The Alaska Youth and Parent Foundation (AYPF) is a non-profit agency dedicated to serving the needs of runaway and homeless adolescents and their families. AYPF's Peer Outreach Workers, Education and Referral (POWER) program offers training to teens providing them with the skills to do street outreach, conduct prevention- based presentations to their peers and staff the free downtown POWER Teen Center
"To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow." - William Faulkner -
Peer outreach workers conduct street outreach by providing teens with resources and referrals. Peer educators provide free single session and multiple session groups and workshops at teen shelters and other facilities on topics such as health education, HIV/AIDS/STD, substance abuse, domestic violence, stress and building healthy relationships. The POWER team also support their peers at the downtown Teen Center in the Anchorage Transit Center on the second floor. The center is open Tuesday thru Friday, 1:00pm-5:00pm, and Tuesday thru Thursday we are staffed by a public health nurse from the Reproductive Health Clinic at the Municipality of Anchorage, Department of Health and Human Services. The Teen Center offers FREE confidential testing & counseling on HIV/AIDS/STD, pregnancy, birth control, abstinence and family planning. The AYPF POWER program's goals are to help homeless, runaway and at risk youth find food, housing and healthcare as well as educate them about risk reduction and healthy life choices.
