The WHAT - Strengthen Vision
The Strengthen campaign envisions a happier, healthier, and safer Alaska where Alaskan men and boys are free and able to live fulfilling lives and actively help others do the same.
The HOW - Our Mission
The Strengthen Campaign uplifts, empowers, and emboldens us as Alaskan men to take part in and help lead the movement to create a healthier, safer, and stronger Alaska, free from sexual and domestic violence.
As Alaskan men, we are already taking action to create stronger selves, relationships, families, and communities. Strengthen works to connect us, creating spaces for us as men to learn and grow to take more effective action. By offering tools, skills, resources, support, and opportunities for men, the Strengthen Campaign supports us as active agents of change.
The WHO - Our Team/About Us
The Strengthen Campaign is organized and driven by a diverse group of Alaskan individuals, connected by a love of people, family, culture, land and community. We are committed to helping create an Alaska where all of these things can thrive, and all people are free, safe, and supported to live their best lives.
Grounded in the movements to end domestic and sexual violence, bullying, child abuse, suicide and oppression, we acknowledge that almost all Alaskans are touched in some way by this violence, and yet so many of us don’t know what to do or how to take action to keep ourselves, families, friends and communities safer.
As Alaskan men, we have faced the dual challenge of not knowing what to do to stop this hurt and harm, while also not having the chance to talk about the reality that many of us have also been harmed. From witnessing or surviving trauma and abuse ourselves, to denying or hiding parts of ourselves in order to fit into what our society says it is to be a man, we as Alaskan men need the opportunity to acknowledge and heal from these harms.
WHAT WE KNOW AND BELIEVE
We know…
That this violence affects some communities more than others.
That most men are NOT perpetrators of violence, but that most perpetrators ARE men.
That hurt people hurt people.
That Alaska’s rates of domestic violence, sexual violence, suicide and child abuse are too high.
We believe…
That men’s positive actions in their families and communities are already making a difference across Alaska.
That if these positive actions are supported and connected, they can not only support Alaskan men’s health and well-being but also help end domestic and sexual violence in our state.
That men and boys are harmed by strict social norms and stereotypes about what men can do, be, say, and feel.
That men need spaces where they can be accepted for who they are and be allowed to be their true selves.
That men need judgment-free spaces to connect, heal, learn, and grow.
That men need spaces where they can let down their guards, be themselves, and connect.
That there is value, healing, and strength in men being their true selves.
That there is strength in our differences.
