Partnerships Promoting

Community Strengths and Wellness

as Suicide Prevention

Goals of ANCHRR

Establish a central communication hub that anchors and supports our collective efforts to reduce Alaska Native youth suicide risk and promote wellness.

Focus on the strengths of Alaska Native people, culture and communities.

Use research as a way to understand how to increase community health and strategically strengthen institutions and programs to prevent suicide and other associated issues.

Develop and sustain capacity for health research that is community-driven, Alaska Native led, and grounded by Indigenous knowledge, language and culture.

Blue wave decoration

Map of Alaska in Yellow

Statewide
Research
Network

Building Capacity for
Alaska Native Community-
Driven Solutions to End Suicide

Collaborative Hub

  • Provides ways for people across the state to share success stories, identify and promote community strengths and build local capacity for research. 
  • Builds on existing social networks, institutions, and infrastructure in Alaska Native communities to better understand how to foster resilience and reduce suicide risk 
  • 35-50 representatives from all key suicide prevention and resilience stakeholder groups in Alaska with open participation at annual meetings.
  • Meets annually in person, quarterly virtual hub meetings. 

    Contact: Stacy Rasmus

Executive Advisory Committee

  • Provides external oversight and guidance for the ANCHRR initiative and its administration. 
  • Guides the translation of research into policy change and systems transformation in Alaska. 
  • 7-10 members representing statewide leadership in Tribal health, community wellness and self-determined services. 
  • Meets annually, quarterly updates
Contact: Evon Peter

Research Steering Committee

  • Ensures that the Alaska Native Community Resilience Study (ANCRS) is responsive to community needs and realities and balances community and scientific priorities. 
  • Translates research results into useful tools for Alaska Native rural communities. 
  • 12-16 representatives from the three regions collaborating in the ANCRS. 
  • Meets annually in person (Year 1) and bi-annually (Years 2-5), monthly updates.
Contact: Lisa Wexler

Alaska Native Community Resilience Study (ANCRS)

  • Collaborates with three Alaska regions: Yukon Kuskokwim, Bering Straits and Northwest Arctic.  
  • Using a strengths-based approach, highlights what rural Alaska Native communities are doing to support young people, protect them from suicide risk, and promote wellness. 
  •  Links existing rural Alaska Native community efforts to outcomes that promote protective factors and resilience.
  • Develops a tool other Alaska Native communities can use to identify and strengthen resilience in their own community.

Charting a Course
to Wellness