Dear Friends,

This newsletter is a short one, as we hope that many of you will spend these early summer days spending as little time near your screens as possible. Please take a quick look at June's upcoming events to familiarize yourselves with this month's learning opportunities, and don't forget to join us for out final integration session before we break for the summer.

This session will be held on June 15th, from 1:30-3:00 p.m. Til Beetus will be introducing The Alliance’s updated guideline for structuring integration sessions. This updated guideline document was put together with support from Agnew Beck and is reflective of feedback collected from Alliance members on how we can strive for processes that are equitable and supportive of every member.

Other Updates:

Recover Alaska has kicked off its new challenge: Just No Booze June. This challenge is all about setting intentional habits and improving the challenger's health. It's never too late to join! Check out the Recover Alaska Facebook page or Instagram for more information and motivational content.

June is Pride Month! While celebrating, please join us in considering two important facts:

  1. Due to factors such as historic and current marginalization, bars and nightclubs have long represented havens of safety and acceptance within queer culture, thereby forming a positive association between alcohol and social acceptance.
  2. Alcohol is a frequent guest at any festival. Pride events are no exception.

While our collective effort stays focused on changing big-picture systems, take a step back, and consider accepting a personal challenge for yourself. How can you contribute to building an atmosphere that is energetic, fun, and free of alcohol? How can this space be shared with others—especially individuals searching for acceptance? How do we honor these gathering places for the safety they have historically provided, while also introducing a healthier path forward?
As always, please reach out to us with any questions. Thank you, each of you, for your work 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 and Marlene 
Insights From the Foraker Leadership Summit

Members of the Recover Alaska team attended the Foraker’s Leadership Summit this May, alongside many familiar faces from The Alliance. This year’s theme was, “Reimagining the Way We Work,” and focused on both identifying and deconstructing the unchallenged “norms” shaping many of our workplaces. The primary catalyst for this conversation were the many hurdles and upheavals organizations faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. This discussion provided attendees with the opportunity to consider healthy, sensible strategies for adapting our organizational structures. We were grateful for the chance to attend!
Alliance Team Updates

New Workgroup Weavers: We are delighted to announce that The Alliance is now joined by several new Workgroup Weavers. These Weavers will support their workgroup’s growth through leading work on the group’s internal coordination, organization, communications, and more. They will actively seek opportunities for collaboration and growth across groups.

Evaluation Liaison Needed: The Evaluation workgroup is looking to fill the role of Evaluation Liaison. If you’d like to attend the June Evaluation workgroup meeting to learn more about this role, please reach out to Hanna Menefee at hanna@stellargp.com.
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!
Leadership Academy Project Series: Community Based Change Through Leadership Initiatives

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.

  • Monday, June 12: Implementing Trauma Informed Care in Primary Care Settings; Melanie Hazle, MSBS, LMFT, Choctaw Nation Tribe

  • Monday, June 19: Modoc Ancestral Run: Transcending Trauma through connection; Monica (Yellowowl) Super, CADC, CPS, Pit River Tribe
Examining FASD Diagnosis | ECHO Series

This Month: June 7, 8:00-9:00 AM

Examining FASD Diagnosis ECHO is a six-part series that will explore the current issues, systems, and practices impacting Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) diagnosis in Alaska and beyond.

This series runs on the 3rd Wednesday of each month from 8:00-9:00 a.m. AKST, January-June, 2023 and is intended for an interdisciplinary, multi-sector audience of clinical and non-clinical experts who provide supports and services to individuals impacted by prenatal alcohol exposure.

Objectives of the Examining FASD Diagnosis ECHO include:

  • Define barriers and benefits to FASD diagnosis
  • Discuss current strategies to diagnosis FASD and examine how these strategies might best serve Alaskans
  • Describe systems & tools that might support FASD diagnosis and interventions in Alaska and beyond
Healing Together Series | Decolonizing Our Narratives: The Intersectionality of MMIR—PART 1 

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.

June 15 Session (10:00-11:30 AM): Beyond statistics, the lives of Indigenous people are rarely historically and politically contextualized. Together we will explore public narratives that have focused on the victim’s ‘high risk lifestyle’. This training sheds light on the brutal legacy of settler colonialism and its impact on Indigenous people in our nation, specifically through the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous relatives (MMIR). This training offers a deeper understanding of intersectionality, language, ideology, and solutions for addressing these intertwined issues.

Meeting ID: 824 1286 6085
Passcode: 042828

Event made possible by ANDVSA and ANTHC.
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


Get Involved

Between starting new work and sustaining our progress, there are many opportunities to participate in The Alliance! All current workgroups are open to any member who would like to join. You can always read more about our workgroups and their purpose on the Get Involved page of our website. Our network practices an emergent strategy, and we update information based on our network's needs.

  • The Communications Workgroup will be supporting the social norms campaign and The Alliance's various other internal and external communications needs.
  • The Data and Learning Workgroup will be supporting data equity conversations and practices.
  • The Evaluation and Learning Workgroup is building out quarterly measures for the network to support grant reporting but also to increase real-time evaluation across the network so we can track and respond to improvement needs more frequently.
  • The Strategy and Design Workgroup builds structures and processes for the network to work in alignment with our values and theory of change.
  • The Symposium Planning Workgroup meets to plan and implement the statewide Alaska Wellness and Prevention Symposium and regional convenings to support an aligned and coordinated prevention workforce.

You are welcome to reach out with questions about those workgroups or to ask to join any of them.
We hold monthly newsletter meetings at 11 AM on the Wednesday one week before month's end. Contact Jess Braunlich at jbraunlich@spiritofyouth.org if you would like more information about this meeting/to be added to the calendar invite for the meeting. Feel free to send us your news and updates for next month's newsletter via the submission link below.