The Way Home Summit

Every year, roughly 100 young Alaskans age out of foster care. About half of them will be homeless before they turn twenty-one. We know that to be true well in advance. We even know who these youth are. And we have never once put the people who could stop it in the same room on the same afternoon.

At the same time, we know that youth become at risk and start living on the streets year-round for countless reasons outside of aging out of the system.

That's what November 19 is.

This isn't a fundraiser with a speaker. It's a room dedicated to ending youth homelessness in Alaska. Business leaders, Alaska Native leadership, law enforcement, health, education, and government are spending a full afternoon on a problem this state has been treating as permanent and is not.

WHAT TO EXPECT

An afternoon built to change what a room of leaders believes is possible.

The program brings a keynote, panels, and working conversations into one room, and every piece of it points the same direction: sending Alaska's leaders back out with a clearer picture of what is actually happening to young people in this state, and a real sense of what can be done about it. Some of what you hear will be hard. More of it will be hopeful than you expect, because a good deal of what works is already working here — quietly, in Anchorage, with results.

This is not a briefing and it is not a fundraiser with a speaker. It is a working room, built to catalyze the people sitting in it.

You will leave knowing something you did not know at noon, and with something specific you can do about it.

Two ways to join us

Full Summit — Lunch and the complete afternoon program, through the closing session and the vigil. If you can give the full afternoon, give it. The day is built to build, and the first hour is what makes the last one land.

Afternoon Only — Arrive just after lunch at a reduced rate and join us for the balance of the program. For leaders who cannot clear the whole afternoon but are not willing to miss the room.

The full program will be published soon, with speakers announced as they are confirmed. Space is limited and this room is deliberately not a large one — register early.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE THERE

You are an Alaskan. You employ people here. Your kids go to school here. The young woman sleeping behind a building on Fourth Avenue tonight was in an Anchorage classroom eight months ago — not somewhere else, not someone else's problem, and not beyond reach.

You will leave knowing something you did not know at noon, and with something specific you can do about it. We welcome you to join our mission to end youth homelessness. Our young people deserve a future of security, safety, and opportunity.