What's Happening and How You Can Help
Amundsen Educational Center (AEC) needs your help today! Our fiscal year begins July 1, 2024 and we thought everything was fine. On May 15, 2024, without warning, notification or explanation, the vocational education grant (TVEP) we have received as an appropriation from the Alaska State Legislature for the last 14 years has been taken from AEC and only AEC. Not only was AEC the only organization that had funding taken, AEC is also the only Christian organization that was receiving TVEP funding. The grant goes to fund our Building Hope Construction program, which trains rural and Alaska Natives in residential construction. The loss of what was taken is a little under $300,000. The impact is that we have 50% less operating funds for our next fiscal year, which begins in just over 3 weeks. The timing of the loss is particularly challenging as student revenue does not start coming in until the fall, project revenue is tied up in projects, and summer is a terrible time to fundraise or write grants on short notice. Without intervention, the pathway forward is beyond austere with layoffs imminent and operations crippled. We trust the Lord for His provision. If God can make the whole world in a week, imagine what He can do in the next 3 weeks! Please give as you are able and led. No gift is too small (or too large!) Don’t forward this without giving something to AEC today. Quyana (Thank you!)
Who is AEC and Why Do We Matter?
AEC, through our Building Hope Construction program, uses Residential Construction as the learning lab for Whole Life Discipleship. AEC serves some of the most marginalized of already marginalized rural Alaska populations. Most AEC program participants are not ready to succeed in other programs. At the most basic level, the first thing we do is teach program participants to get up and work all day, every day. At minimum, program participants who graduate with a diploma in residential construction will have had at least 155 training days, and 1160 training hours. This year, our graduates averaged over 1250 training hours. They learned to build a house from start to finish, contributing to the complete construction of two house projects, while also participating in campus maintenance, along with service construction and maintenance projects in Togiak as well as the local community. Additionally, they learned how to cook, clean and manage their finances.
Half of our students this year shared suicidal ideations and we got them connected with counseling resources. Moreover, we focused on building them up. There was a study of suicide among Indigenous young men in sub-arctic regions. Three primary risk factors were identified: lack of a sense of worth, lack of a sense of belonging, and a lack of a sense of competence. Our Building Hope Construction program is designed to mitigate these risk factors.
The statistic that we are most grateful for is that after 23 years, every single one of our graduates is still alive. 3 young Alaska Native men who did not make it through our program have taken their lives. Nearly all of our program graduates are working. Most are working in the trades. A couple are general contractors in rural Alaska, not just producing homes, but are now employers themselves. AEC has not only contributed to workforce development in Alaska by helping make some young men that would not be in the labor force employable, but we have been part of changing the trajectory of multiple lives. We have helped produce better parents, better partners and better community members.
Half of our students this year shared suicidal ideations and we got them connected with counseling resources. Moreover, we focused on building them up. There was a study of suicide among Indigenous young men in sub-arctic regions. Three primary risk factors were identified: lack of a sense of worth, lack of a sense of belonging, and a lack of a sense of competence. Our Building Hope Construction program is designed to mitigate these risk factors.
- Worth - "God don't make no junk." Every single one of us is a child of the King. Not only did He know us before He knit us in our mother's womb, He loves us so much that He died for us. Our value is beyond measure.
- Belonging - We can't change the family we come from, but we can change the family we are going to have. Living in healthy, Christian community and experiencing the love of Jesus, sometimes for the first time, is life changing.
- Competence - Not everyone should get a trophy. Learning how to measure and cut accurately, learning personal responsibility... these are life giving skills. Competence leads to confidence, and if a person is confident, they are much less likely to take their own life.
The statistic that we are most grateful for is that after 23 years, every single one of our graduates is still alive. 3 young Alaska Native men who did not make it through our program have taken their lives. Nearly all of our program graduates are working. Most are working in the trades. A couple are general contractors in rural Alaska, not just producing homes, but are now employers themselves. AEC has not only contributed to workforce development in Alaska by helping make some young men that would not be in the labor force employable, but we have been part of changing the trajectory of multiple lives. We have helped produce better parents, better partners and better community members.
What Little We Know about What Happened in Juneau
- HB 55 passed the Alaska State House on May 7. Like usual, it was a bill just for TVEP. AEC was still in the bill like it has been each year for the last 14 years.
- In the last days of the session, TVEP was moved into HB 148, which became an omnibus bill for the Alaska Performance Scholarship, TVEP and other things. The draw from unemployment was increased, new TVEP recipients were added, and TVEP appropriations became permanent. Amundsen Educational Center was removed as a recipient and its 2% was given to other organizations.
- There was a Legislative audit of TVEP last year. The audit recommended that TVEP be scrapped and replaced with a competitive grant program. Instead of doing that, the Legislature beefed up TVEP and made one minor sacrifice - AEC. The audit never addressed the purpose of TVEP or the parameters for being a TVEP recipient.
- Answers from Legislators have been less than forthcoming. Furthermore, we have not heard a word from the State employees we have worked with the last 14 years for program guidance and reporting.
- Article VII, Section 1 of the Alaska State Constitution mandates public funds "shall be free from sectarian control." The Constitution also says that "No money shall be paid from public funds for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution." Multiple remaining TVEP recipients are private educational institutions. AEC is the only recipient that was removed from TVEP, and the only recipient that is a "religious" organization. AEC has been diligent to ensure that we are good stewards of the public funds that have been entrusted to us. Funds are used only in support of students, not for the benefit of the institution, and the whole training day is divided between Christian and secular activities so that the funds are used legally.
How Can You Help?
Give as you're able and led. If 100,000 people give $5, we don't have a fiscal crisis. Imagine 10,000 people giving $500, $5000 or $500,000. Enough resources will allow us to continue to shore up the foundation of Building Hope Construction, launch the CTE & aviation high school program, build the remaining buildings in our site plan, and possibly even endow AEC to operate in perpetuity. "I own the cattle on a thousand hills." Psalm 50:10
