6. What is your strategy for addressing high use of alcohol and drugs among youth?
Reber Stein: I think engagement outside of the pressures to fulfill stereotypes. I think a work practicum is a good idea, and I would recommend that. As a student myself, I participated in a 2-week practicum in a jelly factory and I think it changed my life. Community engagement is the key word here.
Joseph Reeves: Education, starting at home, starting young. It starts at home. Other things I’d like to see is harsher penalties for repeat offenders – I got this idea from my son who is nineteen. When I got these questions I sat down and talked with him to get his ideas. His problem is, he’d like to see the kids who get picked up multiple times, to put them in a program. What he sees is if you get these kids whoa re constantly doing it off the streets, they won’t influence others to start.
Jack Ozment: It has a lot to do with the home, but we do have program in the City – we have a Memorandum of Understand between the City and the Tribe, called Deferred Prosecution. First-time offenders get the opportunity to sign up for a consultation program with their parents and with the Tribe, for a specified period of time, and their case will be deferred in court. If they finish the program, the case will be dismissed and it will never show on their record. This has reduced recidivism in Sitka to about 10%, while most other towns in Alaska are running 60%, so I think it’s working very well.
Heidi Raffaele: Parenting, prevention, diversion, distraction, neighborhood watches, mentoring programs – the list goes on. There’s a thousand things we could do to help the youth, but it starts with me. I’ll take responsibility for my 9 children, and I’m hoping everyone else will take responsibility for theirs. I’ll help you with yours and you help me with mine, and we’ll get through it together.
Chad McGraw: I will go to the individual organizations as part of my due diligence when presented with issues facing our youth and families prior to expressing any opinions on the specific situation. It is my opinion that there are not enough activities in our community to engage our youth. The weather plays a significant role in this especially in the fall and winter. This leaves very little for our youth to do and the result is they create "activities", which unfortunately in many cases involves drugs and alcohol. I feel a community recreation center would make great strides in alleviating some of this problem.