A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

"Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Safe Schools and Healthy Students Initiative"
Palmer, Alaska

The Mat-Su Borough is a vast geographical area located 30 miles north of Anchorage with just over 55,000 residents. Mat-Su is unique in rural Alaska for its ethnic makeup. Fewer than 4% of residents are Alaska Native and 93% are Caucasian, although 7% of the school district enrollment is Alaska Native. The Mat-Su Borough has no major manufacturing or industry and over 52% of adults are unemployed. The area is famous for growing marijuana, which is the chief crop of the valley. The Mat-Su District serves 12,727 students in 29 schools spread over 24,000 square miles. Some schools are only accessible by dog sled, airplane or boat. School officials estimate there are at least 1,000 school-aged children not enrolled in school. Because of limited resources, the district lacks social workers and necessary mental health services for at risk youth. As a result of various forms of commuting, many adolescent children are left unsupervised with little to do. There are no youth recreation centers, few after school programs, and no public transportation. Youth crime increased 144% from 1988 to 1998.

This initiative was developed by the Mat-Su Agency Partnership (MAP), a coalition of more than 30 education, law enforcement, local government, health and social services agencies that have been working together for the past 12 years. MAP's goals are to promote healthy childhood learning and development, and to prevent violence and alcohol and other drug abuse among the youth in the valley.

Mat-Su?s comprehensive plan will ensure that family strengthening guidance and in-home family counseling is available for all families, especially those with preschool children. Access to services will be made by each school?s intervention team which consists of an administrator, school psychologist or guidance counselor, and other support staff. This team will also make referrals to the new Schools Within Schools program, an alternative learning setting to be established in each of the five middle schools for up to 150 students. Through a new curricula and evidence-based interventions, Mat-Su hopes to help reshape student and family attitudes and beliefs regarding mental health, substance abuse, and violence. A Juvenile Assessment will be created to provide needed social work and mental health services for both arrested youth and youth identified as at risk but who have not yet had law enforcement contact. Eventually the center?s services will be linked with the planned juvenile detention facility. To ensure that schools are prepared to meet crises and emergencies in a manner that protects the safety of students and teachers, the district will develop, test, refine and adopt Crisis and Emergency Response Plans for each school.

The district will contract with The Resource Center to provide leadership and expertise in staff development, community consensus building, and project evaluation. The evaluation plan will include random sampling, comparative data studies, and focus groups.

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