JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska —Brig. Gen. Charles Lee Knowles, commander of the Alaska Army National Guard and the assistant adjutant general, signed a charter for the Commander’s Ready and Resilient Council, or CR2C, Nov. 6.
The CR2C program functions as the Alaska Army National Guard commander’s agency for the recommendation of priorities. The program synchronizes activities, assesses and monitors high-risk mitigation strategies, improves readiness and resilience, and advances health promotion, risk reduction, and suicide prevention efforts.
The council is comprised of members from various sections of the organization which represent resources available. This collaborative effort serves Soldiers within the Alaska National Guard through a holistic approach that allows for wrap-around services for units, individuals and families.
The new program is better aligned with the Alaska state suicide prevention plan of “casting the net upstream,” which means identifying risk-factors and stressors before they cause high-risk behaviors that turn into a crisis, according to Monique Andrews, a resilience, risk reduction and suicide prevention manager with the Alaska National Guard.
This program, chaired by the ATAG, is designed so that members of the council may identify stressors within units via various resources and develop strategies. Once they develop strategies, they distribute them to the working members of the units for execution of the planned strategies and prevention of risk-factors.
“We can’t get after this if we don’t understand what the Soldier is facing, and these programs help us look out there and see what our Soldiers are dealing with,” said Knowles.
The CR2C program provides Soldiers and families with assistance through many programs, such as the suicide prevention program, family readiness program, chaplain assistance, alcohol and substance abuse program, and team building exercises or workshops.
“These programs can give us hope that maybe one day these things won’t be a problem,” said Knowles.