Happy Daylight Savings Time! |
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As we are fast approaching the close of the first quarter of 2024, we thought it would be a good time to update our readers on what we’ve been up to here at United Way of Southeast Alaska.
First, our Board of Directors and staff would like to thank our generous independent and corporate donors who made contributions over the holiday season. Your kindness and your contributions not only help communities and agencies throughout the Southeast region, but it also helps the United Way to continue the work that it does in addressing the needs related to health, education, and financial stability.
The start of the new year has proven to be a busy one. In addition to the retirement of our President/CEO, Wayne Stevens, we have been involved in other projects that have been keeping us busy. With Wayne’s retirement, the Board of United Way has taken this opportunity to reevaluate the agency as a whole and establish a new focus area going forward. There will be more about this in future newsletters.
But for now, we’d like to highlight a couple of successful projects we’ve engaged in.
Operation Warm
Back in November, 2023, we were contacted by Subaru International regarding the “Subaru Loves to Help Program.” The United Way of Southeast Alaska was selected as the non-profit agency in our area to collaborate with the local Subaru dealership at the Juneau Auto Mall to roll out “Operation Warm.” Operation Warm is a national nonprofit that provides basic need service to connect underserved kids to community resources needed to thrive.
Since 1998, Operation Warm has partnered with thousands of community organizations like United Way to serve over 5 million children in need across North America. This year, Operation Warm gave 106 warm winter coats of all sizes for distribution throughout Juneau. In collaboration with the local Subaru Dealership and St. Vincent de Paul, we identified the most in need populations and held a couple of distribution events to give away the coats. Our first event was held at the Subaru Dealership in early February. We were able to distribute a dozen coats through this event. We had planned for a larger turnout but the snowstorm we had had a direct impact on our event this day! The second event held later in the week was a “pop-up” event held at the Gruening Park housing development recreation center in Juneau. This pop-up event was very successful, and we were able to disburse approximately 35 coats to children. In addition, we reached out to several Title I elementary school and we were able to donate three boxes of coats for the students at Kax̱digoowu Héen Elementary (Riverbend) and the remaining coats, mostly large and extra-large sizes were donated to the free store at St. Vincent de Paul to be disbursed mostly to the families residing in their temporary housing shelter.
The United Way of Southeast Alaska would like to thank Subaru International, the local Subaru Dealership, St. Vincent de Paul, the Board of United Way of Southeast Alaska, the Alaska Housing Development Corporation, and the many community volunteers who showed up and participated in making this collaborative event a community success!
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Volunteer Highlight
On a special note, we’d like to highlight our youngest volunteer Liam Lafavour. Liam is 8 years old and attends Auke Bay Elementary. He was excited to participate in the two events and did an amazing job assisting with sign-ins, size selection and photos. It was heartwarming to witness his engagement in the process and to see him experience what it is like to serve your community and to help those less fortunate.
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Liam Lafavour and a coat recipient |
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Operation Warm Volunteers: L to R Lisa Bogert, UWSEAK Staff, Kathryn Strubhart, Kimberly Sumner, UWSEAK Board Chair Loren Jones, Kaitlyn and Liam Lafavour, Tracy Lee, and St. Vincent de Paul Executive Director Dave Ringle. |
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Operation Warm recipient family and Juneau Auto Mall General Manager Mark Troupin. |
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A Unified Approach to Housing & Homelessness
Also, in November, the United Way of Southeast Alaska applied for and was awarded a $15,000 grant from Wells Fargo. The purpose of the grant is to develop a multi-pronged approach bringing together the myriad of resources in Juneau to work in a unified approach to tackle the many issues of housing and homelessness. This grant allows for supports for the Project Homeless Connect, the annual Point in Time (PIT) Homeless and Unsheltered Nationwide Count, support for programs to address the causes of homelessness and programs designed to support individuals and families before they find themselves in situations leading to homelessness as well as training for the front-line individuals who work with families and individuals experiencing homelessness.
To date, in collaboration with the cochairs of the Housing and Homeless Coalition, Dave Ringle, Executive Director of St. Vincent’s de Paul and Hazel LaCount, Executive Director of the Polaris House a successful PIT count occurred on January 30th. Through generous donations of backpacks and 520 pounds of nonperishable food items from the Foodbank of Southeast Alaska, the Polaris House staff and club members assembled 100 backpacks for distribution during the PIT count. The PIT count has two components: the sheltered count and the unsheltered count. United Way supported the Juneau Coalition on Housing and Homelessness in its unsheltered count by providing filled backpacks. Formally unhoused individuals within the service provider community canvassed the streets of Juneau to record individuals who were spending the night unsheltered.
A downtown church held a breakfast that morning. Workers from the Warming Shelter used the shelter’s shuttle bus to pick up people unhoused, and transport them to breakfast, and then filled out the necessary paperwork. Workers then visited known homeless camps within our community. A navigator from the Glory Hall traveled with a Juneau Police Officer to known campers who do not receive services.
At each place, backpacks were given in exchange for data collection. Our trained, formerly homeless workers and volunteers collected almost 100 forms which are being processed. Over the next months this data will be entered, double checked to make sure there are no duplicates, and a Point in Time count will be released. The assistance of United Way allowed Juneau to change its count to match best practices and improve the accuracy of our numbers.
On February 28th and 29th, the Housing and Homeless Coalition coordinated a “Mental Health First Aid” training for front line individuals working in the field. Mental Health First Aid is a skills-based training that teaches people how to identify, understand and respond to signs and symptoms of a mental health or substance use challenges in adults ages 18 and over. The evidence behind the program demonstrates that it builds mental health literacy, providing an action plan that teaches people to safely and responsibly identify and address a potential mental health or substance use challenge. Thirty-five individuals participated in this training over two days.
In addition, there will be one more strategic planning event that will take place most likely in late April utilizing the grant funds. The purpose of this event will be to gain a better understanding of the gaps in services amongst community-based agencies and how we can all collaborate better and utilize our individual resources to address the needs of housing and homelessness.
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PICK. CLICK. GIVE.
Pick. Click. Give allows Alaskans to donate a portion of their Permanent Fund Dividend to causes they care about statewide.
While applying for the PFD online, Alaskans can choose to Pick. Click. Give in increments of $25. All donations are tax deductible and donors will receive tax documentation from the State once their donations have been processed. Permanent Fund Dividend applications are available from January 1 to March 31, though Alaskans may choose to add or adjust their pledges online through August 31.
The program is run by The Alaska Community Foundation in partnership with the Rasmuson Foundation, The Foraker Group, and the State of Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend Division
File for our PFD, add a pledge, or find out more information about Pick. Click. Give please visit https://pfd.alaska.gov/.
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Partner Agency Emplyment Opportunities
Big Brothers Big Sisters is hiring a community builder as their Juneau Community Coordinator.
Southeast Alaska Food Bank is hiring for a Warehouse Manager position
Find out more about these opportunities at our website.
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