We are the hand raisers, the problem solvers, the game changers. Together with people like you, we go after our community’s toughest challenges, develop solutions and work with our partners to turn them into actions. With United Way Notebook, we invite you to experience the community change journey in new ways.
Published June 18, 2021, by Frank Gerjevic At 17, Jordan Lind-Charliaga could have become a statistic, and he certainly counts among the wounded. But he’s also a renaissance man in the making. Jordan is a graduate of the Back on Track Class of 2021. Back on Track is the five-year-old initiative of United Way of […]
Published June 4, 2021, by Frank Gerjevic On June 19, 2021, Juneteenth Anchorage will mark the 1865 day in Galveston, Texas, when word finally reached those who had been slaves that their bondage had been declared over more than two years before with the Emancipation Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln. Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation […]
Let’s put the bottom line at the top: Restaurant and Hunger Relief raised attendance at the Step Up school program by 40 percent. That was the word from Wiley Bland, a teacher at Step Up, an alternative school for Anchorage middle and high school students who have been suspended for at least a semester or […]
Published September 30, 2020, by Mike Abbott et al. It’s news to no one in Anchorage that homelessness is one of our most complex challenges. The homelessness response system serves 8,000 people each year. And on any given night, more than 1,000 people lack a safe and stable place to live. Of those, a small […]
Published August 7, 2020, by Brett Banks While it certainly is a challenging time for students, parents, and children, we want to share some good news! For the 6th year in a row, our efforts to turn around chronic absenteeism in grades K-8 are proving results: Last school year, the 713 students served with over […]
Published July 24, 2020, by Frank Gerjevic From Anchorage Cares to AK Can Do to the municipality’s COVID-19 Rent and Mortgage Assistance Pilot Program, the purpose hasn’t changed – get Alaskans swift help that keeps people housed, safe and fed throughout the income losses of the pandemic. The $1 million Municipality of Anchorage program, funded […]
Published June 26, 2020, by Frank Gerjevic Hard-working people in Anchorage took a blindside shot from the coronavirus shutdown, and it’s not over yet despite the reopening. Hard times still dog our neighbors; swift help still keeps them on their feet. That’s the staying power of AK Can Do. Aurora Milam Many of us can […]
Published May 15, 2020, by Sue Brogan Third of a three part series. There is a reason both the Municipality of Anchorage and the State of Alaska turned to United Way’s Alaska 2-1-1 at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Actually, there are four reasons. Alaska 2-1-1 connects Alaskans to the help they need like […]
Published May 7, 2020, by Sue Brogan Second of a three-part series. When Alaska 2-1-1 answered the call to be the lead information and referral service for both the State of Alaska and Municipality of Anchorage for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, my first move was to ask our core team of four resource […]
Published April 29, 2020, by Sue Brogan First of a three-part series. At Alaska 2-1-1, we knew we would get the call. We are always ready. But there was no time to prepare, just time to react and ramp up. On March 6, we had two days to become operational as the emergency information and […]
