The Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault will provide SAFE funding for a new position that will will develop a community based violence prevention project.
SAFE, the women and children’s shelter in Dillingham, provides care and resources to victims of domestic and sexual violence. The other component of the advocacy agency’s vision is to work in the community to prevent violence from happening.
The Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault awarded SAFE a grant this fall that will allow them to fund a new position that will develop community based prevention programs. The grant totals $150,000 over three years. SAFE will match $10,000 annually.
Initially, that position will work with the University of Kansas to conduct a community needs assessment and to streamline partnerships with agencies in the community that partner with safe. Those agencies include the Bristol Bay Native Association, the Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation and the Curyung Tribal Council.
“The first year is kind of like an education. It’s educating the position. It’s educating the partners and going through resources on prevention and helping people in the community understand what prevention is and how that would look for Dillingham,” said Gregg Marxmiller, SAFE education and outreach coordinator.
In the second and third years, the new staff member will develop a prevention oriented project based on those partnerships and the community needs.
Another of SAFE’s projects aimed at violence prevention has received the funding it needs to continue. Myspace Youth and Wellness Center reopened this month after a summer hiatus. Funding has been touch and go since the initial CANDU grant that started the program expired in 2015.
The Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation is funding the staff position necessary to keep the doors open for the afterschool hang out that provides teens a safe place to spend time and do homework. Donations of food from Peter Pan Seafoods and Icicle Seafoods and local grocery stores mean that Myspace can also provide dinner every day. Myspace is funded through the end of the calendar year, and SAFE is optimistic that they will be able to keep the doors open through the end of the school year.
Contact the author at avery@kdlg.org or 907-842-5281.
