Legislature(2017 - 2018)BUTROVICH 205
02/27/2017 01:30 PM Senate HEALTH & SOCIAL SERVICES
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| SCR2 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | SCR 2 | TELECONFERENCED | |
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES STANDING COMMITTEE
February 27, 2017
1:30 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator David Wilson, Chair
Senator Natasha von Imhof, Vice Chair
Senator Cathy Giessel
Senator Peter Micciche
Senator Tom Begich
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 2
Proclaiming April 2017 as Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
- HEARD & HELD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: SCR 2
SHORT TITLE: SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH: APRIL 2017
SPONSOR(s): SENATOR(s) MEYER
02/08/17 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
02/08/17 (S) STA, HSS
02/24/17 (S) STA REFERRAL WAIVED
02/27/17 (S) HSS AT 1:30 PM BUTROVICH 205
WITNESS REGISTER
SENATOR KEVIN MEYER
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Sponsor of SCR 2.
ALIZA KAZMI, Policy Specialist
Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (ANDVSA)
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified in support of SCR 2.
JAYNE ANDREEN, Interim Executive Director
Alaska Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified in support of SCR 2.
ACTION NARRATIVE
1:30:22 PM
CHAIR DAVID WILSON called the Senate Health and Social Services
Standing Committee meeting to order at 1:30 p.m. Present at the
call to order were Senators Giessel, Begich, von Imhof, and
Chair Wilson. Senator Miccichi arrived during the meeting.
SCR 2-SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH: APRIL 2017
1:30:55 PM
CHAIR WILSON announced the consideration of SCR 2.
1:31:19 PM
SENATOR KEVIN MEYER, Alaska State Legislature, Juneau, Alaska,
provided a sponsor's statement as follows:
SCR 2 would proclaim April 2017 as "Sexual Assault
Awareness Month;" this is part of a national campaign
to raise public awareness about sexual assault and
educate communities and individuals on how to prevent
sexual violence. As you all know, sexual violence is a
serious problem in the state of Alaska, unfortunately;
but, we bring this resolution forward every year and
actually I've been doing this since 2001. I used to
serve on the [Standing Together Against Rape] (STAR)
Board of Directors when I was on the Anchorage
Assembly; this is something that I feel strongly
about, not only as a parent with two daughters, but as
an Alaskan. We have thought actually about not doing a
resolution every year and putting it in statute and
just making April the sexual assault awareness month,
but so many folks have said it's good to bring this up
every year and just remind folks that we still have a
problem with sexual assault. Probably until sexual
assault awareness goes away Mr. Chairman, I will be
bringing this forward every year.
Again, this is part of a national campaign to raise
public awareness and also to let folks know that
there's various groups out there that are also trying
to educate on this topic: Alaska's Council on Domestic
Violence and Sexual Assault, Alaska Network on
Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, and STAR.
1:33:28 PM
SENATOR MEYER reviewed sexual assault statistics from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Intimate
Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) as follows:
· 1-in-5 women and 1-in-70 men in the U.S. have been victims
of violent sexual assault in their lifetime.
· The 2015 Alaska Victimization Survey reports that almost a
third of all adult women in Alaska have experienced sexual
violence.
He summarized as follows:
Sexual assault is preventable; it's a social, public,
health, criminal justice, human rights issue; it's
something we just need to keep bringing out to the
public, educate the public that this is not acceptable
and that there are things to do to report this and to
stop this. So this year, 2017 Sexual Assault Awareness
Month focuses on engaging new voices to broaden the
scope of prevention and we hope that SCR 2 will help
to strengthen that effort across our state.
1:34:57 PM
CHAIR WILSON opened public testimony on SCR 2.
1:35:12 PM
At ease.
1:36:41 PM
CHAIR WILSON called the committee back to order.
1:37:03 PM
ALIZA KAZMI, Policy Specialist, Alaska Network on Domestic
Violence and Sexual Assault (ANDVSA), Juneau, Alaska, read a
statement from ANDVSA in support of SCR 2 as follows:
We offer our full support for SCR 2, Sexual Assault
Awareness Month for April 2017. Our member programs
and affiliates which are 24-victim-service providers
from around the state, prioritize intervention and
experiences of sexual assault as well as upstream-
violence prevention efforts; however, Alaskans
continue to experience unacceptably high levels of
sexual assault, as Senator Meyer stated.
The 2015 Alaska Victimization Survey showed that out
of every 100 adult women who reside in Alaska, 33
experience sexual violence and 50 experience intimate
partner violence, sexual violence or both. Every day
emergency service provisions through our member
agencies engage as advocates, medical professionals
and law enforcement to establish immediate safety and
longer-term support for victims of sexual assault,
including through legal advocacy during prosecution as
well as assisting with accessing basic social
services. Our member agencies continuously strive to
conduct broad and effective outreach, and work in
conjunction with community partners.
In spite of strained resources, our member agencies do
everything in their power to serve victims. Prevention
of sexual assault is rooted in educational advocacy.
Evidence based and comprehensive prevention engages
multiple stakeholders to build knowledge and tools
which in turn enables Alaskans to build community
partnerships around the response to and prevention of
sexual assault, this is critical in dismantling the
cultural normativity of sexual assault as well as the
culture of victim blaming; for example, the Network on
Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault has recently
expanded its prevention work focused on youth to
include an emphasis on both teen dating violence as
well as healthy sexuality education alongside sexual
health, this expansion recognizes that many teen
relationships involve sexual intimacy and that youths
need specific tools on how to establish personal
boundaries to promote healthy relationships.
In an interview conducted for a recent lead on youth-
summit planning, which is just an annual program that
we do, one teen remarked, "Sexual health is something
that is not often discussed among my peers and I think
it would be pretty cool to start those discussions so
people become more comfortable around sexual health;
however, in order to educate others accurately, I need
to be educated myself."
Indeed, ending sexual assault is a priority not only
for individuals, but also within and among communities
throughout our state. Victims' service providers
always benefit from greater and enhanced community
awareness and collaboration around this issue. Each
and every Alaskan must be informed and empowered to
work together to end sexual assault through a
rigorous, comprehensive and ongoing process of
community-based intervention and prevention, which we
feel that this bill really highlights.
We are grateful to Senator Meyer and his staff for
proposing the bill and we really urge you to support
it and help continue expanding awareness and resources
in order to end sexual assault in Alaska.
1:41:11 PM
JAYNE ANDREEN, Interim Executive Director, Alaska's Council on
Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (CDVSA), Juneau, Alaska,
testified in support of SCR 2 as follows:
The council (CDVSA) as well as the network (ANDVSA)
supports SCR 2 and the whole concept of sexual assault
awareness month; this is something that has been
happening nationally since the 1970s and Alaska, as
you have heard, still ranks highest in the country for
the state's sexual assault rates.
It's important to note from our 2015 Alaska
Victimization Survey that our rates have gone down for
the number of women who are reporting having been
sexually assaulted in the previous year by over 30
percent. We are making progress, yet Alaska is the
highest in the nation, so anything that we can do to
shed light to this problem, to increase the awareness
and prosecutions of these cases of holding offenders
accountable is going to be for the benefit of Alaska
as a whole.
1:42:27 PM
CHAIR WILSON closed public testimony on SCR 2.
SENATOR GIESSEL noted that Ms. Andreen mentioned prosecuting
afterwards, something that she agreed with; however, she asked
Ms. Andreen and Ms. Kazmi to share their knowledge on the root
cause of sexual assault and how the Legislature can get to the
actual root of the problem.
1:44:25 PM
MS. KAZMI agreed that there definitely needs to be an emphasis
on prevention and response after the fact. She said healthy
sexuality education and other measures beginning when children
are just in the school system needs to be emphasized in addition
to what health relationships looks like. She noted that the
council (CDVSA) and network (ANDVSA) have various programs. She
added that an annual summit invites high school students to hone
on the question of respect and how each student can really be
active in protecting themselves; but more importantly, to foster
the culture of respect.
MS. ANDREEN opined that the root cause really has to do with
gender roles and people's perceptions. She continued as follows:
One of the root elements of sexual assault is power
and control, it isn't as much about the sexual
gratification. So it's important to get people to be
thinking from that broader perspective. Both the
council (CDVSA) and the network (ANDVSA) as well as a
number of our partners across the state have a whole
comprehensive sort of web of primary prevention
programming that is happening. A lot of it is really
focused on our youth, because we see that as they are
starting to get into, you know, separate from the
family, getting into their own relationships, that's a
prime time for them to either start to engage in
abusive relationships and or choose not to. What I
really like, which Ms. Kazmi was talking about the
whole lead-on concept and "Stand Up, Speak Up Alaska",
all of these youth-driven initiatives are youth-led,
we kind of guide them with the information, but they
are the ones that decide what's the best way to change
their norms, to change their culture, to get others to
engage with them, and it's part of this bigger picture
that we have that is moving us forward.
1:47:28 PM
SENATOR GIESSEL noted that she attended the Alaska Federation of
Natives (AFN) convention and young people from one of the
Interior communities did a drama on sexual assault that was
incredibly moving, at the end they said, "This has to stop
because it is destroying us."
SENATOR GIESSEL stated that she appreciated the resolution. She
pointed out that SCR calls on page 2, lines 16-18, "Coaching
boys into men." She remarked that there are so many single
parent families now where fathers are absent and noted that a
teacher in a rural community has taken in several young men who
lost their fathers and raised the boys who are now adults who
understand appropriate relationships. She said the increase in
single parents boils down to the loss of positive modeling for
the state's young people, but organizations that Ms. Kazmi and
Ms. Andreen noted are trying to do their best at replacing.
She remarked that another aspect is mental health. She noted
that mental-health providers should be considered and noted that
Anchorage has mental-health providers in their schools. She
disclosed that she was a clinician in schools around the state
and explained that many times just interacting with the child
allows for perceiving something that has happened to a young
person. She suggested that allowing mental-health services in
schools is another avenue that can be pursued.
1:48:34 PM
SENATOR MICCICHE joined the committee meeting.
CHAIR WILSON added that he is familiar with programs that can
help mentor and teach young males. He said the hardest piece is
providing long-term prevention data; for example, middle-school
intervention that plays out in adulthood.
1:50:55 PM
SENATOR BEGICH disclosed that he is an adult advisor for the
Mayor's Commission on Youth in Anchorage and was told at a
recent meeting that youth training from Green Dot Alaska was
denied due to Green Dot not having appropriate methodology. He
said his is hopeful that the resolution might have an impact on
Green Dot training for youth.
He called attention to the 2015 Alaska Victimization Survey and
asked Ms. Andreen to address the survey's report that the number
of women reporting sexual assaults is down 30 percent from the
previous year and the primary reason for the reduction.
MS. ANDREEN replied that CDVSA's belief is the reduction is from
comprehensive prevention programming that started 10 years ago.
She noted that during the same time frame the level of reporting
sexual assault has gone up, which she believes is a positive.
1:53:06 PM
SENATOR BEGICH asked to confirm that even though reporting is
up, the reduction in the number of incidents being reported
represents an even greater change.
MS. ANDREEN replied that Senator Begich's assumption is
appropriate. She said CDVSA thinks that because people are
becoming more aware of domestic violence and sexual assault,
more victims are coming forward with a report; however, the
crime is probably one with the lowest conviction rate.
CHAIR WILSON added that a lot of what Ms. Andreen mentioned has
to do with some of the newer programs like Sexual Assault
Response Team (SART) being developed statewide. He conceded that
the SART program takes a lot of funding to operating, but noted
that a lot of communities have become more creative in funding
their own services. He set forth that activity awareness of
programs like SART is up and noted that the SART program in the
Mat-Su has doubled in the past year.
1:55:26 PM
CHAIR WILSON [held SCR 2 in committee.]
1:55:32 PM
There being no further business to come before the committee,
Chair Wilson adjourned the Senate Health and Social Services
Committee at 1:55 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| SCR 2 Sponsor Statement A.pdf |
HHSS 4/6/2017 3:00:00 PM SHSS 2/27/2017 1:30:00 PM |
SCR 2 |
| SCR 2 Version A.pdf |
HHSS 4/6/2017 3:00:00 PM SHSS 2/27/2017 1:30:00 PM |
SCR 2 |
| SCR 2 Support Materials Alaska Dispatch News 11.20.2016.pdf |
HHSS 4/6/2017 3:00:00 PM SHSS 2/27/2017 1:30:00 PM |
SCR 2 |
| Supplemental Crime in Alaska Report.pdf |
HHSS 4/6/2017 3:00:00 PM SHSS 2/27/2017 1:30:00 PM |
SCR 2 |
| SCR 2 Support Materials Key Results from the 2015 Alaska Victimization Survey.pdf |
HHSS 4/6/2017 3:00:00 PM SHSS 2/27/2017 1:30:00 PM |
SCR 2 |
| SCR 2 Support Materials CDVSA Annual Report 2015.pdf |
HHSS 4/6/2017 3:00:00 PM SHSS 2/27/2017 1:30:00 PM |
SCR 2 |
| SCR 2 Support Materials ANDVSA 2016 Annual Report.pdf |
HHSS 4/6/2017 3:00:00 PM SHSS 2/27/2017 1:30:00 PM |
SCR 2 |
| SCR2-LEG-SESS-02-27-17 FN.pdf |
HHSS 4/6/2017 3:00:00 PM SHSS 2/27/2017 1:30:00 PM |
SCR 2 |
| SCR 2 Support Materials CDC National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey.pdf |
HHSS 4/6/2017 3:00:00 PM SHSS 2/27/2017 1:30:00 PM |
SCR 2 |