Crossings staff gearing up for 2018 programming

Alaska Crossings is gearing up for its 2018 season, with guide training formally starting last week.

The youth-oriented behavioral health program has operated out of Wrangell since its inception, back in 2001. Originally a program of Alaska Island Community Services, Crossings is now under the Southeast Alaska Rural Health Consortium umbrella since it acquired AICS last year.

Designed to help people between the ages of 12 and 18 years, Crossings combines therapeutic interventions with outdoor and expeditionary activities, intended to foster a process of change and personal healing. ​

Those involved in the program tend to have difficulties in school or at home, ranging from self-esteem issues and anxiety to substance abuse and peer group problems. Some are recovering from abuse, while others could use some direction and encouragement.

"Ultimately we're not just out in the woods. We're actually doing a very purposeful activity every moment," said Claire Ramos, Crossings' clinical supervisor.

The Crossings season officially begins on April 11, with the last group's program ending as late as mid-December. Participants in the program come from all over the state, and are often

referred to it either by friends or family members who have been in the program themselves, school counselors, probation officers or mentors. Ramos stressed that the program is a voluntary one, and from the start the youths are expected to take an active role.

"They are a part of the interview process. We interview them and they come up with treatment goals to be here, so they're definitely invested in being here," said Ramos.

Crossings staff review accepted applicants' details and records, and assign them into cohorts of up to nine. Crossings program manager Jerrie Dee Harvey likened the initial sorting to piecing together a puzzle, taking into account individuals' backgrounds, ages and motivations to assemble a complementary team.

"They start together and they graduate together," Ramos explained.

With each group of nine, three guides are assigned. Harvey noted the combination comes to 12, a practical number that logistically ensures groups can partner off for canoeing, hiking and other activities.

"We have found that, in this environment with our population of kids, it's the best risk management," she said.

Upon arrival, Crossings participants get physicals at the clinic and are outfitted with gear from the program's warehouse. Nearly everything they will need is provided, depending on the activities planned and time of year.

The float house Crossings keeps anchored between Deer and Long islands acts as a home base for each incoming group. There participants receive their survival skills training and develop lesson plans for themselves.

"From there they will often start their first expedition," said Harvey.

Setting off for a week to 10 days at a time, groups go off somewhere new every morning during the program. As an experiential learning program, Ramos explained, each client works through new situations while also focusing on lessons very specific to them and their needs.

"The whole point of it is to improve our social interactions. We're a behavioral health program. What better way to learn how to manage yourself than to be put into situations that are sometimes frustrating, and to have the support to get through it?" she said.

Clients stay on for about two months in all, during which they will get three periods of downtime to relax and reflect on the experience.

"Intermittently during this time, if they've chosen to, they'll be writing letters back and forth with their parents," Harvey added, working out some of the issues that brought them here. "It's not just the kids that we're servicing. We're actually servicing the family."

Here to help with that process, this year 46 applicants have flown in to train as Crossings guides. Staff training formally began on March 5, lasting through the 30th. After that, training will be followed up by a wilderness first responder course.

"It's basically a month-long interview," Ramos explained. "We do a real thorough interview before they come up, knowing that everyone we bring up we want to hire."

Within the training curriculum, safety is by far the number-one emphasis. For all its beauty, the wilderness in Southeast poses a number of dangers guides need to be prepared for. The well-being of the youth in their charge is not merely important, but is the whole focus of the program.

"We're preparing them to be safe, in all elements – physical safety, emotional safety. At the end of the day, that's their number one job," said Ramos.

Training begins with SEARHC orientation, focusing on the professional aspect of guiding. This gets followed by a day of skills testing, where prospective guides demonstrate their knowhow of setting tarps, building fires, pack management, canoeing and navigation skills. Even among newcomers to the program, would-be guides bring a wide range of experience with them, which narrows down to a Southeast Alaska setting.

The guide group has already had a two-day course on weather-based decision making led by the National Weather Service, and had a hands-on helicopter orientation at the airport with a response crew from the Coast Guard's Air Station Sitka. The group will also this week be learning about bear safety and emergency flares, as well as becoming more familiar with the Tongass National Forest system.

There is also a clerical side to the position, with plenty of medical paperwork and field reports to know about. And of course there is homework to do every evening, making the month an extensive one.

"It's constant training and retraining throughout the days," said Harvey.

As the season gets underway, she was thankful for the amount of community support the program has received over the years, which includes some upriver support from local outfitters.

"We're so appreciative of being a part of this community, the community has been amazingly hospitable," Harvey said. "We can't do this without how welcoming and open-armed people in this community are."