Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center Interviewee: Tami Truett Jerue, Director 1. How did this work come about? And why was it necessary? Our work came about as the result of the “Thriving Women’s Initiative Alaska” grant. We received the training and technical assistance necessary to pull things together to apply. We are aware of the amount of sexual violence, sex trafficking of women, and there are 229 tribes in the state, and combined they have the highest rates of sexual violence. It makes sense that there are native advocates to address these concerns, so we needed a resource center to take on these tribal issues; to work together with tribes to solve these problems. 2. To accomplish your work, how does your project draw upon the best of the what has been or is in your organization and community?
We are building a new coalition that is addressing sexual violence. One way is through raising awareness about violence through a performance using a play that is customized to our situation in Alaska. We brought in actors, including Alaska actors that would perform, educate, and raise important issues in a non-threatening way. People don’t understand the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and we wanted to raise awareness through our play. It is an important means by which to inform and to work with lots of communities on addressing violence against women. There is need to provide anti-violence training that addresses cultural realities and traditions and we believed that we could inform community through the play. It is a way to bring policy home. It’s important for us to ask ourselves what can we do to strengthen our communities and get the rates of violence down?”
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