Volunteers of America Alaska Subordinate

We believe in a holistic approach to addressing an array of complex issues that cause suffering to Alaska’s youth, this can include: Trauma, anger management, oppositional behaviors, anxiety, depression, and substance misuse. VOA Alaska’s array of services are designed to meet youth and their families where they are at and support them through one or more of the following services:

Mental Health Counseling: Sessions include individual, group, and family therapy, in addition to case management facilitated by a peer support specialist. We also provide psychiatric evaluations and medication management services if needed.

Substance Use Treatment: Our team provides three levels of outpatient substance use treatment to meet the needs of youth (ages 12-24) in our care: Outpatient, Day Treatment and Residential Treatment.

Day Treatment: Day Treatment (ASAM Level 2.5) provides a safe, supportive, and structured environment to help youth ages 12-18 overcome barriers.

VOA Alaska’s School-Based Services offers students professional mental health supports to help them reduce stressors at school and at home.

Our team empowers students to build self-confidence, resiliency, and social competency that enhance their capacity for academic success—all directly within their school!

From youth early intervention to caregiver and family therapy, our team is here to support you and your family. VOA Alaska provides family services in the following ways:

-Youth Early Intervention & Support: For youth in Kinship Care and other enrolled youth without a behavioral health diagnosis or treatment plan.
-Home-Based Family Services: Provided in a family’s home or throughout the community, these services include treatment and wrap-around care for the whole family.
-Family Therapy: Focusing on helping families function in more positive and constructive ways.
-Individual Therapy for both youth and caregivers
-Case Management: Our care coordinators work with caregivers to identify and provide services and/or treatment based on the family needs assessment to support the child(ren) and family.
-Respite Care: Assistance to families to locate and access short-term childcare services that offer temporary relief for kinship caregivers.

VOA Alaska offers PRIME for Life (PFL), an evidence-based prevention and intervention program which helps people learn to reduce their risks of alcohol and drug related problems throughout life. This important two-day alcohol and drug risk reduction program is designed for people who have begun using alcohol and other drugs, or who are part of a group where some alcohol and drug use is likely.

The PRIME for Life Program:
-Engages participants in self-evaluation of their decision to use drugs and alcohol.
-Helps participants see the life-long consequences of drug and alcohol use.
-Equips participants with the skills needed to prevent future substance abuse.

We are using research-based services to bring hope to the lives of transitional-aged youth (18–24) who are facing the most extreme of circumstances, such as houselessness and other risk factors including trauma, exploitation, and challenges related to mental health and substance use.

Permanent Supportive Housing is an Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) that pairs affordable housing with support services and addresses chronic houselessness and instability of those living on the street and who are most vulnerable and experience worse health outcomes, including a higher risk of death.

While there is a significant body of research around the effectiveness of supportive housing nationally, there is no current research demonstrating the effectiveness with the transition-aged youth population. VOA Alaska is using supportive housing as a critical piece of the overall strategy to end youth houselessness in our state as part of a HUD demonstration project.

A multi-sector community coalition invested in preventing youth substance misuse in Anchorage.

The VOA Alaska-led Anchorage Adolescent Substance Misuse Prevention Coalition supports evidence-based and holistic programs, projects, and innovations that increase adolescent and family protective factors and decrease risk factors for substance misuse in Anchorage.

The Coalition also works to advance and advocate for relevant policy; promote efficient, cohesive, and inclusive coordination and collaboration around adolescent substance misuse prevention across sectors to ensure that efforts and interventions are effective community-wide; and celebrate recovery and promote the values and lived experience of the recovery community.