Thank you for helping

AYC save the funding we receive

through the Municipality of Anchorage

Potential Funding Cut by MOA:

In the initial Municipality of Anchorage 2013 budget draft, both A & B options indicated unfunding the $205,000 grant for the Making A Difference program.

The Making A Difference program is a 17 year partnership between the Municipality of Anchorage, Anchorage Youth Court, Volunteers of America Alaska and McLaughlin Youth Center.

Unfunding the Making A Difference program would have meant the loss of AYC's main grant for 2013.  Cutting this funding would also have severely affected Volunteers of America, which funds the AYC's Sentencing Coordinator position.

This would have been detrimental to the youth court program in Anchorage.

What has been happening?

We reached out...asked for help.

• Click Here to read former AYC member Jason Tashea's ADN Letter to the Editor on October 10th.

• Anchorage Youth Development Coalition Executive Director Deborah Williams wrote a Compass piece published in the Anchorage Daily News on October 19th: Click Here

• The next day, the Anchorage Daily News published an article about possible loss of municipal funding and the Making a Difference Program in their Sunday edition.  Click Here to read this article by Rosemary Shinohara.

• Many individuals and organizations have written letters and emails of support to Assembly members and Mayor Sullivan.

• Fairbanks Daily News Miner included an article on October 21st:  Click Here

• SF Gate (San Francisco Chronicle) also picked up the Associated Press article:  Click Here

• On Oct 22nd, reporter Kate McPherson reported on KTVA Channel 11:  Click Here to view this report online.

• AYC youth members and families, Board members, staff, alumni, representatives from Volunteers of America Alaska, McLaughlin Youth Center, and community supporters attended meetings on Oct 23rd and Oct 30th to speak and answer questions about the Making a Difference program during the Municipal Assembly Public Hearings on the Proposed 2013 Municipal Budget.  Click Here to visit www.muni.org and view archived video of these meetings. (Once there, click on 2012-Assembly approximately half way down page.) 

• The Mayor and the Assembly continued to work on the 2013 Proposed Budget.  On November 13th, the Assembly put forth an amendment to fund the Making a Difference program through the Mayor's Community Grant Fund.

• On Nov. 14th, KTVA Channel 11 news aired a follow-up story by reporter, Kate McPherson, on the Municipality budget.  Click Here to view this report online.

• On Dec. 4th, the Assembly will continue working on the 2013 budget.

How You Helped! 

• Thank You to everyone who contacted their Assembly member and/or Mayor Sullivan via phone, letter or e-mail and expressed support of AYC and the Making A Difference program.

Please thank Mayor Sullivan and all the Assembly members

for their support helping to reinstate funding for

the Making A Difference program in 2013. 

Email all Assembly Members:

  WWMAS@muni.org

Email Mayor Sullian:

mayor@muni.org