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Dear Alliance Community,,

We’re closing out the year with three exciting learning opportunities to support your growth, strengthen our shared work, and help us move into 2026 with clarity and momentum.

First, we invite you to join Legislating 101 with Tom Begich on Friday, December 12 at 11am. This session will offer a grounded, accessible overview of how legislative processes work in Alaska and how coalitions like ours can engage effectively.

Second, the Evaluation & Learning Workgroup is launching a full calendar year of evaluation learning sessions. We’re kicking things off with “Designing an Evaluation Plan” on Thursday, December 4 at 10am. This will be a great opportunity for members wanting to strengthen evaluation skills while aligning with our shared strategic goals.

Third, we are hosting a formal Consent-Based Decision Making training with Circle Forward during our December All Alliance Meeting on December 18 from 1:30–3pm. This session will help us build shared understanding and practice as we move toward more intentional and equitable decision-making across the Alliance.

And finally, a quick reminder: the deadline to apply for travel sponsorship for the February Calricaraq gathering is this Friday, December 5. If you plan to request support, please be sure to submit your registration form by the deadline.

We look forward to learning, growing, and strengthening our connections with you throughout the month. As always, thank you for your dedication to this work and to each other.

Warmly,

Tesia Bobrycki

Coalition Coordinator

tbobrycki@recoveralaska.org

Consent-Based Decision Making Training

Join The Alliance for a session on consent-based decision making with Circle Forward. Whether you’re learning the process for the first time or looking for a refresher, this training will help you understand how the Alliance makes decisions and where you fit into them.

REGISTER HERE

Basic Training for Legislative Action

This coming month the Policy Workgroup is planning to devote its session on “Basic Training for Legislative Action” - a “101” course on interacting with the Legislature. While not a comprehensive offering, the goal will be to provide to members of the Alliance some basic approaches and techniques to ensure that they are prepared to defend and advocate for Legislation before the Alaska Legislature. These same skills will be applicable right in your own communities as well.

The 45 minute session will explore:

Identifying our goal (water we trying to accomplish; are we responding or promoting)

How to prepare your issue

How to communicate with Legislative Staff and Legislators (or other leaders)

How to build public and legislative support

How do we follow up for success

This will be open to all Alliance members. The meeting is scheduled for December 12 at 11:00 AM. For any questions, please reach out to Tesia Bobrycki at tbobrycki@recoveralaska.org.

REGISTER HERE

2nd Annual Community Holiday Party

Celebrate the holidays with Fairbanks Wellness Coalition! This FREE recovery- and family-friendly event will have music, food, and fun!

Join us for a festive and fun-filled evening at the Fairbanks Wellness Coalition's 2nd Annual Community Holiday Party! Celebrate the season in a vibrant, alcohol-free environment on Friday, December 19th, from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM at the Birch Hill Rec Center.

Enjoy dancing and music, delicious food, and refreshing mocktails as we come together to embrace the spirit of the holidays. There will be exciting activity stations to explore and engage with, making it a night of entertainment for all ages.

This is the perfect opportunity to gather with friends, meet new people, and create joyful memories in an alcohol-free atmosphere. We look forward to celebrating with you!

RSVP HERE

ACT Advocacy Funding

Join the Alaska Children's Trust to “gear up” for advocacy! This series is designed to provide Alaska’s child advocates with practical knowledge and resources to strengthen their work.

On Thursday, December 4 at 11 a.m., Alaska Best Practices will explore the opportunities and challenges of nonpartisan advocacy in Alaska, with Mike Walsh from The Foraker Group as the speaker.

On Thursday, December 11 at 11 a.m., Nonprofits Can Lobby will cover the essentials of legal compliance for lobbying as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, presented by Melissa Marichal Zayas from Bolder Advocacy.

REGISTER HERE

Kick Off The New Year With A Dry January Event

Bring your community together for a fun, sober celebration - and let Recover Alaska help make it memorable. From game nights and creative workshops to trivia evenings or cozy movie marathons, we can provide up to $500 in funding and customized graphics to support your gathering. Celebrate connection, wellness, and joy - no alcohol required.

Ready to host? Funding is limited, so apply now and secure your sponsorship. Applications will be reviewed bi-weekly.

Let’s start 2026 with intention and community!

APPLY HERE

Spirit of Youth Nominations Open

Spirit of Youth nominations are open until December 31st, 2025! 

Do you know a teen who’s making a positive impact in your community? Spirit of Youth is now accepting nominations for its annual awards program, which celebrates Alaska youth who are leading projects, helping others, and inspiring change across the state.

Each year, youth are recognized across eight award categories that highlight achievements in areas like community service, advocacy, arts, leadership, and innovation. You can learn more about each category here: spiritofyouth.org/categories.

If someone comes to mind, we encourage you to submit a nomination and help shine a light on the incredible work youth are doing, often quietly, behind the scenes. Award recipients will be recognized statewide and are eligible for scholarships: the top honoree will receive up to $2,000, and eight runners-up will each receive $500.

Help us celebrate Alaska’s inspiring youth and share their stories of leadership, creativity, and compassion!

NOMINATE HERE

NAADAC Regional Town Hall Meeting

Attention addiction professionals! YOUR voice is needed to help navigate the future of NAADAC and the addiction profession in your region!

NAADAC invites you to attend the virtual Town Hall meetings taking place from December 4 - 18, 2025. Each meeting will be hosted by two NAADAC regions. If you're unable to attend the meeting hosted by your region, you're encouraged to attend another meeting!

These meetings will provide you with updates that impact addiction professionals and organizations in your area, including policy updates, recent trends, and funding. There is no charge to attend this event.

This is your opportunity to share challenges and solutions with your fellow addiction professionals, hear about local affiliate events and activities, learn more about NAADAC committees, and find out how you can get involved - all from your home or office! 

REGISTER HERE

AK B+C Paid Focus Groups

The Alaska Breast and Cervical Screening Assistance Program is asking Alaskan women to participate in a paid focus group. This study seeks to understand how to increase access to preventative breast and cervical screening services in Alaska. The focus groups will occur in late November and early December. 

REGISTER HERE

Communications & Social Norms Workgroup

We now have a video that explains the decision-making protocol we use at The Alliance—one that emphasizes equity, shared power, and creating space for voices often silenced by systems of harm and trauma. Voiced by members of The Alliance, the video walks through key concepts, including the range of tolerance, the framework guiding our decisions, and more.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

Data and Learning Workgroup

The data and learning workgroup will be creating an updated inventory of prevention work across the network. That inventory will become a foundation for identifying technical assistance needs in areas such as data collection (i.e. information we collect to show the impact of our work), analysis, and community dissemination. We have some exciting activities planned to help us guide this work into the new year.

In addition, we will be hosting a series of "lunch and learns" starting in February to connect our work to broader audiences statewide. Interested in learning more? Please join us! We meet every 3rd Monday at 3! Not sure if you're interested? That's ok too. Pop by a meeting and check it out! If you have any questions please email Travis (thhedwig@alaska.edu) or Ashley (Alihde@alaska.edu).  

Evaluation and Learning Workgroup

The Evaluation and Learning Workgroup is building a calendar of learning topics for the remainder of this fiscal year — each monthly meeting will include a short, structured presentation and discussion relevant to evaluating coalitions that is meant to provide Alliance members with opportunities to build their knowledge base and capacity for evaluation. Topics workgroup members have selected include building an evaluation plan, special considerations for evaluation in rural and very rural communities, data visualization and report planning, interpreting and synthesizing large amounts of data, and construction of live and interactive dashboards to demonstrate progress. In addition, we will discuss several approaches to evaluation including principles-focused evaluation, network analysis, and ripple effect analysis. The first learning topic, Building an Evaluation Plan, will be covered at the Workgroup’s December 4 meeting.

The Workgroup has also begun planning for The Alliance’s 2026 member survey. This survey will help Alliance members understand what principles and values are most important to guiding the work of The Alliance and how they are being used in practice, factors that contribute to member engagement and challenges to member engagement, and the effectiveness of Alliance operations and infrastructure in meeting member needs and established Alliance goals. The survey will include selected questions from surveys conducted in 2022 and 2024 to provide a comparison over time, as well as questions that reflect the current operations and goals of The Alliance. The survey will be launched during the in-person meeting in Anchorage this February.

Policy Workgroup

The Policy Workgroup is planning on devoting its next meeting, December 12th at 11:00AM, to a basic “legislative 101” discussion. This will cover how we identify key issues, how we communicate with public officials and their staff, and how we identify and engage support for our issues. We are also continuing to monitor legislation and our consultant remains available to offer guidance and training to Alliance members as they build their capacity to address public policy issues.

Hope Coalition Visits Sitka High

On November 17^th, the HOPE Coalition presented on vaping and associated risks to 47 Sitka High School Freshmen. Choose Connection Campaign materials were shared alongside resources like 988. Michelle Kavouras, local co-chair, reports that students were engaged and asked great questions including how to find support for friends who are vaping. 

Choose Connection at the

Alaska Association of School Boards Youth Leadership Institute

We had a wonderful session at the AASB Youth Leadership Institute in mid-November, where students explored how developing connections with themselves, their peers, and their communities supports wellbeing and resilience.

Kelby Murphy introduced the Choose Connection campaign and provided an overview of how youth informed the messaging and visuals. There was a discussion of shared protective factors and ways youth could get involved to help promote the campaign locally. 

Tiffany Hall spoke about how civic participation supports personal and community well-being and presented research showing that young people who engage through voting, volunteering, and activism experience better mental health outcomes, higher future earnings, and higher educational attainment.

The session generated discussions about how to bring Choose Connection to local areas where youth are experiencing higher rates of substance use and other challenges. Several youth volunteered to serve as local ambassadors for the campaign, and the Communications/Social Norms Workgroup will be discussing how to support youth ambassadors over the next several months.

If you work with youth and have ideas about how to reach and further involve them in the Choose Connection campaign and curriculum development, contact Kelby Murphy: kelby@walshsheppard.com.

About The Alliance

The Alliance is a collaborative effort of multiple and diverse partners across Alaska who recognize the harms of alcohol on individuals and communities. We are personally and professionally committed to working together to address this complex problem in our state.

Our primary goal is to connect and engage communities as partners — increasing protective factors, reducing risk factors, and changing social norms — to prevent underage alcohol use and eliminate all harms of alcohol use in Alaska.

Alliance Materials:

• The Alliance's common agenda
• The Alliance's Resource Page

Get Involved!

Between starting new work and sustaining our progress, there are many opportunities to participate in The Alliance! All current workgroups are open to any member who would like to join. You can always read more about our workgroups and their purpose on the Get Involved page of our website. Our network practices an emergent strategy, and we update information based on our network's needs.

• The Communications & Social Norms Workgroup is led by an experienced media and communications contractor and advances the two social norms campaigns addressing underage drinking Choose Connection and In Case You Missed It. Th workgroup also supports the Alliance's various other internal and external communications needs. This workgroup meets on the second Tuesday of each month from 1-2 pm.
• The Data and Learning Workgroup is led by an data expert and will be supporting data equity conversations and practices. This workgroup meetings on the third Monday from 3pm - 4pm.
• The Evaluation and Learning Workgroup is where members can participate in designing the annual evaluation process for the Alliance alongside a professional evaluator and receive technical assistance and support on utilizing evaluation in their work. This workgroup meets on the first Thursday of the month from 10am - 11am.
• The Strategic Design Workgroup builds structures and processes for the network to work in alignment with our values and theory of change. This workgroup is led by an experienced prevention professional and regional co-chair and meets monthly on the third Tuesday from 1pm - 2pm.
• The Policy Workgroup is led by a policy expert and works to track alcohol and prevention policies, identifies and designs advocacy actions, and provides technical assistance to individuals wanting to engage in the political process. This workgroup meets monthly on the second Friday from 11am - 12pm.

You are welcome to ask questions about those workgroups or to ask to join any of them.

Want to Lead Change? Apply to Be a Co-Chair of the Alaska Alliance!

Are you passionate about shaping Alaska’s future and driving meaningful community impact? The Alliance is now accepting applications for the Co-Chair position. This is a unique opportunity to help guide the organization’s vision, build partnerships, and amplify our collective voice.

If you’re interested in stepping up as a leader and making a difference, we encourage you to apply!

GET INVOLVED HERE

If you would like to submit content for The Alliance newsletter, please email Tesia at tbobrycki@recoveralaska.org and Kara at kstewart@recoveralaska.org.