Living room at MACK House

Opening of MACK House

Jessica Bowers Events, Impact Updates Leave a Comment

This September, we opened the doors of MACK House (Minors Accessing Care & Kindness), our new housing facility designed to serve the specific needs of minors experiencing homelessness. We talked with Executive Director Alison Kear about this exciting new venture.

Executive Director Alison Kear cutting the ribbon with Mildred Mack accompanied by Amy Miller, Carol Gore, and Carlette Mack.
Executive Director Alison Kear cutting the ribbon with Mildred Mack accompanied by Amy Miller, Carol Gore, and Carlette Mack.

Q: Alison, we are all thrilled about MACK House and what it means for the youth we serve. Can you explain MACK House and its impact?

Simply put, MACK House is a safe place for teenagers experiencing homelessness — a safe place for them to take a reset. It is our intention to provide the unconditional love and absolute respect that we are known for but in a home environment versus a traditional shelter experience.

Specifically, this residential property will service up to ten 13 to 18 year olds experiencing homelessness. We will provide three meals a day, snacks, access to educational support, healthcare services and the services of our community partners. It’s going to be staffed 24 hours with people that love young people. And we’re intentionally keeping the size small so that they can get the dedicated attention that they deserve and need. Anyone who has raised teenagers will understand that strategy (smile).

Q: MACK House is specifically for minors. How is having a separate facility for this population going to allow us to serve them better?

A: We have always known that we wanted to create a more home-like experience for the minors who need our support. Prior to MACK House opening, all youth 13 to 24 were receiving services in the same space.

Our teams have managed it extremely well, but as we know, there are large developmental differences between a 13 year old and a 24 year old. This step of bringing minors to their own, residential home is an important piece of the puzzle in nurturing their specific needs while allowing us to expand services for the largest growing population of youth experiencing homeless: young adults 18 to 24.

Our goal is for Anchorage to be the first city to achieve “functional zero,” meaning we are effectively housing youth faster than others become homeless. This doesn’t mean that a young person will never experience homelessness. It In summary, minors have definite and different day-to-day challenges than our older youth. With minors, we are still working closely with families, with schools, and overall a different home structure of homework and navigating teenage angst. Being in their own space is truly a unique position we find ourselves in at Covenant House Alaska, and it’s because of the support of our community.

Q: Last quarter, we discussed the micro-unit groundbreaking, and now we are talking about another new facility, MACK house. Why are you opening these facilities at the same time, is that a part of the plan?

A: When I first started at Covenant House Alaska 25 years ago, the average age that we served was 14. Now, our average age is almost 20. Meaning, we could create a space that was small enough to offer that family-like environment that was still large enough to meet the need for it. This data also tells us that we need more for the largest growing population of homeless youth, ages 18 to 24. By moving minors off the YEC footprint and into their own home, we can construct the micro-units and expand the services for young adults. Simply put, teenagers have different needs than young adults, and now we have gotten to a place in our 33-year history where we can kick our services up a notch with separate facilities. To say this was a long time coming is an understatement. Not only are we thrilled, but so are our youth. They have been telling us for quite some time that this is what they have wanted.

By moving minors into their own home and specializing their care, it has paved the way to offer services like independent living quarters right here on our emergency shelter footprint.

Carlette and Mildred Mack arrive at MACK House.
Carlette and Mildred Mack arrive at MACK House.

Q: Why is it called “MACK House?”

A: “MACK” stands for “Minors Accessing Care and Kindness,” but we chose the name to honor our former staff members Mildred and Carlette Mack, who are a mother-daughter duo with a long Covenant House Alaska legacy. These two amazing women, who were fierce advocates and leaders, embody the values of family and unconditional love. You actually get to see it play out with them.

That’s what the Mack family drove within our organization — they want every young person to feel loved and feel like there’s someone special on their side. No family I’ve ever met other than the Mack family has really been able to demonstrate that through their career or even their own work at Covenant House. That is what will be demonstrated at MACK House, plain and simple. Young people will be loved. Young people will be valued. Young people will know of the Mack story. And also, “MACK” is easy to say.

Q: Could you tell us more about Mildred and Carlette Mack? What is special about them?

A: Oh, wow, you are really going to make me ugly cry here!

Mildred started as a caseworker here at Covenant House Alaska in 1993, and she served our youth with the utmost compassion and devotion. And what I realized when I started

working here is every young person that walked through the front door would call her, “Momma Mack.” That says a lot about her disposition.

Her daughter Carlette followed in her footsteps only two years later, starting as an intern. She worked her way through nearly every job here before becoming our COO in 2012. Carlette left us in 2020 to work with Covenant House International, and we really do miss her, but she’s so deserving of it and we’re all so happy for her.

Those ladies, they are “care and kindness.”

Q: We know that opening MACK House was quite a community effort. Who helped us in funding this project?

A: We had several generous funders from across our community without whom we could not have realized the MACK House mission.

The Municipality of Anchorage, the Richard L. and Diane M. Block Foundation, the Carr Foundation and the Administration for Children & Families Basic Center Program were all essential in funding this project. Their enthusiasm for and demonstrated devotion to empowering Alaska’s most vulnerable young people demonstrates the same value set we aim to embody with MACK House.

And, of course, this could not be possible without the continued support of all of our donors and volunteers. Everyone who sets aside a chunk of their paycheck, be it $100 or $1, to Covenant House Alaska, or spends a weeknight with our youth, or who contributes to our mission in any of the countless ways that they do, shares in this joyous occasion.

Thank you all for enabling us to continue the Macks’ legacy of tenacious service and unflinching compassion.

Jacquii with a Cue on Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Jessica Bowers Awareness Leave a Comment

10/11/21

By Jacquii Cue, Covenant House Alaska Ambassador

In celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we’d like to introduce you to one of our Covenant House Alaska ambassadors, Jacquii with a Cue from Kotzebue. We have asked her to share her perspective on Indigenous Peoples’ day because we believe fully in using our platform to spark conversation and spread awareness around our mission to ending youth homelessness. As a fact, more than half the youth at Covenant House Alaska are Alaskan Natives, and it is our duty and honor to shed light on the rich history of Alaska.

It was springtime here in Anchorage and I was on my way to a therapy appointment. Driving down Benson Blvd in a brand-new car, I was feeling the relief of the stability I’ve found in my life. Waiting at the red light to turn left onto A St., I started thinking about other ways to improve my life. Even though it was comfortable, and I’d reached a place with a stronger foundation than I’ve ever had before, somehow it still wasn’t enough. Basically, I was trying to imagine more ways to advance my already lush life. Gratitude wasn’t necessarily at the forefront of my mind, but rather, desire had me wishing for more.

The bright sun was bouncing off what snow was leftover but the roads were dry. It was a beautiful day. I pulled down my visor as I turned to pass Barnes and Noble, stopping again at the corner on Northern Lights Blvd. I was in the lane all the way to the right and somebody caught my eye from the sidewalk next to me. It was my childhood friend who I haven’t seen in nearly 20 years, who moved down here when she was just approaching middle school.

She was wearing a big brown shirt, baggy jeans, white socks, but no shoes. She looked exactly as I remembered her, just older and rougher. I’ve got to be about 10-15 feet away from her and she doesn’t see me. She’s walking out of a tent, squinting one eye, and trying to look for someone further down the street towards Walmart. I’m frozen. It looks like she just woke up and I realize what that means.

The light turns green and I’m shaking, incredibly thankful that it happens to be a therapy appointment that I’m driving to. But also, deep guilty feelings start bubbling up as I try to remember how our paths went separate ways. How did it come to this? We grew up dancing with each other. She was protective like an older sister. Our families weren’t rich, but we shared a lot of love and laughter. We were neighbors and I went to her place all the time. She once beat someone up for trying to pressure me into smoking cigarettes and I never picked up the habit because of it. She was there through my parents’ divorce. The only other time I can think of hearing from her was on my eighteenth birthday, when she called my dad’s landline phone because she remembered not only the date but the number from nearly ten years before.

Ever since moving here to Anchorage five years ago, I’ve tried to make sense of the plethora of Natives experiencing homelessness in this city. It’s something I was never exposed to growing up in Kotzebue. We all take care of our families and loved ones, even when it hurts. How can this community (including me) just drive by my people? I’d wonder. My heart broke as I realized this must be why I confront racism here, too — this exposure and the lack of understanding behind our story. At times, I’ll even internalize this racism. I felt it try to creep in that day, too.

Here in the city, I can’t drive past a corner of familiar relations without thinking of our complex history. What brought them here to the corner tents?

Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a time for us to check in with our real truths. The act of renaming it from Columbus Day is doing just that and I wanted to take this time to share some insight for empathy that we can all tap into for these Natives experiencing homelessness. This year, the day comes with a little more weight because of the mass graves of Indigenous children being exposed throughout Canada and the U.S. Although the current official number is reaching nearly 7,000, this is just a small fraction of schools revealing their truth.

It’s not coincidental that at any given time, over half of the youth being served by Covenant House is Alaska Native. It is directly related to this part of history being revealed. I want people to understand this connection as they see my people while they wait for red lights to turn green. Every single Native is experiencing generational trauma which can result in substance abuse, relationship issues, estranged family members, emotional dysfunction and even homelessness.

The only way I can truly share a perspective is to pull from my own story. My great-grandmother was the first in my maternal lineage to grow up with outside contact, back in the early 1900s. Back then, it was Inupiaq custom to be adopted to a stable family if the father isn’t around at birth. My great-grandmother’s father was gone on a long hunting trip for the family when she was born. Once he’d come back to find her, he had to respect that she was already imprinted into her adopted family. It was about the protection and safety of the child. My great-great grandfather accepted this out of pure selflessness. It was tradition. His newborn daughter deserved a structured home.

My grandmother, then, was the first to experience boarding school. The children my great-grandmother gave birth to were brought to Mt. Edgecumbe High School. While many Elders do not have great stories of this time, my Aana (grandma) and her sister speak highly of this period for personal reasons. However, overall, the generation that was sent out of their homes for cultural cleansing raised my mother’s generation differently, and it led to my experience of being maybe the most disconnected Inupiaq generation since contact. The way that I see it, a part of this mission was to interrupt the capabilities of traditional parenting. So, between the ancient ways of maintaining a family structure and the sudden change with residential schools, there are a lot of emotional battles that trickle through these four generations.

For my generation, we are finally taking more control over our narrative and putting more intention into healing this inherited trauma. The idea of recovering from something that started 100 years ago is only just beginning to take root. The Indigenous Peoples that we see on the streets are refugees of a colonial history that happened on their own lands. Many of them were at these boarding schools with the same histories as the ones revealing their mass graves. All of them were shamed for their identities and never learned to properly process that pain. A lot of them were either raised by parents whose skills were disrupted by the relocation efforts, or they were orphaned and adopted out. Every single Native we see in these corner tents now faces deep traumas that don’t even begin with them.

The only big difference between myself and this childhood neighbor I came across at a red light is that I’ve been intentionally going to therapy for a decade now. I don’t really know what made me so lucky to have made it this way because our narratives are not too far off from each other. Maybe, it has to do with my Aana and her sister feeling a different connection to their schooling experience. It might be related to the fact that I was able to stay in Kotzebue until I graduated high school— so my sense of community was different from hers here in the city. It very well could have made an impact on her to see our people in that homelessness light, too. Whereas I didn’t really know or recognize it until moving here to Anchorage in my mid-twenties.

There are many, many explanations as to why our paths went different ways. Each one of them can be linked back to Christopher Columbus and all that had happened since he set foot on Native land. That is why it’s important to shift our focus with the renaming this day and changing our ways of celebration through holidays such as this one. Along with this one, we should be mindful of how we celebrate mascots, the way we dress for Halloween and what we teach children about Thanksgiving.

This is an incredibly complicated time to face as a Native, so I feel grateful that we are reclaiming the meaning behind this early October holiday. I invite non-Natives to think deeply about this story of mine, especially as they pull up to corner tents and see my face reflected at them. I share the same features as them, and I just happen to have gone down a different path. We are still one and the same, and if I deserve any respect and space for empathy, so do they.

I am proud to share that my childhood friend is doing great in recovery. She received help from an auntie and has a stable job that makes her happy. We stay in touch through Facebook now. I was able to remind her of the nickname I used to call her when we were kids, and we felt the love through that exchange.

Above all this history, our people still find faith and hope through the darkness. We believe in better days. I encourage everyone to spend their Indigenous Peoples’ Day learning more beyond my words to decolonize their mind when it comes to our story.

Quyanaq. Thank you for reading a glimpse of who I am and who we are as Indigenous Peoples today.

Jacquii with a Cue is Inupiaq from Kotzebue. She is a writer, graphic designer and publisher of the Native Time Archive magazine, due to launch on October 21 at nativetimeak.com. She runs an online platform under the name Jacquii with a Cue that raises dialogue on cultural knowledge, generational healing and Inupiaq language learning. You can find her on all social media outlets and learn more about her work at jacquiiwithacue.com 

Honoring Audri at Covenant House Alaska on Indigenous Peoples’ Day

coveyhouse Awareness Leave a Comment

10/11/21

By Covenant House International

On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we are proud to honor our native sisters and brothers working in Covenant House sites across the countries where we operate services for young people facing homelessness.

Audriana “Audri” Foss is from the Dena’ina and Yupik tribes from Pedro Bay, on Lake Iliamna, which is one of five of the smallest villages surrounding the largest North American freshwater lake in the United States. She moved from Seldovia and has been in Anchorage for the past six years.

Skill and Passion

Since 2017, Audri has been working in the Covenant House Alaska kitchen as a cook, prep cook and weekly meal planner since 2017. She also helps with paperwork and training youth interns on knife skills, cleanliness, panning up meals for the next day, and understanding kitchen lingo. Audri makes a lot of soup, which includes “making sure to keep up on chopping veggies,” she says.

Audri really enjoys working with large quantities of food. Ever since she was learning to cook her first egg with her mother at 8 years old, she has had the passion and drive to make food for everyone who needs warm, homemade meals. That led her to work at Covenant House. She said, “Being someone who loves cooking, I thought using my admiration for feeding people would make a great difference for the youth at Covenant House.”

Audri recalls working alone in the kitchen one night and making a large and filling dinner. After the meal, a resident asked her, “You made all this food by yourself?” Audri’s response was, “If you find a job you are passionate about, any job can feel easy and enjoyable. Just gotta find your passion.” She adds that it helps to “find that if others appreciate the work you do, then you’ve made it. But don’t stop, keep learning and growing and making yourself better!” Audri hopes these words encourage the young people at Covenant House Alaska to find jobs they love. When they specifically show an interest in cooking, Audri always encourages them and says, “If I can make enough food to feed 60-80 people, you can make it happen for your future.”

Continual Connection

Last year, Audri was crowned the Fur Rondy Heritage Ambassador. Rondy is a 10-day winter festival celebrating life in Alaska through winter sports, Alaska Native arts and cultural events, and family activities. Audri wore her regalia, including a sash and headdress, for everyone at Covenant House to see, and even though the community was extra proud that day, they often remind Audri how much she is loved and respected for all that she does in support of our mission every single day.

When asked how it makes her feel to see the Covenant House community celebrate and honor Native American peoples and commemorate their histories and cultures on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Audri said, “I do appreciate having people learn and understand our culture and history through food and dance, or storytelling. Working in the kitchen I’ve always gotten excited to make my delicious homemade fry bread that I’ve been making all my life. Cooking for me is my way of telling my story, the experience and the techniques I’ve learned from those I’ve worked with before, or from those who share the same passion as mine.”

Audri’s passion for sharing her culture has definitely infused its way into the food she prepares for our youth. She says, “smelling the aromas that you create brings people together. Making happiness through cuisine has been a tradition for me all my life, including cooking food at potlucks in the village, for celebrations, or for the loss of a family member. Making food to share with everyone is a way to show love and compassion for others. And to share the food I can make for people is a tradition I’ll always keep close to my heart.”

Covenant House Alaska's Fight Against Human Trafficking

Covenant House Alaska’s Fight Against Human Trafficking

coveyhouse Awareness Leave a Comment

10/1/21

By Sam Buisman — Covenant House Alaska Staff Writer

Every day at Covenant House Alaska, we serve young people who are enduring or are susceptible to exploitation. 

With nearly three in 10 of the youth we serve having experienced some form of human trafficking, combatting this incomparable evil is a tenant of our programming at Covenant House Alaska. Our efforts inside our facilities and outside on the streets work to empower young people to retake control of their lives and end their trafficking experience. 

According to Associate Program Coordinator Eileen Wright, the core of what we offer youth undergoing trafficking is simple, yet lifesaving. 

“Sometimes I think of all those things that these youth have been through, and I always wonder to myself, what is it that keeps them moving forward?” said Wright. “And it is hope. Covenant House provides hope. That’s what we do. We’re in the business of hope.” 

Human Trafficking in Alaska

The first thing to understand about human trafficking in the US and Alaska is that no one truly understands the full extent of the problem.

Human trafficking is drastically underreported in the US due to the hidden nature of the crime, incomplete data and difficulty in reaching trafficked persons. Accordingly, most researchers who study this issue believe that their data underestimate the scope of this issue.

With this caveat in mind, the Global Slavery Index estimates the number of people in the US currently experiencing sex or labor trafficking to be around 403,000 people.

Additionally, other figures suggest that the prevalence of human trafficking in the US may be on the rise; the National Human Trafficking Hotline saw a 19% increase in usage from 2018 to 2019.  

Similarly, the annual number of trafficking cases in Alaska reported to the hotline has risen by 60% from 2015 to 2019, with a peak of 19 cases in 2018.

These figures do not conclusively prove that trafficking is on an uptick — they may only indicate an increase in the use of the hotline. Yet, they demonstrate that human trafficking is a real and dire issue in our community.

What Human Trafficking Looks and Doesn’t Look Like in Alaska

The Department of Justice defines human trafficking as “ a crime that involves exploiting a person for labor, services, or commercial sex.” However, what human trafficking looks like in practice can differ from state to state.

As Trafficking Program Coordinator Heather Hagelberger is quick to mention, Alaska faces a distinctive and misunderstood human trafficking situation.

“It’s not what Hollywood depicts it as,” said Hagelberger. “It’s not a lot like what is even seen in the lower 48.”

The sensationalized abductions of movies like “Taken,” where a stranger kidnaps someone who is in the wrong place at the wrong time, is a rarity in Alaska. So is the gang-related trafficking that accounts for a sizable proportion of the issue in the lower 48. 

According to Hagelberger, trafficking situations in Alaska mostly involve a trafficker manipulating a family member or someone whom they know well to fulfill a certain need. This could be a need of the trafficker in particular or of the entire family, such as keeping the lights or heat on. 

This dynamic can make it difficult for someone to recognize that they are being trafficked while giving them a perverse sense of pride in upholding a familial responsibility. 

“They don’t see the coercion,” said Hagelberger, “especially if it’s your mom, your uncle, your grandfather, and it’s for the family. Like, ‘This is just what we do to get by and take care of things.’”

These traffickers often exploit an individual’s pre-existing trauma, which they may be privy to as a family member or close friend, to push them into such a situation.

However, Hagelberger cautions against locking these commonalities into a singular archetype for trafficking in Alaska and letting common red flags metastasize into stereotypes, as this can rob one of the vigilance necessary to spot a trafficking situation. 

“Somebody could be failing in school or showing up in clothing that’s inappropriate for the weather — sure, those are things that draw people’s attention immediately,” said Hagelberger. “But that’s just a broad generalization. A person could have straight A’s in school and a good friend group and still be sexually assaulted every night by somebody because of their trafficker.”

In a sense, trafficking in Alaska has not one look but many individual looks, each resembling a unique case with a unique person in a unique situation. 

Trafficking and Homelessness

Battling human trafficking is a key initiative for Covenant House Alaska because young people who are experiencing homelessness are favored targets for human traffickers.

For a young person, the experience of homelessness almost always means a struggle to fulfill the most basic of human needs. Traffickers can prey on these circumstances to gain control over them. 

“It doesn’t even have to happen quickly,” said Wright. “They could just be like, ‘Hey, I have a couch you can sleep on,’ and one day turns into a week, which turns into, ‘Hey, you now owe me for this place that I’ve let you stay.’” 

Our best data, a 2016 Loyola University study, indicates that nearly 30% of the youth at Covenant House Alaska’s shelter have experienced some form of human trafficking. This was the second-highest rate of trafficking among the 10 Covenant House locations across the US and Canada included in the study.

Human trafficking is a problem endemic not only to the population we serve but to the community we are in as well. Resultantly, working towards its resolution is a cornerstone of our mission at Covenant House Alaska. 

Street Outreach Team

At Covenant House Alaska, our Street Outreach team acts as our first responders to human trafficking. 

This mobile team finds and travels to youth living on the street and is often our first point of contact with individuals being trafficked. Its members come equipped to provide such youth with food, warm clothing on the spot and help them access medical care, working to build relationships with these young people and direct them to our other services. 

According to Wright, the ability to reach out to young people instead of waiting for them to come to our facilities is a boon to our anti-trafficking efforts. 

“If they are engaging in something that isn’t allowed at the shelter, that doesn’t have to be a barrier to meeting with them,” said Wright. “Removing that barrier in itself can just create a relationship, and that relationship is the beginning to healing.” 

Meeting these youth where they are, both physically and emotionally, can be essential in breaking the mental bindings of trafficking.

“When you are in the midst of a trafficking situation, you feel like you have no worth, that no one’s ever gonna care about you again,” said Hagelberger. “We work to tear that down. It’s accepting right where you are.”

Fighting Trafficking via Youth Empowerment

Our larger programming at Covenant House Alaska combats trafficking through empowering young people. Unconditionally offering them the basic needs for human survival prevents traffickers from leveraging those needs against them, allowing a young person to decide to leave a trafficking situation.

“Our role really is just to show them what they have inside of them: the capability to walk away from a situation,” said Wright. “And if they want our help, we can help them.”

With our Youth Engagement Center, Charlie Elder House, MACK House and Right of Passage programs all offering different populations of young people access to shelter, food, healthcare, employment and education services and much more, we can always be available for any young person who decides they want a helping hand. 

“Our only goal here is to be a group of people, an organization, who is there unconditionally,” said Hagelberger, “because they don’t have anyone else in their life who’s going to do that for them.”

The key aspect of this relationship with our young people is choice. Empowerment is not possible if we are forcing our youth to make certain decisions or meet certain conditions to receive our services. It does not make any sense to attempt to end a situation in which a young person’s autonomy is restricted by restricting it in a different way. 

“They know what they need for their lives. They are the expert for themselves,” said Hagelberger. “So if I come in and say, ‘No, this is what you should be doing,’ that’s totally disregarding their own ability and agency to understand what they need for themselves.”

Unconditional service for those who choose to receive it. This mantra guides our anti-trafficking efforts at Covenant House Alaska, and so much more of what we do. 

Anchorage is in This Together

We at Covenant House Alaska do all we can to mitigate human trafficking in our state, but there is a role for every one of its citizens to play as well.

Hagelberger stressed that despite how overwhelming this problem may seem, it is more than possible for one person or a small group to make a difference. 

“Get a group together, learn, educate yourself,” said Hagelberger. “Be situationally aware, and then know who to contact.”

According to Wright, donations of money or time, large or small, can make a huge difference in a young person’s life. 

“Sometimes, people think it needs to be these broad acts, and it doesn’t,” said Wright.

By supporting Covenant House Alaska, you tell a vulnerable young person that they matter.

If you would like to make your own difference by contributing to Covenant House Alaska’s anti-trafficking mission, you can donate here or sign up to volunteer here.

Summer Volunteer Activities Roundup

coveyhouse Our Youth, Volunteer Stories Leave a Comment

9/22/21

By Sam Buisman – Covenant House Alaska Staff Writer

We’ve all noticed it. The days are getting shorter, the weather is getting colder, the snow is creeping down from the mountains and into our backyards — summer is over, and the fall is here!

With summer coming to an official close, we wanted to highlight all the amazing adventures our young people were able to experience because of our generous donors and mentor volunteers. For a lot of our youth, the outdoors represent the treacherous living conditions and trauma of the streets that they are fighting to overcome. But because of our supporters, they were able to enjoy the Alaskan summer how it is intended to be. 

Stretching from the heights of Palmer to the gorges of the Kenai Mountains, our young people and volunteers covered a lot of ground. So, we want to break down our summer month-by-month and celebrate the activities we fit into each one. 

But, before we can do that, we need to extend the most gracious of thank yous to our mentors and volunteers. None of this would be possible without them and their unconditional love for our youth. Thank you for giving these young Alaskans joy and memories. 

April

Our summer had the perfect kick-off with a barbeque at Balto Seppala Park! The combination of our mentors, a smorgasbord of summer meats and a ripping-hot grill added up to a classic April evening for our youth. Nothing says “welcome back, summer!” quite like sticky barbecue sauce smeared across a smiling face.

One of our mentors works the grill at our April BBQ.

May

As temperatures climbed higher, so did we, with a hike up Turnagain Arm! Our volunteers guided our youth up all of the 1538 feet of elevation gain on this 5.4-mile trail. While the views were fantastic, it was edged out by the looks of accomplishment and awe in the eyes of our young mountaineers. 

And since April’s barbecue was such a smash hit, we kept the party going with another barbecue in May! Our grillmaster mentors again fired up the grills and piled plates high, this time right on the grounds of our Passage House facility. While prized leftovers only lingered for a couple of days, the shared memories of such a treat will last a lifetime. 

Another summer BBQ was a big hit with our youth!

June

With summer in full swing, our volunteers made sure our young people got the chance to visit a true Anchorage institution: the Alaska Zoo. Our youth encountered leopards, tigers and bears (oh my!) as they trekked through the wooded zoo trails. 

The Alaska Zoo was almost more fun than we could “bear!”

For a more low-key activity, our volunteers helped our young people explore their creative sides with an afternoon of rock painting. Colors danced from brush tip to igneous canvas as our youth connected with both nature and art. The bedazzling final products now adorn Passage House, bringing a little more brightness to its rooms and hallways for our moms and babies. 

July

There is perhaps no time better than a long July day to play a few holes at Peters Creek Disc Golf Course! Our mentors took our youth up to the Chugiak course where they let drives fly like they were taking off from Ted Stevens Airport. Through 18 holes of fun, our volunteers showed our young people a great day on the links. 

Our volunteers also arranged a truly special evening for our young people: dinner at the Alaska Botanical Gardens. Our youth dined on locally-grown food while learning about its history from some of the foremost experts on Alaskan botany. The evening was a unique blend of culture and cuisine that no one involved will forget. 

Delicious food and fantastic culture came together for our youth at the Alaska Botanical Gardens.

August 

It wouldn’t be an Alaskan August without a trip to the State Fair! Thanks to a generous ticket donation from our longtime partner GCI, we were able to treat our young people to a day of wild rides, live shows and food on a stick. With the help of our volunteers and GCI, our youth were able to partake in this cherished state tradition.

One of our staff watched this trip become a bonding experience among a group of young women. After one of our young women ran into her old skating coach, she shared that she grew up competing in horseback riding events and figure skating. The group then continued to open up to one another, allowing them to settle into each other’s company and the joy of the day.

“I’m so happy she is happy,” one young woman remarked about one of her peers. “I haven’t seen her happy in a long time!” 

We also partnered with the Anchorage Police Department for what we called a “Hike With a Cop!” A bit of rain could not deter Officer Brenden Lee, who led our young people down the iconic, 11-mile Powerline Pass trail. A special thanks to Officer Lee and the APD for giving our youth such a wonderful and informative afternoon!

Our youth and mentors took Polaroid photos of their hike with Officer Lee.

Lastly, before the summer closed out, our volunteers had to make sure our youth could pay another visit to our furry friends at the Alaska Zoo. Say what you will, but laying eyes on a Bactrian camel never gets old!

Our youth returned to the Alaska Zoo at the end of the summer.

End-of-Summer Camping Trip

For our last hurrah of the summer, we took our young people on a camping and fishing trip on the Kenai Peninsula. This multi-day adventure let our youth enjoy the natural wonders of our state and would not have been possible without the talents and treasure of our mentors and multiple community partners. 

Our youth and mentors stayed in comfortable cabins and yurts provided by the Alaska Huts Association at a generously discounted rate and the cabin of our wonderful donor Christie Hudson, all nestled in the shadow of the Kenai Mountains. 

Alaska Pacific University was kind enough to give us a sizable discount on our rentals of camping necessities, including backpacks, sleeping bags and the all-important bear spray.

Our youth hike their way to the campsite.
Our youth saw beautiful Alaskan vistas on their camping trip.

After a 5:00 A.M. wake-up call, our campers embarked on the Kenai River to fish for silver salmon. The good folks at Trophy Drifters and Alaska Boat Rental each provided us with boats and expert guides for our trip. Thanks to them, it seemed like our youth couldn’t stop pulling fish out of the water!

Thanks to Southcentral Foundation, with the support of the SAMSHA GLS grant, we were able to purchase fishing licenses and gear for our youth. Our young people were able to engage and learn healthy coping skills with our message of hope, resilience and connection to culture.

With our fresh catches in hand, Tanner Berube of Jolly Wally’s Seafood then cleaned, filleted and vacuum-sealed our salmon for us. Even though you could see through the wrapping, these fillets were no less of a present for our youth. 

Finally, the foundation of this entire trip was our mentors Kristen, Lance and Andrew. These three spent most or the entirety of their weekends to give our youth a weekend unlike any other. 

Once again, we would like to give a massive thanks to all of our community partners and mentors who worked together to give our youth a weekend that most people in the lower 48 would be willing to travel to Alaska for. We, and our young people, will never forget your generosity. 

Our youth working together to build a fire at the campsite.

Onto Fall

The leaves may be changing, but one thing certainly will remain the same: Covenant House Alaska, in partnership with our volunteers and donors, will continue to organize invigorating outings for our youth that connect them with our state and local community. 

Our volunteers and community partners have always been essential in enabling us to provide our youth the adventures they deserve. If you would like more information about being a mentor at Covenant House Alaska, please click here. If you are interested in forging a community partnership with us, please contact us. 

This Day in Covenant House History: Remembering Sister Mary Rose

coveyhouse Covenant House History Leave a Comment

Sister Mary Rose’s tenure as Covenant House director remains foundational to the capacity of our organization today. Photo: Covenant House Vancouver.

9/13/21

By Sam Buisman – Covenant House Alaska Staff Writer

Today marks the ninth anniversary of the passing of Sister Mary Rose McGeady, whose leadership allowed Covenant House to flourish internationally as it entered the 21st century. 

Sister Mary Rose served as Covenant House’s second director from 1990 to 2003. Taking the reins amidst a period of upheaval and plummeting donations, she revitalized Covenant House and guided the organization into a golden age of international growth.

Born in 1928, Mary Rose quickly found and heeded her life’s calling. She attended Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul’s Immaculate Conception Academy and joined the cloth in 1946. 

After graduating from Emmanuel College with a sociology degree in 1955, she worked with various child-care nonprofits before and while continuing her education at Fordham University, achieving her master’s in clinical psychology in 1961. Across the next few decades, she hopped between East Coast charities before rising to an executive position with the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. 

Then, in 1990, Mary Rose was chosen to lead Covenant House. At the time, the organization was hemorrhaging money, with annual donations dropping by nearly half over the past year. 

Mary Rose not only reversed Covenant House’s downward spiral but ushered in a period of dramatic growth that proved definitive to the organization Covenant House is today. During her tenure as director, she more than tripled our annual donations and oversaw the opening of 11 new Covenant House sites, including Covenant House Alaska. 

An innovative thinker, she also took steps to adapt Covenant House’s outreach to the changing technology of the new millennium by rolling out our 24-hour crisis hotline, “the Nineline.” 

At the time of her retirement in 2003, Covenant House was steadily rising in donations and operating in 22 cities across North and Central America. 

Today, Covenant House is active in 31 cities across six countries and has served over 1 million children. It is impossible that we would have been able to reach these heights without the industriousness and courageousness of Mary Rose. 

Sister Mary Rose died in 2012, but her legacy lives on within the doors of every Covenant House and in the smiles on the faces of kids who come through them. We are eternally proud of and grateful for her service, and we hope that she would feel the same way about ours.

Suicide Prevention at Covenant House Alaska

coveyhouse Awareness, Impact Updates Leave a Comment

To recognize World Suicide Prevention Day, we took a look at suicide in Alaska and how this issue interacts with our work.

9/10/21

By Sam Buisman – Covenant House Alaska Staff Writer

Today marks the 19th annual World Suicide Prevention Day, and we at Covenant House Alaska want to honor this day with an honest discussion on the scale of this problem and reflection on the work we do to abate it.

Suicide prevention is integrated into our day-to-day operations at Covenant House Alaska. The youth that we serve are at one of the greatest risks of suicide in the entire US, demanding vigilance and compassion of our staff and programming. Yet, we are ready to meet this challenge with the enduring and unconditional love we bring to all of our pursuits. 

“We’re not going to give up on you, we’re going to care about you,” said Chief Program Officer Heidi Huppert. “We’re gonna have laughs, we’re gonna have heart, and that’s what’s gonna keep us connected. And when you’re not doing well, we’re gonna know it.”

Suicide Among Alaskan Teens 

While suicide is a serious national problem, it hits Alaskan youth harder than almost any other group. 

The US recorded nearly 48,000 suicides in 2019, setting a national suicide rate of 14.8 deaths per 100,000 residents. At this scale, suicide ranks as the 10th leading cause of death in the US.

However, these numbers soar upwards amongst Alaskan teenagers. Alaska has the highest teen suicide rate in the country, with 34.0 suicide deaths per 100,000 teens ages 15-19. This triples the national teen suicide rate of 11.1 deaths and leaves suicide as the leading cause of death for Alaskan teens. 

Disturbing as these numbers are, experts believe they underestimate the actual scale of this problem due to gaps in data and a lack of reporting. Regardless of such caveats, these numbers already show that suicide is an exceptional and endemic threat to Alaskan teens. 

Suicide and Homelessness

Complicating this problem even further is the unique connection between suicide and homelessness. 

If a person lives through a period of homelessness, they often endure multiple experiences that the National Health Care for the Homeless Council identifies as increasing one’s risk of suicidal ideation, including “anxiety and stress,” “family conflict,” “isolation and loneliness” and others. 

Quantifying this risk, some studies have determined suicide rates to be 10 times higher among people experiencing homelessness when compared to the general population.

Akin to suicide at large, this phenomenon is also more pronounced amongst teens. A 2011 study found that while adults begin to exhibit suicidal ideations after an average of six months of homelessness, for children, this average drops to a single week.

Our Efforts

The data makes it clear: the population that we serve at Covenant House Alaska, Alaskan youth experiencing homelessness, are at acute risk of suicide. 

Yet, Huppert says that an awareness of this risk allows our staff to take what she sees as the most important step in suicide prevention: responding to our youth when they reach out. 

“When our young people say that they’re feeling some kind of way, the first thing that we do is believe them,” said Huppert, “and then you’re going to get the services that they need, in real-time, with urgency.”

Covenant House Alaska provides our youth access to mental health professionals and counseling services on site. Flanked by our behavioral, physical health and substance abuse services, these programs make up our frontline against suicide. 

Additionally, Huppert makes it a priority to extensively train Covenant House Alaska programming staff who work directly with our youth in suicide prevention. As 48% of suicide attempts occur within 20 minutes of the decision to do so, this includes the ability to rapidly recognize suicidal behavior and direct the youth to the services they need.  

Our suicide prevention efforts go beyond these in-the-moment services to the structure of Covenant House Alaska. Recognizing that LGBTQ+ youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers, our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) staff works to keep Covenant House Alaska a safe and inclusive place for all of our youth. 

“When there’s a feeling of not belonging, that could lead to suicide,” said DEI in Administration Director Tafi Toleafoa. “Just making sure that we love them and that they feel loved is what DEI is about. Celebrating why we’re different.”

For our other populations that are particularly at risk, we provide similar suicide prevention services tailored to their lived experiences. Our partnership with Southcentral Foundation allows us to supply indigenous Alaskans, who have the highest suicide rate of any racial or ethnic group in the US, with healthcare conscious of their rich culture and history. 

Finally, as Huppert describes, the backbone of suicide prevention at Covenant House Alaska is the relationship that our staff builds with our youth. 

“If we were talking like, ‘Here’s a frequency and a dosage of a magic medication,’” said Huppert, “ours is relationships.”

It is through this trust and genuine care that Covenant House Alaska can and hopes to continue providing a lasting solution for our at-risk youth.

Moving Forward

Huppert sees some cause for optimism regarding suicide prevention. As the negative stigma surrounding mental health issues has declined, so have the accompanying inhibitions to talking about it.

“The good news is we have young people that are being raised in a place where it’s okay to say that you’re not doing well,” said Huppert. “When I used to work on the floor, they would say to me, ‘Hey, you should go talk to so and so, they’re not doing good.’” 

Even with this pearl of hope, there remains plenty of work to do in this state and country to prevent youth suicide. But however long this road may be, Covenant House Alaska is ready to walk it. 

If You Need Help

If you are struggling with suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The state of Alaska also has a local network of hotlines, which can be found here. 

Volunteer Spotlight: Cleaning Crew

coveyhouse Volunteer Stories Leave a Comment

Volunteers with Covenant House’s cleaning crew help keep our space clean for our residents!

Aug. 25, 2021

Anna Gilbert

Covenant House Alaska wouldn’t be the same place without the support of our multitalented volunteers. We offer many roles that make up a volunteer force with something for everyone. Throughout the past year and a half, we really felt the absence of volunteers in our spaces hard. In an effort to create contactless opportunities that allow volunteers to enter our space, we created the cleaning crew at our downtown Youth Navigation Center! 

Aside from our routine cleaning practices, volunteers are welcomed into our space once a week after hours for a quick cleaning of the building, where they mop and wipe down high touch surfaces. This small gesture has a great impact on our Housing Team, and they are so thankful for the lift. Additionally, their efforts help us maintain our perpetually high standards of cleanliness for our residents amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

As author Gretchen Rubin says, “Outer order contributes to inner calm.”

Kristen’s Story

Cleaning crew member Kristen Roberson, who started mentoring with CHA in the spring of 2020, prizes the opportunity to diversify her role in our shared mission of ending the experience of homelessness for young Alaskans.

“I hope to continue being involved with CHA, even beyond mentoring!” said Kristen. “I know there are lots of different opportunities, and CHA could use the help.”

Kristren says she enjoys how the easy and quick nature of her cleaning crew role supports the hard work of the Housing team. Regarding both her youth-facing and supportive roles, Kristen says CHA gives plenty of opportunities to help others and meet people in the community. For her, these experiences and relationships have profoundly impacted her life.

The Cleaning Crew helps ensure that all of our spaces, like our common room, stay tidy.

Get Involved!

In fact, as our Trafficking Prevention Team expands into a new building, we are looking to expand our cleaning crew to help support this location as well. Fill out a volunteer form to learn more!

Volunteer form: Desktop/Mobile/App

Addi at college

Transformation Tuesday: Addi

Jessica Bowers Our Youth Leave a Comment

Our Covenant House Alaska family celebrates as we send one of our incredible youth off to college for the Fall semester! Contributed by Program Coordinator, Nicole Stuemke

Addi’s Story

Addi grew up in the Las Vegas area in a home where she endured years of neglect and abuse. When she was old enough, she moved to Alaska where she had extended family, hoping for things to be different. She wasn’t here long when she discovered that the dysfunction she had grown up with ran deep in her family. Alaska was not the home she had dreamed of.

Luckily for us, Addi found her way to Covenant House Alaska. She got a job within days of landing at our emergency shelter at the Youth Engagement Center. She was encouraged to apply for our Rights of Passage (ROP) program. A transitional living program for young adults, and was accepted quickly. Addi moved into ROP and kept working and saving. In a stable environment, surrounded by adults who were excited to support her dreams, Addi began to make big plans.

Embracing Opportunity

For Addi, Alaska never became home. She was searching for the place that was right for her to put down roots and find community. In the meantime, she embraced every opportunity to play sports and stay active, which is her passion. She loved to hike, bike and play ultimate frisbee.

Addi worked with ROP staff, and staff at our partner agencies Nine Star Education & Employment and Cook Inlet Tribal Council, her Covenant House Alaska Permanency Navigator and her employer at Seeds of Change to find a community college in Massachusetts that fit her educational goals. Wisely, she took advantage of every opportunity and resource made available to her, and managed to find a Permanency Navigator in Massachusetts who would help her find housing and access the services she would need there to keep succeeding.

Off to College!

A month before her departure to college, she reached out to ROP Program coordinator Nicole Stuemke and asked if Nicole could fly with her to Massachusetts to help her get settled. Nicole was thrilled (as any proud parent would be!) to be invited to support Addi in such a momentous step. So, together they packed up and headed East. Once they got there, they met with Addi’s new Permanency Navigator and Housing Case Manager, and began work on getting her state residency, benefits, and housing essentials. The next day and half was spent looking at the community college and touring two other colleges and transitional living programs. Nicole instantly knew Addi was in good hands.

Today, Addi is in her second week of college on the beginning of her journey to pursue sports medicine or physical therapy. She is working in a local bakery and loving her new housing situation. In the end, it was hard to say goodbye to Addi. However; we will stay in touch and continue to champion Addi like the proud family that we are.

Addi is a beautiful example of what is possible when a community comes together around a young person and lifts them up to achieve their own dreams. We are so proud of her and cannot wait to see where she goes from here.

Celebrate a young person’s potential today by visiting coveycares.org

photo of Dani

In Memory

Jessica Bowers Our Youth Leave a Comment

The below memoriam is written by our Chief Program Officer, Heidi Huppert. We love our youth, like our own.

In our little chapel with its glass walls, we have held far too many memorial services for the young people we have lost.

With the services we pull together with our Pastoral Minister and a smattering of staff that knew the young person best, we manage to hold the most beautiful and thoughtful remembrances. May 24, 2021 was no exception. We honored a beloved young woman, Dani Meadows. It’s always surprising to me whom these young people touch and for Dani, there were many in attendance, from the guy in the data department to friends from the programs she stayed at when she lived with us. Dani was so loved.

The stories shared about her had the attendants crying and laughing, sometimes at the same time. Personally, I’ve not felt such deep sorrow and jubilation simultaneously. In some ways I felt so lucky to have gotten to know Dani which makes her loss so much more profound.

In celebrating Dani were learned about a young woman with a deep love of her family, friends, pets and an ambition to make something of herself. Years ago, Dani told me, “No one expects anything of me. Back in Alabama I was just supposed to sit in a hot trailer and collect disability.” Like many of the other staff at Covenant House, I responded, “well, you proved them wrong, didn’t you?” She truly did.

Dani came to Alaska with little more than some loose internet connections. Soon she found herself in our Youth Engagement Center, experiencing homelessness for the first time in her life. Very quickly Dani was accepted into the Rights of Passage Program where she thrived. For the first time in her life, she found employment and started saving money. She wanted to get a driver’s license, so she put herself through Driver’s Education. She bought a car. She fell in love. She made friends. While Dani’s past pained her, she refused to let it hold her back. She got off of disability because she said, “I can pay my own way.” Dani got an apartment and became a regular daily call to check on the staff she referred to as her “moms.”

Dani was magical. We joked that she might have been a unicorn. Dani loved Alabama football, so we decorated in deep reds. She loved cupcakes and Dr. Pepper so we all popped our cans in honor of her. I won’t be able to forget our young lady with the strong southern accent that loved so hard it sometimes hurt. I won’t forget how brave she was in allowing herself to be vulnerable when faced with rejection. Our unicorn taught us a lot. Roll Tide, RIP Dani