All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you. The only lasting truth is change. God is change.  — Octavia Butler

Shift Happens. I’m writing to let you know about a couple big changes on the horizon for The Alliance. First, I have been slowly scheming a move back to Tennessee from Alaska. This shift is to be closer to my adoptive and birth families and to heal parts of myself that are woven into that land and place. While the timeline on my move is flexible, there are some important pieces to share with you.

I will remain in the role of Alliance coordinator through June 2023. During this time, we will be building a transition plan and supporting leadership development for Alliance members. A new coordinator will be identified by next April so there can be a quarter of onboarding before my departure. There is so much leadership capacity in our Alaska! And I’m honored to have been able to (and continue to, for a while) serve you, our communities, and this incredible place for the past few years. This is our network and it’s time to test our structure, practices, protocols, and affirm the culture we’ve created. What change are we ready for? What change can we hold? 

Second, Circle Forward will end this fiscal year as contractors and shift into more of a member-partner role next year. To support a need for leadership development, they will be focusing more explicitly on Consent Breakthroughmaking improvements to the content and delivery so more members can be trained in facilitating consent-based spaces and bringing resources into the state from Borealis Philanthropy’s REACH FUND (Racial Equity Accelerating Change) to subsidize and build on the work that was started in the spring cohort. We also see it as a moment to shift ownership of the network back to the members, shift pieces of the work back to Alaska-based consultants and lessen our dependency on contractors overall. With the Transforming Conflict workgroup officially meeting, we will be co-creating structures to strengthen accountability within the network, as we further identify member roles.

As always, reach out with questions. Thank you, each of you, for the work you are doing 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

P.S. Looking for other ways to get involved? Visit our website or contact us.
The Alliance Grounding Statement
Our FY2022 Annual Evaluation is Published


Our thanks to the hardworking team at Stellar Group for creating this report! Key findings include an overview of Alliance member responses regarding the efficacy of our organization, challenges we face, and recommendations on how we can grow. Read more here.
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!
EVENTS CALENDAR

July 1-3: Jammin’ at the Rapids. Opens daily at 5 AM and lasts until midnight. Event page is here.

July 1-3: Girdwood Forest Fair. Opens daily at 11 AM and lasts until evening. Parade at 10 AM on Saturday.

July 4: Fairbanks Independence Day Celebration. Hosted at Pioneer Park (2300 Airport Way) in Fairbanks. Lasts from noon to 8 PM. Free admission.

July 22: Ballroom Dance Club of Fairbanks: Golden Days Social. Hosted at Pioneer Park (2300 Airport Way) in Fairbanks. Lasts from 8:30–11:00 PM. Event page here.

July 27: Salmon Fishing. Event hosted for Alaska Native Youth and families. Begins at 3600 San Jeronimo Drive in Anchorage, fishing to occur at Ship Creek. Lasts from 8:00 AM to 5 PM. Learn more here.

TRAINING CALENDAR

Flexible Dates:

July: [ONLINE CLASS] Free art classes for kids and teens. Event registration page here.

July – Ongoing: [ONLINE EXERCISE] Yoga, Meditations, and Other Exercises. Hosted by Soul Dimension. Learn more here

July – September: [ONLINE CLASS] Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking. Event registration page here.

July – September: [ONLINE CLASS] How to Save and Fix Your Relationship/Marriage. Hosted by Coach Marckenson. Event page here.

July 7-28: [VIRTUAL MEETING SERIES] Art of Powerful Questions. Hosted by the Alaska Humanities Forum. Register here.


Date Specified:

July 6: [TRAINING] Preventing and Disrupting Stigma Associated with Substance Use Disorders. Hosted by Prevention Technology Transfer Center. Event page is here.

July 6: [TRAINING] Ripple Effects Mapping. Hosted by Pacific Southwest PTTC. Event page is here.

July 7: [TRAINING] Building Your Management Skillset Series. Hosted by New England PTTC. Event page is here.

July 8: [TRAINING] SafeTALK, Suicide Prevention Training. Hosted by CITC at 3600 San Jeronimo Drive in Anchorage. Event page is here.

JULY 11: Substance Abuse Prevention Skills Training. Hosted by Great Lakes PTTC. Registration deadline was June 27. Event page is here.

JULY 12-13: [ONLINE SEMINAR] Being an Ally in Indian Country. Hosted by the Native Wellness Institute. Paid event, registration required. Sign up here.

JULY 13: WFD Series 1: Planning and Evaluation for the Prevention Professional. Hosted by Southeast PTTC. Event page is here.

JULY 19: [TRAINING] Substance Use and HIV Part 1: Understanding the Connections and Scope of the Problem. Hosted by Central East PTTC. Event page here.

JULY 19: [TRAINING] The Ripple Effect, an Enhanced Prevention Learning Series. Hosted by Pacific Southwest PTTC. Register here.

JULY 19-20: [ONLINE SEMINAR] Historical and Intergenerational Trauma and Healing. Hosted by the Native Wellness Institute. Registration opening soon.

JULY 20: [TRAINING] Prevention Workforce Shortages: How Peers Can Fill the Gap. Hosted by Central East PTTC. Register here.

JULY 20: [TRAINING] Overdose Grief, Loss, and Healing Supports. Hosted by Northeast & Caribbean PTTC. Register here.

JULY 27: [TRAINING] Older Adults: Substance Misuse Trends and Prevention Strategies. Hosted by Great Lakes PTTC. Register here.

JULY 28: [TRAINING] The Nexus of Substance Misuse Prevention and Mental Health Promotion. Hosted by Great Lakes PTTC. Register here.

August 11: [TRAINING] SafeTALK, Suicide Prevention Training. Hosted by CITC at 3600 San Jeronimo Drive in Anchorage. Event page is here.

August 16: [WORKSHOP] Public Narrative. Hosted by the Alaska Humanities Forum at The Nave on Spenard Rd. in Anchorage. Register here.

August 17: [WORKSHOP] Train the Trainer. Hosted by the Alaska Humanities Forum at The Nave on Spenard Rd. in Anchorage. Register here.


Online Mental Exercise Series by IrisReading.com:



On Demand:

Webinar Catalogue published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) tailored to addressing a Native American audience.
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative: In June 2021, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced that the Interior Department was opening an investigation into boarding schools where Native American youth were too often forcibly enrolled, mistreated, and even anonymously buried. The goal of this initiative is to document what occurred, reclaim lost narratives for victims, and begin a discussion on how this systemic trauma shaped today’s tribal communities. 

Some recent news items are shared below.

From Our Evaluation and Learning Workgroup: In December, the Alliance created a new Evaluation & Learning Workgroup to serve as both the decision-making space for the network’s evaluation and a space for group learning. Network evaluation is a strategic way of looking at what works well for a network and where there are opportunities to strengthen it.

Hanna Marino and Adrian Alarilla from the Stellar Group facilitate the workgroup. You may have seen them at Integration Sessions over the last year, or popping into other workgroups.

This year, the Evaluation & Learning Workgroup…

• Formulated questions about the Alliance that can guide its continued improvement
• Identified the best ways to answer those questions
• Distributed surveys and invited members to participate in a sensemaking discussion
• Revised the quarterly measures to make them more useful to members

This workgroup is open to all members who are interested – your experience as an Alliance member is your expertise! If you’d like to join our group, please reach out to Hanna (hanna@stellargp.com).
For our Wellness section, we encourage everyone to submit content that personally helped them to feel grounded, strong, or joyful over the last month. This can include photos taken during wellness events, tips on how to practice wellness or find inner peace, affirmations, poems, quotations, and more. We look forward to your submissions and thank you in advance for sharing!
Pictured left to right: Autumn Cantu, Blaze Bell, Jess Limbird,
Tiffany Hall, and Sara Platt.
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


Materials Submitted by Partners