Love Alaska update

It's been just over 14 months since we re-ignited Love Alaska as an organization and what an amazing 14 months it's been! I want to give you a quick recap of what we're seeing God do.
 
For those of you who don’t know, Love Alaska is an organization that exists to mobilize people to serve those that society has marginalized. We do this primarily through three aspects: our Engage training, our Priceless initiative, and our Chosen initiative.

One of the highlights of the last year has been the response to our Engage training. Engage is designed to equip the life and character of leaders, to train mentors and volunteers to serve people in the margins of society, and to get YOU, the church, engaged in bringing hope and healing to areas of injustice. We’ve had over 250 people go through this training in the past year. Some of those trained go on to serve in our Priceless and Chosen initiatives, but many more go on to serve in their churches, their workplaces, and with other organizations and movements around our state. The feedback has been life-changing! We love hearing stories of how this training is being used to equip people to engage the brokenness of our world. Justice is active, not passive, and we love that Engage is being used to mobilize the Church into service.

Over the past year Priceless has seen unbelievable growth in the number of survivors we serve as well as the areas in which we're engaged. Our Priceless initiative is focused on walking with survivors of human trafficking here in Alaska. Since its inception Priceless has had over 100 survivors referred to our program. We’ve seen a significant uptick in that number over the past year as our relationship with local, state, and federal law enforcement grows, as well as our relationships with other social service organizations around the state. Here are a few notable happenings in Priceless this past year:
​

• The Priceless Compassion house, a location for emergency housing of trafficking survivors, has remained occupied consistently throughout the year. This is a renewing space where survivors can take their first steps toward rebuilding their lives. Housing in this space is provided for up to 30 days. This is the only location in Alaska dedicated exclusively for survivors of trafficking.
• We also recently opened a transitional living space. This provides our trafficking survivors a living space from day 31 up to one year. This is a huge need and will allow our trafficking survivors the space and help they need for an extended period of time.
• We launched our digital outreach team that is now proactively going after trafficking that is happening in the Dark Web and in digital spaces.
• We launched our outreach team that is actively engaging in locations where trafficking may occur. Both our digital and outreach teams allow us to be proactive in combating trafficking here in Alaska.​ ​

Chosen is our newest Love Alaska initiative. It's designed to pair trained and equipped mentors with youth at risk of aging out of the Foster Care system in Alaska. The statistics for youth who age out are troubling, to say the least. 20% will become homeless after the age of 18. 25% will suffer effects of PTSD. The unemployment rate among youth who age out is 47%. These statistics are not acceptable. We believe that a mentoring relationship with a trained adult can be a lifeline for young people in Foster Care. This is what Chosen exists to do.
 
Here is the progress that Chosen is making:
​

• We've hired our Program Director, Leslie Stickland, to build the program and develop the processes around how Chosen will operate.
• We have paired our first two Chosen youth with mentor teams!
• We currently have our next group of potential mentors being trained.
• Chosen hosted a “Back to School Supply Drive” to benefit the Covenant House this Fall. We raised enough supplies for EVERY student at the Covenant House to return to school this Fall with everything they need!
• We're currently building relationships with other service organizations that serve youth in Foster Care.

 
There are so many other amazing things going on with Love Alaska beyond what I have discussed here! It's been a whirlwind of a year and we've consistently seen God’s faithfulness on full display. The Church is getting equipped and stepping in to service, His people are becoming active in areas of injustice, and lives are being saved and changed every single week.
 
What a year it has been! Now, let’s see what God has in store for 2018!    
 
The mission of Love Alaska is only possible because of the generous donations of people just like you. If you would like to support the work of Love Alaska as we engage and resource marginalized people, please visit www.lovealaska.org/donate

Thank you for reading!

Adam Legg Executive Director