Note: This article originally appeared in the Anchorage Daily News through a partnership with ConocoPhillips Alaska and is republished here with permission. United Way of Anchorage is looking to the future. The long-standing nonprofit may be best known for its helpline, Alaska 2-1-1, or for its many partnerships extending across the state: From health care […]

For the first time in a long while, Alice is thinking about her future. After more than ten years of living outside and in shelters, she now has her own apartment thanks to Home for Good. Having a place to stay means everything to her. A place away from the daily urgent considerations of safety, […]

Petter and Janet Jahnsen have been named the 2022 recipients of the United Way of Anchorage Alexis de Tocqueville Society Community Service Award. Fifteen years ago, Petter and Janet joined the Tocqueville Society, a group of generous donors in the Anchorage community. From this group the Tocqueville Society Community Service Award is presented to a […]

Kathleen Plunkett’s community resume is more than 40 years long and starts right in her Russian Jack neighborhood in East Anchorage, where she volunteered with the Russian Jack Community Council and eventually served 16 years as the council president (1990-2016). That fact alone testifies to Plunkett’s stamina and devotion as a volunteer. One of the […]

Published March 4, 2022, by Frank Gerjevic  Would that we could Walk 4 Warmth all together again. Two years ago, United Way of Anchorage gathered partners old and new and restarted the Walk 4 Warmth to help our neighbors with rent and utility assistance. Few, if any of us, knew just how timely that walk […]

Dom Meriweather recently sat down his 5-year-old daughter and explained why the work done by Martin Luther King Jr. was so important. “I told her that during those times, we weren’t treated as equals, and that we were looked down upon,” Meriweather said. Meriweather spent the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service by working […]

Published December 12, 2021, by Frank Gerjevic  There’s still time to sign up for health care – and navigators to show the way. The woman came with her shoulders hunched, braced for bad news. Instead of bad news, she met Jennifer Brandt, one of United Way’s health care navigators working at an Affordable Care Act […]

Published October 4, 2021, by John Sims Hi, I’m John Sims, President of ENSTAR Natural Gas Company and this year’s United Way of Anchorage Community Campaign Chair. For decades, ENSTAR has worked closely with United Way, and for the last 16 years I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of that work. Keeping our […]

Published July 26, 2021, by Cecelia DeKorne Kindergarten in the 2020s is a tougher gig than play, sing and snack, and only one-third of Anchorage children are kindergarten-ready on the first day of school. It’s a sobering notion that only a third of our children are ready for kindergarten, but that should challenge rather than […]

Published July 18, 2021, by Frank Gerjevic Michele Brown and Jeff Berliner have been named the 2021 winners of the United Way of Anchorage Alexis de Tocqueville Society Community Service Award. The Tocqueville Community Service Award goes each year to a member or members of the society of leading United Way supporters who best exemplify […]