UAA awarded grant to support students in substance use recovery
by Michelle Saport |
The University of Alaska Anchorage was recently awarded a $10,000 grant from Transforming Youth Recovery, a nonprofit that supports educators, parents and community members in helping students in recovery thrive.
The grant provides UAA with early-stage seed funding to engage in a capacity building approach to better meet the needs of students in recovery from substance use disorders and other addictive behaviors. Ultimately, the goal is to create a sustainable recovery program on campus that provides a safe, supportive and fun environment for students in recovery.
"We're hopeful that our efforts will help students in recovery focus on their studies, focus on their goals, and graduate," says Amanda Kookesh, UAA's Alcohol, Drug and Wellness Educator. "We want to create a place where students in recovery don't feel ashamed, where they don't need to worry about being triggered, and where they can be comfortable around other students who are in similar situations."
The grant will also support the development of an online map of community recovery resources to facilitate a nationwide network of information and collaboration among collegiate recovery practitioners, students and community members.
The effort at UAA is a collaborative partnership between the College of Education and the Dean of Students office. Over the next year, UAA will focus on two primary goals: to increase involvement from students in or seeking recovery, and to enhance the visibility of recovery support on campus.
To learn more about the effort or how to get involved, contact Dr. Grant Sasse, Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator of Counselor Education, at 786-6314, or Amanda Kookesh, Alcohol, Drug and Wellness Educator, at 786-1511.
About Transforming Youth Recovery Transforming Youth Recovery studies the community, educational and peer networks that influence youth development and achievement, and is providing novel approaches that are dramatically expanding family and school-based prevention, intervention and recovery support services-one community, one school, one student at a time. More information about Transforming Youth Recovery can be found online at transformingyouthrecovery.org.
"UAA awarded grant to support students in substance use recovery" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.