AVCP Takes Action to Address Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP)
The Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP) joins others state and nation wide to recognize May 5 as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP). We gather with our allies to wear red in honor, and take action in remembrance, of the too many indigenous people who have been murdered or are missing from our communities.
AVCP is responding to a clear public safety crisis in Rural Alaska. In 2020, after a series of village assessments were complete, AVCP released a Public Safety White Paper outlining solutions for facilities, personnel, partnerships, and funding to address the public safety shortfall in western Alaska. In 2020 AVCP formed an MMIP Taskforce to raise awareness about the MMIP crisis and work on solutions.
On May 5 AVCP published a result of the MMIP Taskforce work, the AVCP MMIP Service Delivery Guide. Through this comprehensive guide, AVCP describes its approach to prevention of violence, the programs and services that contribute to healthy citizens and communities, resources for MMIP information, and recommendations to improve MMIP outcomes.
“Our cultural values tell us that the prevention of violence starts from a place of wholeness, of being well as a person in a healthy community,” says Vivian Korthuis, AVCP Chief Executive Officer. “AVCP sees a future with reduced violence against our people as we heal ourselves with our cultures and share our indigenous knowledge for solutions.”
AVCP has partnered with the Tundra Women’s Coalition and the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center to share information on webinars and activities during the week of May 5 in honor of MMIP.
AVCP encourages the use of these three hashtags on social media on May 5 to help spread awareness of MMIP and find justice for our relatives: #MMIW #NoMoreStolenSisters #MMIWActionNow.
For information about AVCP’s public safety advocacy, visit our website at https://avcp.org/about-avcp/publicsafety.
To view AVCP’s MMIP Service Delivery Guide, visit our website at: https://avcp.org/2022/05/04/avcp-responds-to-mmip/
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For additional information, please contact AVCP Communications Director, Gage Hoffman at 907-543-7308 or email at ghoffman@avcp.org.
AVCP is a regional nonprofit tribal consortium comprised of the 56 federally recognized tribes of the YK Delta. The geographic boundaries of AVCP extend from the Yukon River Village of Russian Mission downstream to the Bering Sea coast, north up through Kotlik and south along the coastline to Platinum and then extending up the Kuskokwim River to Stony River, including Lime Village on the Stony River tributary. The area encompasses approximately 6.5 million acres, or 55,000 square miles, in Western Alaska.
