Our Story
Core purpose
Prevent injuries, promote wellbeing, and improve safety for all Alaskans.
Core values
Innovative
Collaborative
Inclusive + Respectful
Data-Driven
Strength-Based
Working together for a safer, healthier Alaska
At the Center for Safe Alaskans, our core purposes are simple: prevent injuries, promote wellbeing, and improve safety for all Alaskans.
For 25 years, we have worked alongside communities, organizations, agencies, researchers, and individuals to understand what helps Alaskans be safe and thrive. Our work has grown and changed over the years, but our approach remains rooted in the same idea: meaningful change happens when we bring people together, listen, use good data and research, and turn what we learn into action.
Today, our work reaches across Alaska and extends into national and international partnerships. We work in injury prevention, transportation safety, positive youth development, public health data and research, evaluation, health communications, and community collaboration.
Where we began
Our story began with people asking how Alaska could do a better job preventing injuries.
In the late 1990s, injuries were a leading cause of death for children and young adults in Alaska. A group of public health professionals and community leaders came together around a shared belief that many of these injuries could be prevented – and that doing so would take more than individual programs. It would take data, research, collaboration, and communities working together.
With support from a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Safe Communities America grant, that work helped establish the Alaska Injury Prevention Center, which became an official nonprofit in 2000.
From the beginning, the organization worked across sectors. Health systems, schools, law enforcement, government agencies, nonprofits, researchers, and community members all had something to contribute.
What we learned along the way
Preventing injuries matters. So do the conditions that help people thrive such as strong relationships, belonging, opportunity, culture, connection, and knowing that you matter.
We learned that the same factors influence many different health and safety outcomes. That understanding helped move our work toward a Shared Risk and Protective Factors approach and reinforced something our programs had shown us for years: prevention works best when we look beyond a single issue and understand the whole person and community.
We have also learned that good ideas are not enough. Our work should be informed by data and research, responsive to communities, evaluated, and adapted as we learn. Our public health approach starts with understanding a problem, considering community capacity and readiness, addressing shared risk and protective factors, using evidence-informed strategies, and evaluating and sharing what we learn.
In 2015, the Anchorage Youth Development Coalition (AYDC) joined the Alaska Injury Prevention Center after 15 years of building a strong network of youth-serving organizations in Anchorage. Today, AYDC is housed at the Center for Safe Alaskans, retaining its own mission, leadership team, and strategic plan while benefiting from a shared organizational home.
What we do today
Today, Safe Alaskans works locally, statewide, nationally, and internationally to put research and prevention into practice.
Our work includes injury prevention and transportation safety across the lifespan, including child passenger safety, young driver safety, older driver safety, and bicycle and pedestrian safety. We train professionals, provide direct services, develop resources, conduct research, and help communities build their own capacity to keep people safe.
Through AYDC, we bring youth-serving organizations together, support youth-led projects, strengthen the skills of people who work with young people, and promote strength-based approaches that help Anchorage youth thrive.
Our data, research, evaluation, and innovation work helps turn information into action. We partner with public health agencies and other organizations to develop applied data tools, predictive models, dashboards, evaluations, and research that help communities better understand problems and identify solutions.
Across all of this work, we often serve as a convener and connector – bringing the right people to the table, sharing what we know, learning from others, and helping good ideas move into practice.
Where we're headed
We are continuing to expand our reach across Alaska, strengthen partnerships, invest in our staff and board, diversify our funding, and find new ways to use research, data, communication, and collaboration to improve safety and wellbeing.
We also want to remain ready for what comes next. Our work has never followed a perfectly straight path. Some of our most meaningful efforts began because someone identified a need, asked a good question, shared new data, or invited us to the table.
As we look ahead, we will continue to listen first, stay curious, learn from our partners and communities, and build on what works.
Public Disclosure
In compliance with IRS regulations, Safe Alaskans makes the following documents available for public inspection upon request:
- Our most recent IRS Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax
- Our original application for tax-exempt status
- The IRS determination letter confirming our tax-exempt status
Copies of these documents are available electronically at no charge. To request copies, please email us. Reasonable fees may apply if printed copies are requested.
Car Seats
Need help installing your car seat?
Our certified technicians are here to help keep you and your loved ones safe. Contact us today to schedule a personal car seat check.
Donate
Center for Safe Alaskans and the Anchorage Youth Development Coalition depend on the generosity of donors like you.
Clicking the donate button will take you to the Alaska Injury Prevention Center and Anchorage Youth Development Coalition’s PayPal account page.
Join Us
Center for Safe Alaskans supports organizations through advocacy, resources, networking, and training to help prevent injuries, improve safety and promote well-being. Together, we are creating a community around professional youth work, injury prevention and safety in our broad and inclusive coalition. We’re able to do this because of organizations and individuals like you.
Contact Us
Center for Safe Alaskans
4241 B Street, Suite 100
Anchorage, AK 99503
Phone: (907) 929-3939
E-mail: info@safealaskans.org
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