Jodi Stuart recognized as ‘Champion for Kids’

During a meeting of the Soldotna Rotary Club on Thursday, the Alaska Children’s Trust recognized Jodi Stuart as a “Champion for Kids,” citing her passion for and years of work in making a difference for children and adults impacted by adverse childhood experiences.

Stuart is a probation and parole officer with the Department of Corrections, a driving force behind the Kenai Peninsula Reentry Coalition, a member of the Southcentral Alliance for Family Resilience and an active member of the Soldotna Rotary, Mirna Estrada, director of communications for the trust, said on Thursday. With the trust, Stuart has also been one of the most active instructors in “trauma-informed training.”

Estrada said that Stuart’s passion for the work comes from a deeply rooted experience and exposure to the impacts of adverse childhood experiences when she was young. A friend of her brother’s was left unhoused at only 7 years old. Despite receiving care and support, the physical and social impacts of childhood trauma impacted him throughout his life, which ended “too soon.”

“Jodi refused to be a part of a community that accepts this story as normal,” Estrada said.

That’s why Stuart originally wanted to be a teacher, to recognize and tackle some of the challenges children face. When she later learned that children of incarcerated parents become more likely to become incarcerated themselves, she instead became a probation and parole officer.

Stuart said that the work done by ACT is meaningful, that more needs to be done across the state to protect children and give them and their parents the resources to succeed.

“I never want to see another child be kicked out at 7,” she said. “That should never happen in this town. It should never happen on the peninsula. It should not happen in our state. It should not be allowed.”

Stuart said that her work with the trust, with the rotary and in other endeavors is to “make things better.” That means promoting mentorship programs, ensuring child care facilities are staffed with qualified people, allocating more funding to address these issues.

“We keep thinking that the problem of child abuse and neglect is on its way out, I can tell you every day I see it,” she said.

Speaking after the meeting, Stuart said she first became involved with ACT when she learned about the training program she was recognized for on Thursday. That training, she said, is a trauma-informed care training, developed using an Alaska Native perspective, on “how we can bring hope to even the worst circumstances of children neglect and abuse.”

That training is intended for professionals who then will use their learnings in the field. Over around six years of training, Stuart has worked with people all over the state, including state agencies and the Office of Children’s Services.

ACT, Stuart said, is “one of the few” organizations focused on preemptive care, providing resources to parents to help them do the right thing sooner.

Speaking during the presentation, ACT Director of Community Engagement Kaila Pfister said that the trust is a statewide nonprofit based in Anchorage. Their mission is the prevention of child abuse and neglect, from an “upstream approach.” She said that they focus on giving people “the knowledge, skills, supports and resources to be able to care for their kids.”

Those resources take a lot of forms, like a small book of conversation starters about online safety — Pfister said they’ve distributed 16,000 copies across the state. They also partner with local after-school programs and provide grant funding to organizations like SAFR, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Kenai Peninsula, or the Haven House in Homer.

The trust has a wealth of information and is a great starting point for trying to make a difference, Stuart said. She also encourages getting involved with any of the local organizations doing similar work, like 100% Communities Alaska, SAFR, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Kenai Peninsula, and others.

“Here in our community, we have such great things moving forward.”

Being recognized as a Champion for Kids, Stuart said, means standing “next to people that I would never in a million years have compared myself to.”

Pfister said after the meeting that the trust puts out a call for nominations across the state, that Stuart was nominated this year and received strong support.

“I’ve been seeing the impact of her work for several years,” Pfister said. “I’ve been at the trust for four years and she’s been a common household name for all four of them.”

Pfister said that, to her, Stuart had stood out early because she was outspoken about doing new, deeper work to actually combat abuse and neglect — even when that means disagreeing with the status quo.

Estrada described this year’s class of champions, representing different areas of the state, during her presentation. The group includes Dr. Cathy Baldwin-Johnson of Anchorage, a “leading doctor in recognizing child maltreatment”; Hank Nuwer of Fairbanks, a 50-year advocate for youth safety and hazing prevention; Carolyn Iverson of Bethel, a social worker of 11 years who’s infused Yupik values into her work; and Kay Larson of Wrangell, founder of “Building Respect and Valuing Everyone.”

Though she said for a moment she worried whether she belonged as part of that group, Stuart said that she realized each of them shared the desire and the passion to help children.

“The work that I do, it’s every child I come in contact with, every organization that I support,” she said. “It’s that one step that maybe we can change it for that one kid.”

Helping people, Stuart said, is “what I’m here to do.”

For more information about the Alaska Children’s Trust, find “Alaska Children’s Trust” on Facebook or visit alaskachildrenstrust.org.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.