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Welcome to the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority’s quarterly update. We appreciate this opportunity to share information with you about Trust grant and programmatic activities, news from the Trust Land Office, resources for our beneficiaries and partners, and more.
In the third quarter of the fiscal year 2026, the Trust announced $1.8M in grant awards to 16 beneficiary-serving organizations. Our grant program is a core component of our work to improve the statewide continuum of care for Trust beneficiaries; Alaskans experiencing mental illness, substance misuse, intellectual and developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, and Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
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Recent grant highlights:
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Covenant House Alaska ($310,000): Expanding behavioral health and substance use services for homeless youth (ages 13-24) at their Anchorage campus.
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All Alaska Pediatric Partnership ($300,000): Supporting "Help Me Grow Alaska," which provides vital statewide care coordination and developmental screenings for children.
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Southcentral Foundation ($200,000): Funding the "TABI Phasic Implementation Plan" to improve infrastructure and identification for those with traumatic and acquired brain injuries.
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Alzheimer's Disease Resource Agency of Alaska, Inc. ($136,085): Advancing the "Living Better with Dementia" program in Anchorage.
Read more about these and each grant award in our latest Quarterly Grant Report.
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New Crisis Response Resources Available Online
The Trust released two new implementation guides to serve as resources to communities seeking to improve behavioral health crisis response. These resources are available online on our behavioral health crisis response webpage, and have been developed as a part of the Trust's multi-year initiative to transform crisis response in Alaska.
New resources:
We encourage any community partner interested in improving behavioral health crisis response in their community to reach out to our team of subject matter experts at the Trust; we are here to be a resource.
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Visit to Kotzebue
Earlier this month, a group comprised of Trust staff leadership and Trustees visited Kotzebue. The trip was organized in partnership with Maniilaq, who is currently advancing a new EmPATH Unit (Emergency Psychiatry Assessment, Treatment, and Healing) in the local hospital. This unit, supported in part with Trust grant funds, is designed to stabilize patients in a calm setting, reducing the need for costly out-of-region travel and improving long-term outcomes for residents of the Northwest Arctic.
In addition to touring the hospital, the group had a chance to visit the long-term care facility Utuqqanaat Inaat (an “Elders Home”), two homes providing services for beneficiaries with intellectual or developmental disabilities, and the Maniilaq Wellness Center, which features private telehealth pods alongside welcoming group space for meetings and drop-in access.
The visit left a strong impression on the team. The staff at Maniilaq clearly care deeply for the communities they serve, and it is visible throughout the visit. We sincerely appreciated the opportunity to visit the region and to meet with so many beneficiary serving partners.
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Registration & Call for Speakers are open for the next Trust Improving Lives Conference
September 17-18, 2026 in Anchorage
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Registration is now open! Join us for the 2026 Improving Lives Conference on September 17–18 at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage.
This conference brings together partners from across Alaska to share knowledge, explore innovative practices, and build connections that support Trust beneficiaries and strengthen our system of care.
This year’s conference will focus on three key themes:
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Leveraging Innovation and Change: transforming beneficiary health in Alaska
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Upstream and Downstream: the importance of prevention, intervention, and ongoing supports for wellbeing
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Whole Person Care: behavioral health and disability services integration and coordination
Interested in Speaking at the Conference?
We are now accepting speaker applications for the 2026 Improving Lives Conference. If your work supports Trust beneficiaries through innovative practices and partnerships, we encourage you to submit an abstract. The speaker application deadline is May 28 at 5:00 PM AKT. More information about our call for speakers in on our conference webpage.
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A Partnership for Growth: The Wrangell Land Exchange
In April 2026, the Trust Land Office (TLO) and the City and Borough of Wrangell (CBW) finalized steps to move forward with a land exchange designed to support local community development while sustaining the Trust Land Office’s mission of revenue generation. This collaborative effort follows the adoption of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the TLO and CBW in 2025, which aimed to align planning efforts, share technical expertise, and identify mutually beneficial opportunities that support both revenue generation from Trust lands and local economic development.
This value for value land exchange involves parcels of land that are better suited to be owned and developed by the other organization. The parcel that the Trust received through the exchange is waterfront and suitable for development and subdivision for future Trust land sales. All revenues generated from Trust lands support the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority's work on behalf of Trust beneficiaries across Alaska.
| | | | May is National Mobility Awareness Month | |
May is National Mobility Awareness Month, a time to highlight the importance of accessible transportation and mobility solutions for Trust beneficiaries and all Alaskans with disabilities.
Mobility is about access. According to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, people reporting a travel-limiting disability are less likely to travel, be employed, live in a household with a vehicle, and took fewer trips compared to those without disabilities.
For Trust beneficiaries, accessible public and community transportation plays an important role in ensuring access to employment, completing activities of daily living, accessing healthcare, and meaningfully engaging in their communities.
The Trust works with partners across Alaska to improve accessibility and inclusion for Trust beneficiaries with mobility challenges, funding community-based programs that expand access to adaptive equipment and transportation services, mini grants for individual mobility aids, and more.
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New Assessment Evaluates Alaska's Providers Serving Individuals with IDD
The Trust recently commissioned a comprehensive assessment of the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) system to evaluate the sustainability of Alaska’s long-standing Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) providers serving individuals with IDD.
Collectively, the ten providers reviewed as a part of the assessment serve roughly 1,800 Trust beneficiaries across Anchorage, the Mat-Su Valley, Fairbanks, the Kenai Peninsula, Southeast Alaska, and rural communities.
Effective Health Design, which authored the report, concludes that Alaska’s provider network is stable, but struggling. Risks to system sustainability, including workforce shortages, and administrative expansion, are outlined in the assessment along with recommendations on how to address system challenges.
The assessment was recently presented to our Board of Trustees, and is available online as a resource for partners.
| | | | Trust Land Office Attends Spring Sports Shows | |
Staff from the Trust Land Office (TLO) have been sharing information about Trust lands at several regional sports shows this spring, including in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and the Mat-Su.
The team has been promoting recreational and development opportunities on Trust lands as well as Trust land sale programs, and increasing awareness of how revenues generated from Trust lands are used to support Trust beneficiaries across the state.
This weekend, you can find our team at the TLO's table at the Kenai Peninsula Sports Rec & Trade Show, running from Friday May 1 to Sunday May 3 at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex. If you're on the peninsula, stop by our booth to say hello!
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Meet Jasmine,
Trust Partner
Jasmine’s story is the definition of resilience. Her journey to recovery from addiction involved years of trauma and challenges. But Jasmine did more than just recover—she reclaimed her life with a powerful new sense of purpose.
Today, Jasmine is an advocate, and a dedicated professional. Her journey inspired her to become an addiction counselor at True North Recovery, a Trust partner and grantee in Wasilla. Having navigated the weight of stigma herself, she now works daily to bridge the gap for others, guided by her mission to “pull the hopeless out of the darkness and into the light.”
While her path was incredibly challenging, Jasmine has found that her lived experience is her greatest tool in helping her community. Jasmine is a living testament to the fact that recovery is not only possible but can lead to a life of advocacy, connection, and profound impact. We are honored to support the programs like those that helped Jasmine, and grateful for her positive impact on the Trust beneficiaries she is now supporting.
Thank you, Jasmine, for sharing your story as a part of our "See Beyond the Stigma" campaign to combat the stigma faced by Trust beneficiaries.
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The next deadline for Trust grant applications
is May 15, 2026!
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The Board of Trustees will hold its meeting on May 20-21, 2026, in Kodiak at the KANA Marketplace. All regular board meetings are open to the public and include an opportunity for public comment, which can be provided in person, virtually, or in writing. We'd love to hear from you!
Visit our website for more information about upcoming trustee meetings.
Trust Partner Boards
To stay up-to-date on issues important to Trust beneficiaries and those who care for them, you can also tune in to the meetings of our statutory partner advisory boards:
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Grant Opportunity Report
Twice a month, the Trust posts a new Grant Opportunity Report on our Grant Proposal Development Resources webpage. In addition to serving as a grant-maker ourselves, the Trust also supports beneficiary-serving agencies in pursuing other grant funding.
The bi-weekly Opportunity Reports detail a curated list of grant funding opportunities, including forecasted opportunities, that intersect with Trust beneficiary populations. The reports are intended to serve as a resource for Trust partners. The latest report was posted on April 24, 2026 - take a look!
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