Dear Friends,
Happy New Year, everyone! We finished out the year with a fantastic retreat–thanks again to everyone that contributed to its success, whether through planning, participating, asking questions, or offering insights. Check out some photos from the event below. Our network is made strong by the people in it. Folks are already following up on next steps, and a general email with links to notes will be sent out during the first week of January.
With the turn of the year and the turn of the season, we have new opportunities on the horizon. Things to look forward to in January:
Integration Session: Our January session is being rescheduled. Stay tuned for an updated calendar invite or reach out to Marlene– madams@recoveralaska.org–to learn when it will take place. Our integration session are all-Alliance spaces for sharing ideas and learning from one another. We hope you’ll join us!
Transforming Conflict Political Education and Wellness Hour will be held on Friday, January 20th, from 1-2 pm. The session topic will be “Communication Skills For Conflict.”
The Alliance Data and Learning workgroup will also be presenting during the Alaska Public Health (ALPHA) conference this year. This hybrid event will be held January 24-26 on the UAA campus. You can learn more and register here.
We also want to warmly welcome Marlene Adams! Marlene has joined Recover Alaska in the role of program manager. She will be stepping in to coordinate the Alliance.
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Introducing Marlene Adams
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Hi, my name is Marlene M. Adams. I am Inupiaq, born in Kotzebue and raised in Fairbanks and Kenai, Alaska. My family relations span across the North with many residing out of state. I have one adult child who I raised as a single Mom, and she now resides in Anchorage. When asked about why I love prevention, I say it started when I gave birth to my child because I wanted a different world for her that included education around healthy choices, breaking the cycle, and advocating for herself.
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Some of my favorite things to do include hiking year-round, berry picking, yoga, traveling to new places, and spending time laughing with family and friends.
My work experience has been in the nonprofit world, and I thrive when I am part of a team that strives to provide education and healthier choices to our youth—who are I believe are our future leaders. I’m excited to join Recover Alaska’s team and look forward to connecting with the Alliance and others interested in the reduction of substance misuse in our great state of Alaska.
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As always, please reach out to us with any questions. We hold monthly newsletter meetings at 11 AM on the Wednesday one week before month's end. Contact Jess Braunlich at jbraunlich@spiritofyouth.org if you would like more information about this meeting/to be added to the calendar invite for the meeting.
Thank you, each of you, for your work to heal our families, communities, and systems. You are seen and you are needed! Feel free to send us your news and updates for next month's newsletter via the submission link below.
Be well,
Jess
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The Alliance Grounding Statement
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Updates from the Alliance Workgroups
Data & Learning Workgroup: On December 13th, the Data & Learning Workgroup (D&LWG) continued to plan Alliance data equity discussions and preparations for the Alaska Wellness & Prevention Symposium. The D&LWG is seeking a volunteer for the Weaver role for the workgroup in the New Year.
Evaluation & Learning Workgroup: In December, the Evaluation & Learning Workgroup finalized the FY23 evaluation questions and methods. Thank you to all members who participated in our open meeting to give input on what the questions and methods should be. The E&L WG is now developing collection tools and planning for next steps to collect data. If you’d like to be a part of the workgroup and the Alliance’s evaluation, contact Hanna Marino (hanna@stellargp.com).
Social Norms Campaign (Communications Workgroup): The social norms workgroup has been meeting quite frequently to work on the underage drinking prevention campaign. We have had a steady group of members that migrated over from the communications workgroup to oversee the project's completion.
Due to the current accelerated timeline we are now about to move onto media development for the project. The campaign workgroup is actively seeking input on how to better include people from the southwest and northern parts of the state. At the retreat earlier this month, we set a new goal to start using short videos for campaign outreach. During the January Integration Session, Johon Atkinson, our incoming Southeast regional co-chair, offered a short training on effectively using social media to enhance our outreach.
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Photos From the Alliance Retreat
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We will always do our best to publish upcoming events in a timely, regular manner for our newsletter subscribers. We also keep an event calendar through the Recover Alaska website that allows our partners a secondary means of sharing their event news with our community. We welcome your submissions!
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Alliance Community Stories
Have a story to share about how you/your organization has drawn on the Alliance to support local-level work and coalitions? You can now share them here! One of the new quarterly measures for the Alliance is about how the network is supporting local work and connecting back to community-based coalition priorities. Stories can be anonymous if preferred. If you have any questions about story submissions or the new quarterly measures contact Hanna Marino ( hanna@stellargp.com).
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Upcoming Data & Learning Workgroup Meeting: Join us for the Data & Learning Workgroup on January 10th from 12:30-2pm! Zoom link here. We will be discussing how to best host our upcoming Data Equity Conversation for the Wellness Symposium.
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Pictured left to right: Blaze Bell, Jess Limbird,
Tiffany Hall, and Sara Platt.
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About The Alliance
The Alliance is a collaborative effort of multiple and diverse partners across Alaska who recognize the impacts of alcohol misuse 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 adult misuse in Alaska.
Alliance Materials
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 Workgroup will be supporting the social norms campaign and The Alliance's various other internal and external communications needs.
- The Data and Learning Workgroup will be supporting data equity conversations and practices.
- The Evaluation and Learning Workgroup is building out quarterly measures for the network to support grant reporting but also to increase real-time evaluation across the network so we can track and respond to improvement needs more frequently.
- The Organizational Design and Strategy Workgroups will be merging for the first quarter of the fiscal year to determine if a combined group makes sense.
- The Symposium Planning Workgroup will finalize an agenda and begin working with event planners.
You are welcome to reach out with questions about those workgroups or to ask to join any of them.
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We want your participation in The Alliance to be a source of energy and inspiration. If receiving regular newsletters detracts from that purpose, feel free to unsubscribe by clicking the button below. Please also feel welcome to directly email us to request that you receive no further communications regarding upcoming events, calendar invitations, or other community notices. Thank you for being here!
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