Carey Atchak addressed several dozen people in front of Bethel’s Yupiit Picaryarait Cultural Center. They held signs and prepared to march down the highway toward the Tundra Women’s Coalition (TWC). The crowd included employees from the Bethel district attorney’s office, a group of Alaska State Troopers, and community members young and old calling for safer communities.
"How unified are we? How together are we without our TWC workers, without our state trooper workers, without all of the hospital workers and the people that work in the courthouse? Where are we?" Atchak asked.
For decades, the Tundra Women’s Coalition, where Atchak serves on the board of directors, has played a vital role in the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta as a shelter and advocacy center for victims of violence and sexual assault. On Oct. 1, she joined other longtime advocates for the group’s annual Peace Walk to begin Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Monica Charles, a TWC board member for 25 years, walked near the head of the pack. She pushed back at the common characterization of high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault as an “epidemic.”
"I wouldn't call it an epidemic. I think this has been ongoing for decades," Charles said. "To say that it's an epidemic, no, I think we've kind of stayed at this level of danger in the communities here."
Charles said that she has seen families in crisis successfully seek treatment to address domestic violence and substance misuse outside of the region. But the effects can be short-lived.
"Once they go home, wherever it is, Bethel or one of the villages, if you don't have a positive support system, the likelihood of recidivism is very high," Charles said.
Charles said that issues with staffing first responders serves to compound the problem.
"It would just be nice to have the support services needed immediately here, I think all the systems are overwhelmed," Charles said. "Obviously, the [Bethel Police Department] is always looking for more officers. We don't have enough [village public safety officers] … [village police officers] in our villages. We have villages with no law enforcement."
The Peace Walk finished with sandwiches at the Tundra Women’s Coalition headquarters. Back in her office, TWC Executive Director Eileen Arnold said that the key to addressing public safety challenges lies in prevention. She said that stable housing is a big part of this. When people are faced with the choice between homelessness and a violent relationship, Arnold said that they tend to choose the latter.
"We've seen our greatest successes when we're able to give people long-term, stable housing," Arnold said. "It's better to put people into housing, in like their own family unit, as opposed to shelter, which we do our best, but it's like sometimes 40, 50 people, all who experience trauma living together in tight circumstances. It's uncomfortable."
Thanks to federal funding, Arnold said that the Tundra Women’s Coalition has built up its transitional housing for families in crisis, now at four units. But in general, she said that funding that prevents violence, rather than responds to it, can be more difficult to secure.
"There's not the same amount of money out there for activities like that as there is for something like shelter nights or a crisis response," Arnold said.
Arnold said that her organization is not going it alone. The collaborators and supporters that showed up to march through Bethel are only a fraction of the broad web working to address domestic violence in the Y-K Delta.
If you or anyone you know is experiencing domestic violence, TWC provides a 24/7 crisis hotline, shelter, counseling, legal advocacy, and community outreach to support survivors. Call 907-543-3456 or 1-800-478-7799.
