Anchorage Youth Development Coalition
Anchorage Youth Development Coalition is a group of over 60 youth serving organizations and interested individuals that are committed to the AYDC Vision and Mission.
AYDC Vision
All Anchorage youth are valued, involved, and thriving members of our community.
AYDC Mission
The Anchorage Youth Development Coalition coordinates efforts and provides resources, networking and training to ensure that all Anchorage youth thrive.
AYDC promotes and integrates strength-based approaches to prevent adolescent substance use and other risk behaviors.
Current
Our current focus is on training. We are excited about the introduction of the Anchorage Youth Development Academy (AYDA). This is an intensive 38 hour training spanning 3 months, based on the highly researched methods from the Center for Youth Program Quality. AYDA emphasizes the importance of offering real choices and meaningful participation to youth, and nurturing youth leadership. In addition to AYDA we also offer brown bag trainings and 1/2 day trainings on topics chosen by coaltion members.
Other current efforts include the implementation of environmental strategies to improve local circumstances that foster youth success, and providing youth development resources and networking opportunities for Coalition member agencies. The work of the Coalition is conducted through workgroups and collaborative projects.
Anchorage United for Youth
When our youth succeed, our community succeeds. That's why United Way of Anchorage works with organizations, partners and community members that produce results when it comes to helping local youth graduate and reject violence and substance use.
That work hits the streets in Anchorage United for Youth (AUY). Led by United Way of Anchorage, AUY is a dynamic collaboration of more than 40 non-profit, public, and private partners. AUY engages youth, brings together a wide collection of partners and volunteers, and leads the conversation about what it will take to help our youth succeed.
The work
Just like the youth of Anchorage, AUY's partners are a diverse group with an extraordinary array of skills: Some plan. Some implement. Some provide resources. Some endorse and support. But all are committed to helping our youth succeed by following a community-wide plan that:
• Increases the number of meaningful opportunities for youth
• Provides supportive adult relationships for youth.
• Intervenes with youth school disengagement, delinquency, and substance use
• Provides increased support to families
• Changes the community environment to promote positive youth choices
The numbers
Making progress
Since forming in 2007, AUY has made a positive impact on ...
• Community collaboration, as more than 40 partners from all sectors of Anchorage are a part of AUY
• The four-year graduation rate, which has risen significantly from 64.3% in the 2007-08 school year to 70.5% in 2008-09
• Youth substance use, with alcohol use and binge drinking down significantly
• Youth reporting being abused by their boyfriend or girlfriend, which is down nearly 5% since 2005
Still work to do
• Only 70% of Anchorage youth graduate on time
• More than one in three youth drink alcohol, while one in four binge drink
• 13% of teens still report being physically hurt on purpose by a boyfriend or girlfriend
• 45% of high school students feel like they don't matter to people in the community
By becoming part of AUY, Anchorage residents can come together to discover how each one of us can contribute to making our community a better place for our kids to grow up. Supporting local youth may be easier than you think. For more information, contact Sarah Sledge, United Way Community Action Director, at (907) 263-3803.
AUY & AYDC
AYDC (Anchorage Youth Development Coalition) plays an integral role in assisting AUY efforts. Recognized as the training arm of AUY, AYDC provides AUY partners with a wide range of training opportunities, resources and networking opportunities to increase partners’ capacity to incorporate strength based, positive youth development strategies into their programs and services. Developmental assets framework, protective factors and social & employability skills are among the strategies for which AYDC offers expert technical assistance, coaching and training. AYDC also facilitates the AUY Meaningful Opportunities strategy area, assisting partner agencies’ capacity to create volunteer and after-school opportunities, and to offer workforce development activities.
