Dear Friends,

Helloooo, October! Wishing you all well in your triumphs and challenges. We are into the second quarter of the fiscal year, all workgroups of the network are active and meeting, and there remain multiple ways to get involved. 

The Alliance is hiring! During the September integration session, I noted the need to move up the hire date for my successor to bring in staff support in the wake of Autumn’s leaving. Recover Alaska is hiring a Program Manager for Prevention and Education. More info is here; please consider applying or pass it along to someone whom you think would be a great fit to guide our network. Because this is such an important decision for our network to make, we will also be recruiting a hiring committee. I will be reaching out individually to folks, but if you already know this is an activity you’d like to support, mid-October to mid-November, let me know.

To support distributed network leadership, we are also recruiting Workgroup Weavers for each of the standing Alliance workgroups: Communications, Data and Learning, and Network Design, & Strategy. More information will be shared in workgroup meetings. If you’d like more information about this role or these workgroups, which are the decision-making spaces of our network, please reach out. 

Check out the announcements and events section for more information on December Alliance meeting and retreat planning, Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity training in October/November, the Alaska Prevention of Underage Drinking meeting on October 28, and the Tamarack Community Change Experience, October 24-27. 

While the work of the network belongs to all of us, so does our responsibility to care for one another. Our neighbors in western Alaska were impacted by Typhoon Merdok, resulting in a state of emergency declaration and the Western Alaska Disaster Recovery Fund. This fund is held at Alaska Community Foundation. Money will begin to be distributed to people who need it through partner organizations in affected areas. Not all of us are impacted by natural disasters, but we still need support. If that’s you, please get connected. We have enough because we have each other. 

As always, please reach out to us with any questions. We hold monthly newsletter meetings at 11 AM on the Wednesday one week before month's end. Contact Jess if you would like more information about this meeting/to be added to the calendar invite for the meeting.

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 
The Alliance Grounding Statement
State of Alaska Division of Behavioral Health - Recruiting Two Prevention Fellows

Over the next three weeks, the State of Alaska’s Division of Behavioral Health prevention team will be recruiting up to two prevention fellows for Alaska who will be funded by SAMHSA’s Northwest Prevention Technology Transfer Center (NW PTTC) through Washington State University. Below is a link to the application and a brief description of the goals and structure for the fellowship. If you know of any individuals who would make good candidates, please forward this information or share their contact information with us.
 

Timeline
Applicant screening begins 10-10-22
Application interviews 10-24-22 through 11-04-22
Proposed fellowship start date: November 21, 2022

Fellowship Description: The NW PTTC Fellowship program is a 10-month paid fellowship program, designed to expand the field of substance use disorder prevention and build capacity within prevention coalitions in communities in Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA) Region 10 (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington).

The fellowship occurs in four phases: Phase 1 (1 month) with NW PTTC team; Phase 2 (3 months) in Region 10 state at a state agency; Phase 3 (3 months) in an existing substance misuse prevention coalition community, serving as a mentee under a current Prevention Coordinator; and Phase 4 (3 months) in a high-need community in a Region 10 state working with the community to begin building a prevention coalition.

If you have specific questions, you can direct them to Brittany Cooper at Brittany.cooper@wsu.edu.


Tamarack Institute's Community Change Experience - Funding Available From The Alliance

Tamarack Institute is hosting their Community Change Experience this October 24-27 in Delray Beach, Florida. The 2022 Community Change Experience is a three-day event designed for community engagers, practitioners, and innovators from across North America to come together and share ideas, successes, and failures, and then apply what you learn during the event to community change work where you live. You can learn more about the offering here.
 
The Alliance is funding 8 network members to attend this offering and bring their learning back to our network and your respective coalitions, networks, and communities. The Alliance will pay your travel, lodging, and registration costs. We will also support per diem for the four days you are in Florida and one travel day. Priority will be given to members who otherwise wouldn’t have access to this opportunity because of funding and race inequities. This includes people who don’t have access to non-profit funding for these types of training opportunities, and those who identify as Black, Indigenous, or a person of color. In addition to committing to attending the four-day event in person, you are also committing to bringing the learning back to the network during an Alliance integration session (in collaboration with other participants).

To express interest, please fill out this brief form. The form will stay open until all available spots are filled. Those who express interest will hear back about whether they have been selected to participate as soon as possible, so travel arrangements can be made.
So many great things happened in September!

  • The Data and Learning Workgroup had a FY23 kick-off videoconference meeting on 9/13/2022 – much excitement about data equity work in the coming year and helping support the Prevention Symposium!
  • The Alliance awarded Walsh|Sheppard a contract to implement an Underage Alcohol Use Prevention Social Norms campaign. This will be a collaborative effort with network and community members, and we hope to form a Social Norms Workgroup to support the work. There are many ways to be involved, and be on the lookout for an email from Jess Limbird for more information.
  • The Communications Workgroup also kicked off FY23 with a meeting to discuss Workgroup Weavers, evaluation of the Strategic Communications Plan, and the Underage Alcohol Use Prevention Social Norms campaign.
  • Planning for the Alaska Wellness and Prevention Symposium is well underway. See below for a Save-the-Date. More information to come!

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!

October Events
The Alliance is excited to hold a retreat on December 7 and 8, 2022 for our network. Our intent is for this to be a hybrid event–with both in-person and online participation. To design a retreat that will be engaging, productive, healing, and meaningful for our community, we are pulling together a small team of people–a Planning Team–to co-design the outcomes, agenda, and facilitation plan. Because of the passion, leadership, and collaboration skills you’ve demonstrated in our work, we want to invite you into a unique role to help shape the retreat.

Specifically, we'll ask Planning Team members to:
  • Validate the purpose and outcomes of the retreat;
  • Develop and align on the retreat agenda, methods and facilitation processes;
  • Help determine roles during the retreat, including who will support in-person and online facilitation;
  • Contribute in a facilitation during the retreat itself, if that makes sense for you.

The Planning Team will meet four times total in October and November. During these meetings we will share and invite guidance on the retreat purpose and proposed outcomes, retreat agenda, methods and facilitation processes, and retreat logistics. We estimate the time commitment to include four 90-minute sessions and a few hours to review and provide feedback on draft retreat agenda and materials, and a one-hour session to celebrate and debrief the retreat as well as identify any next steps to integrate into the work of the Alliance moving forward. Participation on the planning team is not compensated; participation in the retreat as a facilitator can be compensated. The planning team can help determine levels of facilitator compensation.

Meetings are scheduled for:

    #1 | Tuesday, 10/25: 12-1:30 
    #2 | Friday, 11/4: 11-12:30 
    #3 | Wednesday, 11/16: 12-1:30 
    #4 | Monday, 11/28: 11-12:30
    #5 | Thursday, 12/15: 1:00-2:00 (Celebrate and Debrief)

By saying yes, you are committing to be present for all of our scheduled meetings. In order for us to host an all-Alliance retreat that honors the voice and leadership of our members- we need you! And, if you have a conflict for one of the sessions, we understand but would also expect some communication around why you can’t attend.

Please email AlaskanAnnette@gmail.com to get on the planning committee for the Alliance retreat. Thank you!
Data and Learning Workgroup - October Meetings

The Data and Learning workgroup will be meeting via Zoom videoconference twice in October for 90-minutes on Tuesday, 10/11 at 12:30 pm, and Monday 10/24 at 11:00 am. Topics of discussion that will be covered are 1) summer practicum student work on data equity and data-based decision-making protocol AND 2) producing a position paper on data equity to support Alliance advocacy work. If you or any of your colleagues have an interest in attending the Data and Learning Workgroup, please feel free to ask for a calendar invitation by emailing info@recoveralaska.org.
Organizational Power Mapping

Recover Alaska will be presenting on the work we’ve done to assess organizational power through a power analysis process during the Facing Race conference, on November 17-19, 2022. 

“Organizational Culture Shift: the importance of power mapping” will explore why it is important to assess organizational power dynamics related to the context of equity work and provide examples from a collaborative partnership that sought to identify and leverage strategic shifts and empower those within the organization. Participants will hear reflections on the process of developing a collaboratively designed power dynamic assessment across various levels of the organizational structure.


This power analysis comes as a result of findings that arose from Recover Alaska's organizational analysis. From RA's analysis, The Alliance's regional co-chairs and Sequoya Hayes of Red Linen Moon provided the following recommendations:

1. It is recommended that Recover Alaska engage in an assessment or activity to reflect on the following questions, and any additional questions deemed appropriate:

  • What are the impacts of partnerships where there is mutual interest/commitment in a social issue, but there is value misalignment?

  • How does diversity, equity, and inclusion work impact/influence/inform the partnership of the work between The Alliance and Recover Alaska?

2. There is a need for feedback and action planning around multi-level impacts to the culture (i.e., values, expectations, protocols, outward-facing efforts).

  • It is recommended that The Alliance develop and facilitate a power analysis (i.e. current structure dynamic with contractors).

  • It is recommended that…The Alliance and additional support structures (workgroups, contractors) engage in political education (group readings and reflection, training, development) on topics such as power, harm reduction, and/or opportunities that support the practice of recent training (consent-based decision-making, etc.)
Pictured left to right: Blaze Bell, Jess Limbird,
Tiffany Hall, and Sara Platt.
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 Organizational Design and Strategy Workgroups will be merging for the first quarter of the fiscal year to determine if a combined group makes sense.

  • The Symposium Planning Workgroup will finalize an agenda and begin working with event planners.

You are welcome to reach out with questions about those workgroups or to ask to join any of them.