Alaskans love to fish! Already, trips to favorite fishing places are being planned, and dreams of big catches dreamed. So, imagine standing on the shore of your favorite river when suddenly you see a person being swept downstream, thrashing to keep their head above water. We would, in an instant, make every effort to rescue that person and get them on solid, safe ground. Let me connect this drowning person to problems our community experiences: crime, homelessness and Alaska's poor reading scores. Every day, people around us being swept down a torrential river of personal trauma. These are people of all ages, but for this discussion, I want to focus on kids - kids who are careening down a river of multiple sources of stress and trauma.