In 2016 a transformation began to take place in the Mat-Su Valley. A shift, a refocus, a unity. While it was brought in by agencies and educators we felt the unmistakable voice of God in it. It was the beginning of a powerful question ..... "What if?"

What if..........we took the focus off failure and began to look at strengths?

What if..........we began to take a strengthening families approach to replace a culture of blame and shame

What if..........we didn't just refer people to specialist agencies, but came together to ask "How can we help?"

Two powerful words that shifted culture. Culture that came together on shared values despite different beliefs..... strengths over weaknesses, "we" over "me", safe homes, strong families.

It was in this culture that we learned about Strengthening Families.

Did you know that there are five protective factors that substantially decrease the likelihood of child abuse and trauma?  These protective factors became our shared language, our shared values, our community focus.

Together we also learned about Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences and explored how to educate our community on the prevention of child sexual abuse. The greatest investors in carrying this vision for our community were ROCK Mat-Su and the Mat-Su Health Foundation. Their drive towards the health and well-being of individuals and families in our community has been outrageously generous, professionally executed, and well informed. Thank you.