2023 Community Impact Report

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In 2023, VOA Alaska empowered over 1,000 youth, young adults, and families across the state.

Responsibility is one of the core values that drive our organization. For VOA Alaska, responsibility means “meeting and exploring the need while holding true to the highest standards of excellence.”

As a direct-service provider on the frontlines of the youth mental health crisis, this understanding of responsibility takes us far beyond the walls of our offices.

Download our 2023 Community Impact Report

Stories of Impact

Roman's on the Road to Recovery: How an Anchorage teen found purpose and healing at ARCH

On a late summer night, Roman sat in the back of a police car, the lights flashing on the liquor store he had just tried to break into with his friends.

At the time, Roman was 15 years old and had already been enrolled in Day Treatment at VOA Alaska. Only a few months before the break-in attempt, he had been fired from his fast-food job for issues with alcohol.

Day Treatment was his chance to get sober, repair relationships with friends and family, and learn how to be a kid without alcohol in his life. But he says he hadn’t taken the situation seriously and was ignoring the true weight of his actions.

VOA’s Summer Camps Help Kids Build Friendships and Resiliency: Highlights from our Begich Middle School Camp and Camp Hope

VOA Alaska brought adventure, joy, and social-emotional learning into the lives of children during the summer with two camps—one for rising sixth graders at Begich Middle School and another for youth in Kinship Care.

Begich was chosen for the three-week camp to help strengthen and support that school’s community after experiencing a series of significant challenges among its families.

VOA’s School-Based Services team of mental health clinicians collaborated on designing engaging activities to help students improve their interpersonal skills and grow self-awareness.

Connection is Prevention: How VOA’s Prime for Life teacher gives kids tools to live a better life

A drug and alcohol informational class isn’t something you expect teenagers to be raving about, but talk to students leaving VOA Alaska’s Prime for Life class, and that’s precisely what you’ll hear.

“We are all teenagers, and it is very hard to get through to us,” a student wrote in a letter to Brian Pickett, Program Coordinator and PFL teacher. “Because we are so shut off and defensive, and we don’t like to be vulnerable. In the matter of 2 days, you have taught me and hopefully us all so much.”