Note from Rep. Gara: National Award For Foster Care Work: And Make Alaska Better Even if Some In Congress Are Threatening to Make Things Worse
October 16, 2013
Dear Neighbors,
Tired of politicians making government not work – and threatening to spin your economy and retirement accounts down the drain? That’s just not happy news to wake up to every day. It’s not even good theater unless you like 10 hour speeches about Dr. Seuss by those who hold your economy hostage.
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Note from Rep Gara: Action Alert- Toothless the Cat and Former Foster Youth Who Lost Everything in Monday’s Home Fire
July 17, 2013
A Time To Help
I came back from a great vacation to bad news – that two hard-working former foster youth who are struggling to succeed, and their roommate who works at Campfire and helps foster and disadvantaged youth, lost everything in Monday’s Eastside home fire. This is where we come in.
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Note from Rep. Gara: Small Efforts Can Change a Life: May is Foster Care Month
May 24, 2013
Okay, it’s time I walked the talk. Do politicians ever do that? Are we allowed? Um. Yes.
This week I gave away my favorite laptop to the Laptops for Foster Youth program we started with Facing Foster Care in Alaska a few years ago. They will work with the State to match that laptop with a foster youth or recent alumni pursuing college or success in the job market. Foster youth will do, well, what kids do with laptops.
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PRESS RELEASE: Alaskan Earns National Casey Foundation Award for Local Foster Care Work
January 21, 2013
(JUNEAU) - Alaska foster youth advocate and peer support group leader Amanda Metivier, herself a former foster youth, has just returned to Anchorage with a prestigious award. From a broad selection of former foster youth from all 50 states, Metivier has won the Casey Family Foundation’s Excellence for Children alumni award. Metivier went from foster care to college, earned her Master of Social Work at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and now helps foster youth and alumni at the University succeed in school.
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NEWS: 3rd Annual Holiday Laptops for Foster Youth Drive - Improving One Life At A Time
December 18, 2012
(ANCHORAGE) – Today Rep. Les Gara and the foster care group, Facing Foster Care In Alaska (FFCA), are launching the third annual Laptops for Foster Youth Holiday Drive. Over the past two years this drive has resulted in approximately 200 matches for youth. “Laptops are crucial to helping youth improve their chances of success in school, and establishing normalcy in very disrupted lives of youth who often have very few material possessions,” said Gara, a former foster youth whose father was killed when he was 6.
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