Child-advocacy center tells borough commission its referrals for strangulation and trafficking are rising

Lee Bolen, executive director of the Resource Center for Parents and Children, told the Health and Social Services Commission March 14 that Stevie's Place is the child advocacy center serving Interior Alaska, the North Slope and the Fairbanks North Star Borough and that the center has seen recent increases in physical abuse, strangulation and trafficking referrals.

Bolen said the center's grant funding pays a nursing contract with Fairbanks Memorial Hospital for forensic medical services, and that the contract provides 24/7 forensic nursing care on a three-year contract schedule. She said the center paid roughly $10,000 per quarter for that nursing pool and that Fairbanks Memorial Hospital is currently fully staffed for those services.

Bolen cited a state law change effective Jan. 1 that reclassified an offense committed in front of a child as an additional crime rather than an aggravator, which she said has led to increased referrals for witnesses to violence. She also said financial stress correlates with increased physical abuse and described a rise in trafficking referrals involving people known to the child, often from online enticement.

The executive director noted recent administrative developments: Stevie's Place renewed its multidisciplinary team memorandum of agreement and added TCC's behavioral-health program; the center also included the Air Force, Army and FBI in a new MOA. Bolen told commissioners the center is running year two of its current contract and does not expect immediate contract changes.

Commissioners pressed on evaluation metrics; Bolen said caregiver satisfaction is typically in the 'nineties' on client surveys and that the center tracks referrals and works monthly with the Office of Children's Services northern region manager to monitor rural-reporting declines.

Bolen closed by inviting the commission and the public to an open house April 3 and emphasized the center's outreach work on internet safety and trafficking prevention in schools and community settings.