Tag: Solutions Desk

The Clements raised their grandchildren in their cozy Alaska home, but Shirley's health problems were making it difficult to keep living there. Until now.

Many parts of Alaska lack enough accessible care for older people. It's a problem without a solution. But there are ways to prevent the problem in the first place. Exercise for elders.

In the 1970s and early 80s people flooded Alaska looking for work in the oil industry and other fields. Now, 40 years later, many are still here. Instead of fleeing to warmer weather, Alaskans are aging in Alaska. For the past seven years, we’ve had the fastest growing senior population in the country. With it comes wisdom, economic growth, and a different set of needs. Can our state handle it?

Confronting racism and discrimination can be hard. The solution? Start learning techniques when you are young. In parts of Anchorage, some of the teachers of these difficult lessons are other young people, but they start with the basics.

Dean Williams, the commissioner of the Department of Corrections, acknowledges it's easy to access illegal drugs in prison in Alaska. He says his department is trying to stop it.

When a young person commits a minor offense for the first time, like vandalism or petty theft, they sometimes have a choice. They can either be charged by the standard juvenile justice system and potentially get an offense on their criminal records, or they can go to youth court.

Sometimes when young people are in rough situations, they don’t want to ask for help. Especially not from adults. That’s where peer outreach workers step in. Alaska Youth Advocates have been connecting with youth on the streets of Anchorage and helping them find resources for 25 years.

Being in foster care can be hard, and foster youth often turn to each other for support. Sometimes that leads to unexpected relationships.

Cook Inlet Housing has developments across Anchorage, including a new 33-unit building in Spenard. In an area of town often better known for its colorful past, the developer is trying to use state-of-the-art modern housing to help promote the neighborhood's future. And it's working.

Anchorage has a plan to end homelessness, but its implementation is just beginning. As community leaders dig into the details of solving one of the city's toughest problems, getting everyone on the same page is bound to complicated. So they're starting with a conversation. But what do people who are experiencing homelessness say?

A closer look at steadfast, long-term solutions that lay the groundwork for housing development statewide with the executive director of the Alaska Coalition on Housing and Homelessness.

The school in Nikolai, until recently, had a problem. There was nowhere for the high school teacher to live. So they asked the students to build her a house.

The Department of Corrections is the largest mental health care provider in the state, and the administrators at Spring Creek Correctional Center want to make it one of the most effective, too. They’re treating inmates who have mental illnesses with new innovations, like "porches" and paintings.

How do you change who you are when you live in a world that constantly says you're bad? Take a lot of classes.

Staying calm and taking responsibility are some of the keys to success both inside and outside of prison. But sometimes it takes more than a person to teach that. Meet the dogs of Wildwood Correctional Center in Kenai.

In Alaska, two-thirds of people who leave prison end up going back within three years. But former inmates who can find decent jobs within a year of release are half as likely to re-offend. So how does the Department of Corrections want to cut recidivism? By teaching the trades.

For most of the United States, the most effective way to get food to people who need it is through Food Stamps. But what happens if you live in a place where stores are limited and expensive? Subsistence doesn’t provide everything that people are accustomed to eating anymore. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has part of the solution through an alternative to SNAP for members of federally recognized tribes in rural areas of Alaska and on Indian Reservations.

Researchers say one of the most effective ways to fight hunger nationwide is also one of the oldest: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It's still making sure fewer Alaskans go to bed hungry.

Droves of people flood the Kenai to dipnet each year, but does it pay? Given how much you spend on gear and gas, is it a viable solution for food insecurity? Some say yes.

Summer meals programs for getting food to hungry kids don't work in rural areas, especially in Alaska. People in Talkeetna are overcoming that problem with the help of books, buses, and backpacks.