Why we do it.

Belief Statements

We believe that we have identified “what kids need to succeed.”
We believe that kids are "hardwired" to connect and are acculturated through relationship.
We believe that all kids have innate talents and skills that need to be found, nurtured, used, and polished.
We believe that young people are increasingly being neglected by the culture of busy ness.
We believe that schools need to provide the strings necessary for all young people to achieve.
We believe that words have more meaning when we demonstrate and define the word through our attitudes and behaviors.
We believe that young people need to be active participants in their personal villages.
We believe that every child has three families - the one they are given, the one who finds them, and the one they create. We want them to value each of these families, and to know the difference between each.
We believe that each youth is unique, and that every youth shares a common experience.
We believe that young people are too often burdened by their blessings; limited by their large number options; and oppressed by their freedom.
We believe that young people need real success, in authentic experiences, to build the strings necessary to achieve.

What we stand for.

We stand for - thorough review of professional literature and research, in order to understand its significance to individual youth, and the culture of youth. We stand for – listening to the time honored wisdom of the elders in our societies in order to remember the basic principles of integrative youth development. We stand for - the systematic implementation of the research findings - moving beyond theory to action.We stand for - having youth at the table - as equal partners in the formation of their world and culture. We stand for - programs, initiatives, events, policies, regulations, and laws that connect youth and adults in meaningful ways. We stand for - moving beyond intentions to action; moving beyond words to action; moving beyond meetings to action; moving beyond segregation to integration.

Derek Peterson - Founder

Derek Peterson is the founder of Integrative Youth Development (IYD). He is a pioneer in the implementation of the principles and outcomes of IYD within schools, communities, families, as well as within the minds and hearts of individual youth. In his career, he has received many honors and accolades, but the most significant one is the “thank you” that is given by an individual whose life his work has touched.

Derek has spoken to audiences as large as 2800 and as small as 25, throughout the United States, and in Canada, Mexico, and southern Africa. His first book project, Helping Kids Succeed – Alaskan Style, has over 150,000 copies in circulation.

Derek has been a long time advocate for young people. As a high school freshman, he created and managed his first youth center. Peterson has served as a counselor in a detention center for boys, as a drug/alcohol counselor, and as an advocate for college/university students. He has worked as a faculty member at one of the most innovative colleges in the United States and served the Vice President for Student Services at a liberal arts college.

Between 1995 and 2004, Peterson served as the Director of Child/Youth Advocacy for the Association of Alaska School Boards. While there he developed the IYD model that expanded the dialogue around student achievement in both urban and rural schools. His work guided the Chugach School District's Psycho/Social Developmental Standards and supported them in earning the nation's first Baldridge Award for Excellence in Education.

While serving Alaskan school boards, administrators, teachers, students, and community members, Derek was a leader of a team that raised over 16 million dollars for a statewide initiative for children, youth, and communities. In addition to this long term funding, tens of millions more were redirected within partner agencies to support the vision of connection rich kids. In the year 2000, the Alaska Drug and Alcohol Prevention Community recognized him as the “Prevention Professional of the Year.” In 2001, the Alaska Principal’s Association honored him as their educator of the year.

Today Derek is the Executive Director for the Institute for Community and Adolescent Resilience (ICAR-US). ICAR-US does IYD work for numerous communities and school districts throughout the US, and the world. Derek is on the staff of the International Institute for Children’s’ Rights and Development in Victoria, Canada. He guides efforts to merge traditional ways of knowing and traditional values with IYD.

Derek spends his summers in Victoria, British Columbia, and his winters in Mesa, Arizona.

Father Michael Oleksa

The Reverend Dr. Michael James Oleksa has spent the last 35 years in Alaska, serving as village priest, university professor, consultant on intercultural relations and communications, and authoring several books on Alaska Native cultures and history. A 1969 graduate of Georgetown University and of St. Vladimir s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Father Oleksa earned his doctoral degree in Presov, Slovakia, in 1988.  His four-part PBS television series, Communicating Across Cultures, has been widely acclaimed.

The recipient of numerous awards from local, state and federal agencies, as well as the Alaska Federation of Natives, Father Michael has taught on all three main campuses of the University of Alaska system and at Alaska Pacific University as well. He currently resides in Anchorage with his Yupik wife, Xenia, his daughter Anastasia and one of his three grandsons.

Father Oleksa is a charismatic speaker and entertaining lecturer. His topics include Integrative Youth Development, communicating across cultures, the importance of diversity, and caring and connected schools. To see Father Michael in action, see his four part PBS series, “Communicating Across Cultures.”

Susan Dillingham

Beginning as a middle school teacher, Susan went on to hold various positions in the educational arena such as high school teacher, student council sponsor, youth drug-free alliance sponsor, school system Character Education Coordinator, and Safe and Drug-Free Schools Coordinator for the school system. Awards such as Secondary Teacher of the Year, and the Judy Milholland Award for outstanding service to students both inside and outside the classroom recognized her work. Susan currently serves as a facilitator for CADCA’s (Community Anti-Drug Coalitions Across America) National Youth Leadership Academy.

In the community, Susan was active with her church and organized many youth activities, community events, and youth organizations. Her work on behalf of children and youth led to her involvement with the development of an anti-drug coalition in her home county. Susan continues her work in the coalition field today, having formed and led county coalitions in both Tennessee and Ohio. Recently she served as the Coalition Coordinator for Community Anti-Drug Coalitions Across Tennessee (CADCAT) where she worked across the State forming, training and providing technical assistance to local community anti-drug coalitions. She is the founder of ICARe-TN (Initiative for Community and Adolescent Resilience – Tennessee), where she serves as the Director of Connections.

Susan has delivered over a hundred speeches, workshops, and seminars to groups across the nation; from Washington DC to Alaska. Her life has been dedicated to finding the uniqueness in everyone she meets, to valuing that uniqueness, and to allowing her connection with them to enrich her own life. Her passion is centered on the positive development of every child and the engagement of the community in this development. Her goal in life is to see a miracle happen in the lives of the youth she works with as they discover their strengths and use them to turn their dreams into realities.

Lara Popowitch

Lara Popowitch is the Artistic Director for ICAR-US. This is a unique position in the field of Integrative Youth Development. Lara knows it is not enough to read, talk to, and write - these ways of communicating only touch certain people at a certain level. Lara teaches us to look to art and theater to engage people at a deeper level. Community engagement projects need story, theater, and song, to inspire and move people's behaviors and attitudes towards youth. In her work she designs and produces artwork that has a positive and powerful aesthetic influence on people. Using signs, spectacles, and symbols, within the cultural contexts of the community, she opens people’s minds and hearts to new ways of seeing.

Lara works to better understand the influence of perception on the process of social change and community involvement. She believes that ideas, language, and actions are based upon the images and narratives we take from literature, paintings, film, television, and other genres. She believes art can provide us with models, scenarios, metaphors, and images that support people in connecting to the principles of Integrative Youth Development. Art also guides us in exploring the different ways to shape perceptions and actions to promote diversity and democracy, while building capacity for local initiative work. Lara has two academic degrees; one from The American Academy of Art in Chicago and the other from Northern Illinois University.

Brad Ragsdale

Brad Ragsdale is the founder of Fuzion Fx Multimedia Design. Brad has worked closely with ICAR-US team members to create and develop a website that translates the ICAR-US archetype into the digital realm.