Since becoming governor, Sean Parnell has used “choose respect” as a signature slogan of his administration. The phrase is tied with his effort to reduce sexual and family violence across Alaska, and it’s something the state promotes through public service announcements and awareness campaigns throughout the year. So when Parnell’s deputy visited Unalaska last week, reducing the instance of child abuse and domestic violence was a top concern for local residents.

At a community reception on Friday, non-profit leaders and city officials gathered around Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell to find out how Unalaska’s Office of Children’s Services could be reopened. The OCS position has been vacant since 2009, and Mayor Shirley Marquardt said community groups have done all they can to both bring a state social worker to the Aleutians and cover the gap in service provided.

“Here’s a community that’s not saying come in and fix everything for us. We’re doing the best that we can with what we’ve got, because we care. We’ve been doing this for a long time, but we have this piece that keeps us from doing the best that we can for these family and kids, and the only way we can get that piece is through the state,” said Marquardt. “And we can’t get the state’s attention.”

Representatives from the Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic, the Aleutian Pribilof Island Association, and Unalaskans Against Sexual Assault and Family Violence argued for increased funding for the position, saying that having an OCS worker out in remote places saves the state money in the long run.

“[The cost of an OCS worker] is four kids that don’t have to get all the way to jail,” commented Eileen Scott, the executive director of the IFHS clinic. “It more than pays for itself.”

“Or [the cost of] hearings at the court,” said M. Lynne Crane, head of Unalaskans Against Sexual Assault and Family Violence.

“Or [the cost of] going into foster care, and flying the parents or the kids back and forth for visits or the workers back and forth for visits,” added Judi Ruder, who works for the APIA Wellness Center.

In response, Treadwell asked how many children in Unalaska were in foster care, hitting just why the issue has been such a complicated one. None of the people in attendance could give him any hard data on foster families or child abuse in Unalaska, because they said it’s hard to quantify that information without an OCS worker.

Unalaska Methodist Church Pastor Dan Wilcox said that his own family has struggled with that dilemma.

“My wife and I have actually tried to become foster parents, and there’s a difficult step there because OCS is part of that process,” said Wilcox. “We’ve done the paperwork, but we can’t do a home study or anything.”

Crane and Ruder added that Unalaska is not suffering from a child abuse crisis, but that abuse does happen in the community and that the preventative care from OCS is need.

At the end of conversation, Treadwell made a commitment to work on this problem, but did not make an explicit promise to bring an OCS worker to the Aleutians. He said it was outside of his purview.

“I don’t know enough about the overall funding and OCS, or the decision that was made to keep somebody out,” said Treadwell. “But I can certainly broker a discussion between the providers at the state level and the community groups so they can hear from you direct.”

The last time the state publicly addressed the vacancy was at a community forum in 2010.