Be well,

Alaska Geographic: Alaska Geographic is accepting nominations for FREE teen expeditions! The next application review date is Monday, May 8th. If you know a student (or a few) who would excel when given the opportunity to experience our public lands through backpacking or sea kayaking and stewardship—nominate them today! A student needs a completed student application AND a nominator form to be considered. It only takes five minutes to nominate a student, yet you could be helping provide them with an experience of a lifetime!

Evaluation Workgroup: The Evaluation workgroup is looking to fill the role of Evaluation Liaison. If you’d like to attend the May Evaluation workgroup meeting, please reach out to Hanna Menefee at [email protected].

My name is Veronica Driskill, and I have had the privilege of being a practicum student with The Alliance for the FY 22-23 term. This has been an incredible year, during which we have achieved great success in advancing data equity throughout the state. As part of our efforts, we organized regional data equity discussions (via zoom) using contact information from the spreadsheet that I designed that included organizations and individuals from Alaska's six major regions.

We furthered our discussions on data equity at the Wellness and Prevention Symposium and gathered valuable input from both professionals working on prevention efforts and community members. Through these discussions, I identified five major themes that were consistently highlighted: Collaboration/Coordination/Partnership, Community Involvement & Engagement, Data Sharing/Accessibility, Strengths-Based Approach, and Education/Training.

I used participant feedback shared during the Symposium to develop a color-coded themes document that will be provided to the Data and Learning Workgroup and The Alliance at the May 11th Data and Learning Workgroup Meeting. We are hopeful that this work will continue within the Data & Learning workgroup. I am now in the process of formulating recommendations for The Alliance on how we can further enhance data equity and related initiatives. These recommendations will build upon the success we have already achieved and will help us to continue making progress in this important area.

I look forward to working with you all in the future, and wish you all the best! Thanks so much for such an amazing year of work!

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!

This series will discuss on-the-ground initiatives focusing on improving important aspects of Indigenous communities’ well being. The series addresses different aspects of community health and describes projects that have impacted communities across the country. Join us to meet the presenters who have stepped up for their communities and driven meaningful change.

Event to be held at the William A. Egan Civic & Convention Center, at 555 West 5th Ave, Anchorage, AK, 99501.

The Alaska Division of Behavioral Health’s Suicide Prevention Team and the Statewide Suicide Prevention Council would like to welcome you to the Alaska Suicide Prevention Conference, ‘Messages of Hope.’ This conference will be an opportunity to engage with suicide prevention research, data, innovation, and community-level action to help shape your work to address suicide within Alaska.

This conference will also highlight the five-year State Suicide Prevention Plan, the power of youth voices, and Alaskan-centered knowledge. Please register HERE to reserve your spot!

Series Description: This comprehensive educational opportunity delves into the underlying causes of violence and the link between trauma and substance use. Participants will learn about the science of addiction and the impact of substance use and mental health coercion in the context of abuse and control. Additionally, the series will cover organizational healing and transformation to support this crucial work. Join us on this empowering journey towards understanding and breaking the cycles of violence. Find the full hand out with details on each session here.

The Trainer: Christina Love is an Indigenous survivor and an intersectional Senior Specialist with a primary focus on substance use, mental health, disability access, neurodiversity, and issues connected to higher rates of violence for marginalized and targeted groups of people.

May 18 Session (10:00-11:30 AM): An introduction to the intertwinement of trauma, mental health, and substance use. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) survivors often face the critical issue of substance use and mental health coercion by their abusive partners. This has far-reaching effects on both the domestic violence and sexual assault advocacy fields, as well as substance use treatment and recovery. The goal of this training is to educate service providers on the connections between substance use coercion and IPV and help them identify the tactics used to prevent survivors from seeking help and recovering.

Meeting ID: 824 1286 6085