New program is part of new family support facility

The Women's Residential Reunification and Action Program currently being operated out of the Alaska Family Resource Center in Palmer and administered by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services represents a new collaborative step in addressing the needs of chemically dependent abused women and their children.

"Oftentimes there are overwhelming and dangerous circumstances that work against successful outcomes," said Marci Kennai, deputy commissioner of the Office of Children's Services.

"The OCS office in Palmer worked with local agencies to build the Women's Residential Reunification and Action Program, a place where we all can achieve better outcomes and build healthier families," Kennai said.

This program is being prototyped at the Palmer branch of the resource center, where one wing of the new 32-bed facility is being devoted to women taking advantage of the program. Though the Department of Health and Social Services did not provide direct funding to the project, it intends to devote staff and services to aid in its operation.

The WRAPP program will house up to 15 mothers and their children while the mothers attend substance abuse treatment at Mat-Su Recovery Center or Nugen's Ranch. These measures are intended to provide, in addition to support and rehabilitation, education, counseling and support to build and practice the skills necessary for providing healthy home environments. These skills include communication, problem solving, decision making, conflict resolution, time management, and healthy relationship-building, a press release from the Department stated.

A typical referral to the WRAPP program from OCS will be a family experiencing substance abuse and domestic violence issues with a documented inability to remedy these conditions in a less structured setting, according to a release from the Resource Center.

The WRAPP program actively promotes the bond between mothers and their children. While participating in WRAPP, mothers will work to prevent removal of their children or use the facility as a base to reunify with their children under the regulations of OCS.

Space at the new center will be devoted to providing the safe, nonthreatening backdrop needed for families to recover from the travails of drug abuse or violence.

"Families who are chemically dependent and who live in violent homes have very special needs," Kennai said. "They need an environment that is free from fear where they can overcome their addiction without the fear of violence or losing their children."

While in WRAPP, residents are expected to pay rent, making the program self-sustaining after the first year. Currently, the program is partially funded by the Paul G. Allen Foundation. An Alaska Family Resource Center WRAPP case manager will coordinate the center's efforts in order to reduce duplication, and address often overlooked family needs.

"A family-centered, integrated plan of case and support is going to focus everyone's efforts and achieve better outcomes for the families," Kennai said.

These efforts work to address the larger problems of substance abuse and domestic violence afflicting Alaska as a state, problems that have made their prominence felt for many years.

According to figures from the Seattle field office of the Drug Enforcement Agency, Alaska continues to have the highest per capita number of incidents of alcoholism, rape and suicide in the United States.

The DEA states that these figures are at least partially attributable to controlled-substance abuse. The most popular drugs in Alaska, according to the most recent Statewide Drug Enforcement report from the Alaska State Troopers, are alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. The report states that methamphetamine use in particular is on the rise. The Mat-Su Drug Enforcement Team's primary focus of attention, however, is concerned with marijuana cultivation, with more than 80 percent of their work directly related to marijuana grows, the report said.

The Mat-Su region also comprises the bulk of marijuana-related seizures throughout the state, and has been recognized as the area of greatest cultivation and distribution of the drug in Alaska, according to the report. The Mat-Su Drug Enforcement Team regularly seizes more than 3,500 marijuana plants a year, the result of more than 50 growing operations.

A 2002 report from Alaska's Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault notes that, during fiscal year 2002, 1,851 victims of sexual assault sought relief from victims' service programs in Alaska, while the Division of Family and Youth Services received 1,475 reports of suspected child sexual abuse.

An Alaska Uniform Crime Report from 2001 calculates that an Alaskan woman is forcibly raped every 18 hours and 17 minutes, a rate that is 2.5 times greater than the national average and higher than that of California and Washington's rates combined. As of Feb. 27, 2003, 931 sex offenders were registered in Alaska's central registry as well.

The WRAPP program acts to address these issues, as well as the multitude of other troubles experienced by needy families in the Valley and elsewhere.

"The WRAPP program is the opportunity women and their children need to recover from the effects of painful, destructive substance abuse and domestic-violence issues while receiving extensive and enduring support to develop healthy living skills," Kennai said. "Families have a real chance to pursue personal recovery and family healing in a supportive, violence-free and substance-free environment."