The Alaska State Legislature passed Senate Bill 124 in a 60 to zero vote that will extend the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault for another eight years.
Executive Director of The Leeshore Center, Cheri Smith explained the importance of that action.
Smith: “Basically what that does is just extend the Council for another eight years so that they can keep supporting all of the victim service agencies. We’ve got 18 different victim service agencies in the state and so most of us rely some part of our operating fund is directly from the Council so it’s pretty critical that they continue.”
Last week Smith attended the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting where Mayor Mike Navarre declared April Sexual Assault Awareness Month on the Kenai Peninsula and Paul Ostrander presented Smith with the declaration.
Part of the effort to diminish domestic violence in Alaska is the Green Dot Violence Prevention Strategy, which Smith explained.
Smith: “Kenai was chosen one of six communities in the state last year to implement the green dot prevention initiative, it’s an initiative that was started in the states. The whole premise around Green Dot is that each of us can play a very important part in helping diminish violence in our community.”
The Green Dot program calls for community members to implement bystander intervention, therefor replacing the red dots of domestic violence situations with a green dot where someone stepped in and prevented it somehow.
Smith said that they hope to see a large participation from the Kenai Peninsula and more information about Green Dot Prevention can be found at greendotalaska.com.