Our Story

Our Vision

Our vision is that all resource families in Alaska have the information, training, support and skills to provide quality care to the children in their homes. The Alaska Center For Resource Families (ACRF) provides a continuum of services to Alaska foster parents, adoptive parents, relative caretakers and guardians.

ACRF has offices in Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Mat-Su. Through onsite, distance education and teleconference training, we provide the training necessary to become foster parents or to meet on-going training requirements for maintaining a foster care license.

Pre- and post adoption and guardianship support services are available regardless of whether you adopted through the foster care system, internationally, tribally or privately. Services include an extensive resource library, adoption preparation training, case management, education through self-study courses or on-site and telephonic trainings, support, referrals and crisis management.

Our services are offered free-of-charge. Contact the ACRF office in your area for more information.

How We Came About

The Alaska Center for Resource Families began in 1988 as a project of Northwest Resource Associates called the Alaska Foster Parent Training Center. Based in Fairbanks, Alaska, the project coordinated regional training events throughout Alaska through a contract with the State of Alaska Division of Family and Youth Services. In 1993, AFPTC expanded into three regional offices in Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Juneau to provide localized services to the regions served by the now called State of Alaska Office of Children’s Services. A fourth office was added in Mat-Su in 2006. (Our Juneau Office closed in 2017.)The name was changed to the Alaska Center for Resource Families to reflect a broader continuum of services to foster, adoptive, guardianship, and kinship care families. While training foster families has always remained at the heart of our services, services broaden to include the Foster a Future program answering the toll free number advertised by the state and adding pre- and post adoptive services to support families continuing into adoption. The PARKA Project based in Anchorage was added in 2010 to recruit, train, and support families in adopting legally free children from the State of Alaska.

ACRF is part of the Northwest Resource Associates family of programs which includes the Northwest Adoption Exchange and the Oregon Post Adoption Resource Center. The Alaska Center for Resource Families is proud to serve the great state of Alaska and to contribute to the network of caring for children and youth in the foster care and adoption arenas.

Equity and Inclusion Commitment

At Northwest Resource Associates, we acknowledge the historical discrimination and marginalization that has created unfair advantages for some and disadvantages for others. These inequities persist in every sector of society, including the human services community. Pursuing equity and inclusion is a top priority across all programs at Northwest Resource Associates.

In 2013, we became an LGBTQ+ culturally competent organization through the Human Rights Campaign’s All Children - All Families (ACAF) program. The program requires ongoing staff training that solidifies our ability to serve LGBTQ+ children and families.

In 2019, we formed our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee to recommend additional pathways and expand our efforts to become a more equitable and inclusive agency, with a particular emphasis on anti-racism.

In 2021, we are committed to:

• Funding ongoing learning for all staff. Effective conversations about creating change require a shared vocabulary and understanding of discrimination and marginalization, both at individual and structural levels. We are invested in quarterly trainings that move staff toward a common language to address issues of racism, bias, and other discrimination. In addition, we will continue creating intentional spaces for staff to communicate and have brave conversations so that the learning can be incorporated.
• Reviewing employment practices. We are committed to reviewing and revising our current employment practices and to eliminate potential bias and promote behavior that fosters inclusion. We are focused on revising hiring practices, performance evaluations, exit interviews, and other employee policies.

We will continually update our objectives to promote learning, growth, and change at Northwest Resource Associates.