Children and Family Life Center
One director, Madeline Nance, who networks with other chancery departments of like ministry presently coordinates the Children and Family Life Center. The office was established in 1995 to help build and maintain partnerships between parish and family and children and family life. This was a direct response to the USCCB document that stated "A challenge for our Nation and World: "Putting Children and Families First." Children and Family Life Center focuses on the gathering of traditional wisdom and the wisdom of today in materials, which fosters the goals and objectives. The dissemination of these objectives happens through written publications, urban and rural site trainings, workshops, counseling and consultations. The department deals with prevention, intervention and treatment referrals in the following categories:
Family Life Skills Education:
Relationships/ parenting skills/child development presented as workshop training or office visit counseling/ consultation.
Safe Environment and Child Protection:
Child Sexual Abuse Prevention training for all employees, volunteers and children in this diocese.
Victim Assistance:
Coordinator is available for accepting and guiding individuals through the disclosure, and healing process of child sexual abuse. This section has an assistant available when coordinator is unavailable.
Renewal/Recovery Resource:
Spiritual 12 Step healing journeys geared to urban or rural peoples:
Formats:
Formats:
Peacemakers (urban) A twelve step spiritual journey for the urban community to take a look at behaviors that get in the way of becoming all they can be. Weekly two-hour sessions offered either as a twelve or twenty-four week base. It is a writing homework workshop and a small and large group discussion at meetings. Aimed at helping searchers to discover or rediscover that there is a God, Prayer works and Miracles do happen.
Pilgrimage (rural) A program sensitive to native cultural groups by other native cultural groups to help recognize and heal issues from the past, struggles of the present, and stresses in the future. Process is a Roman Catholic adaptation of a12 Step Spiritual Journey of four days and three nights that participants claim is a time of welcome blessing and spiritual renewal.
Spiritual Direction:
A trained certified guide or companion encourages directees to explore a closer relationship with God, to find meaning beyond the moment, and to discover their true selves.
"The more Wise and Knowledgeable parents (people) there are the safer our world will be." Paraphrased from Wisdom 6:24
Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska
Madeline Nance
Director, Children and Family Life Center
1316 Peger Road
Fairbanks, AK 99709-5199
907-374-9551 907-374-9580 (Fax)