA's five goals for strategic planning:
1) Men and boys will take a leadership role in creating an environment of mutual respect between men and women. 2) Youth will have strong connections with adults in their community. 3) Youth are leaders in promoting respectful relationships and building protective factors (middle and high school age). 4) Girls will have opportunities to increase healthy relationship protective factors. 5) Policies/systems adopt practices conducive to promoting healthy relationships and IPV SA prevention. "We work through the Social Ecological Model, meaning we seek to effect change on four levels: individual, relationship, community and societal." - DELTA program specialist Candice Bressler.
Story last updated at 11/15/2009 - 12:39 am
A local women shelter's domestic violence prevention program is making strides with programs for local youth, coordinators say.
In its fifth year, Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancements and Leadership Through Alliances (DELTA) has started its implementation and evaluation phase - offering various youth programs.
"Our priority population is youth," said DELTA program specialist Candice Bressler. "Our major goal is to stop violence before it starts.
"DELTA is a great program, because it is not about just one agency working toward nonviolence; it is the community coming together, recognizing the issues and working comprehensively to prevent interpersonal violence."
DELTA is a national program for intimate partner violence prevention funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nine coalitions were originally funded in 2002, and five more were added in 2003. Current DELTA sites in Alaska are in Juneau, Sitka, Dillingham and Ketchikan.
"Social change happens when people gather together with a shared dream and vision and work for change," said Ati Nasiah, who oversees AWARE's prevention programs. "This is something I believe we are beginning to do in relation to interpersonal and sexual violence and our tolerance and acceptance of this violence in our community."
DELTA operates through coordinated community response (CCR), a team that functions like an advisory group, board of directors, task force and focus group, Bressler said.
The two AWARE staff members involved in administering the program locally are Bressler and Nasiah. They are assisted by other staff members, who sit on their coordinated community response sessions, and state DELTA coordinator Lori Grassgreen.
"It is all about community engagement," Bressler said. "Violence prevention doesn't work if it's just one agency keeping the focus. That's why our initiative is to include and involve as many community agencies and partners as possible to make this truly a community focused program."
According to Nasiah, DELTA recently finished a nine-week Women's Studies class at Yaakoosge Daakahidi Alternative High School, where it taught at-risk females about healthy relationships, financial independence, media literacy and available resources for women in abusive relationships.
For this class DELTA partnered with the Junior Achievement program, Juneau FASD Clinic, Alaska Nutrition Education Program and National Organization of Women.
Other DELTA projects include the following:
• Girls on the Run - a 12-week, 24-lesson empowerment-through-running program for 8- to 12-year-old girls;
• Coaching Boys into Men - a new program similar to Girls on the Run, but for boys;
• White Ribbon Campaign - the largest campaign of men working to stop violence against women through taking a pledge to not commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women;
• a partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters, which is looking to find Big Brothers for more than 30 local boys and which will conduct a Big Little Training later this month;
• Real Beauty/Uniquely Me workshops, which provide girls and important adult women in their lives a chance to discuss real beauty, self-respect and the importance of self-confidence;
• and a December First Friday fundraising event, "Building the Future," hosted by the Rendezvous.
"These programs will be like building blocks so youth have the skills and tools to not make the choice to use violence in their relationships as move to adolescence and then into adulthood," Nasiah said. "The idea is to set a strong healthy foundation in individuals, in community climates and in mainstream values to interviene with cultural norms and acceptance of violence."
Right now, DELTA's major need is volunteers - both individuals and community agencies.
"A lot of people's job responsibilities already fit into the goals of DELTA, so it's a matter of connecting with those folks and agencies and getting a well-rounded partnership initiated and maintained," Bressler said. "We need for DELTA to be sustainable, and this only works when the community is in support."
Those interested in DELTA or any of its programs, including the Coaching Boys into Men program, should contact Ati Nasiah at atin@awareak.org or 586-6623.
"My hopes for community engagement are that DELTA maintains a community presence and that we recruit and retain well-rounded partnerships with individuals, agencies and corporations in Juneau so we can achieve our goals and sustain our prevention efforts," Bressler said. "Violence affects this entire community, and Juneau would be a much better place if it was violence-free."
• Contact Neighbors editor Kim Andree at kim.andree@juneauempire.com.
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