Peer helpers get training during two-day retreat in Wasilla

Youth from around the Valley recently attended a two-day training retreat to make them better peer helpers within their schools.

Seventy-eight students and six advisors, from five of the six Valley high schools, attended the annual retreat at Meier Lake Center in Wasilla.

Each school has a group of between 10 and 20 students and an advisor who serve as peer helpers, and their duties are many.

This year, the only school not represented at the retreat was Su Valley High School from Talkeetna.

Throughout the school year, peer helpers receive training in such topics as listening skills, recognizing signs of depression and suicide risk, substance abuse prevention, peer mediation, HIV/AIDS prevention and other topics.

"The peer helpers work with other groups to raise awareness in the community," said Jim Holen of the Juvenile Assessment Center. "They are part of the solution, not part of the problem."

The peer helpers often visit elementary and middle schools and talk to younger students. And while they are a big responsibility is working with their peers in substance abuse and alcohol prevention, they are just as liable to be a good friend to a person who needs one.

"We want to stress that peer helpers do everything from suicide prevention and talking about alcohol prevention, all the way to helping a new student find their class on the first day of school," Holen said.

Peer helpers will be working with their schools and communities through Friday as part of the Red Ribbon Week campaign, which highlights the benefit of establishing a drug-free lifestyle.

The peer helpers will be talking to other students about the problems of drugs and alcohol, and promoting healthy lifestyle alternatives. Alcohol is one of the biggest problems facing teens.

"Alcohol abuse was identified as the number one issue identified by Valley residents in a survey by the Mat-Su Agency Partnership," Holen said.

Last year, the peer group at Wasilla High School was nominated for a Spirit of the Youth Foundation award for their role in helping the WHS community.

The peer mediators tried to help resolve personal conflicts within the school, as well as continue their regular duties as peer helpers.