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Discover the heartbeat of Juneau's cultural and community landscape with 'Capital Chat.' This series explores the vibrant world of the community, arts, and dynamic cultural and social events happening in Alaska's Capital City. Tune in to 'Capital Chat' for your essential guide to the pulse of our community, where every story is an adventure and every voice matters.
And now Capital Chat on KINY, where we connect you with Juneau and Southeast Alaska's community organizations only on KINY.
Speaker 2:Joining me is Akoncha Basil. And first of all, we the explanation of why Akoncha is here. But, first, good morning, and, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Hi. Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2:Of course. Now you are an Alaska fellow. So describe for me what, what that program is and and why you're here.
Speaker 3:Right. So the Alaska Fellows program brings, people from across the country to Alaska to work in different, nonprofit organizations. So we've got folks in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Sitka, and Juneau, and there are six of us here in Juneau.
Speaker 2:Nice. So you're originally from where?
Speaker 3:Originally from New York, close to the city, but not quite in the city.
Speaker 2:So how how was your experience being here in Southeast Alaska?
Speaker 3:Oh, I love it so much. I don't wanna leave. It's, a fantastic community. Have access to amazing nature, and I've I've loved the work I've been doing here so far.
Speaker 2:Good. Good. And I love to hear that. So your work with United way. Tell me what's what's involved there.
Speaker 3:So my work with United way involved this year involved setting up a VOAD. So that's a volunteer organizations assisting in disaster, which essentially is a community coalition of organizations, from across Gino and hopefully eventually from across Southeast that works on, better coordinating resources and personnel in disaster. So responding to disaster where it's needed most, leveraging resources that each organization has, to make that response, all the more better.
Speaker 2:So coordination in in disaster response, obviously, with our situation here and how we have to deal with the outburst flood every every year. Remind me again when you when you arrived here.
Speaker 3:So I arrived here in September, unfortunately, which is right after the flood. So so I was I was kind of right right after everything transpired. So I got to learn a lot of lessons from folks who had just responded.
Speaker 2:So this will be your first season. And collectively as a community, we, we hold our breath, you know, as we get into this this season. This will be your first experience with that. So I I think that the timing is perfect to be able to coordinate and and, put all these resources together under under one command, I think, is, exactly what should be happening right now. And certainly, our our local government did that very successfully over the last couple of years.
Speaker 2:So what is the process when you're trying to coordinate so many organizations in order to speak with one voice?
Speaker 3:So the way I started out in September was I, did capacity assessments. So more informal chats with folks who had worked on this disaster before, because people who have worked in the community, of course, know their community best. So I, I sat down with a lot of the folks who responded. So folks from the Red Cross, from the food bank, and other organizations to see what had gone well during the last response and, what could what could go better in future responses. And, so I started with that and contacted did did a ton of outreach, so contacted a lot of organizations who who could coordinate functions where we had some kind of gaps.
Speaker 3:And, I went from there. So that was that was how I started. And right now we're we run meetings monthly, and we're organizing committees, to be a little bit more, structured.
Speaker 2:Interesting. So you've been here since September. You've had numerous meetings. You've had a chance to assess the way things have been done and and how we're going to do them. What are some of the things that that you guys are have actively improved and will improve for this this coming season?
Speaker 3:Right. So for this coming season well, during this year, we were able to hold those monthly meetings. So get everyone together around a big table, to talk about, what, again, what went well, the last floods, what needs to, potentially be instituted in this coming flood.
Speaker 2:What are those things? What needs to be done better this year?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we need a bit more of a coordinated response. So having people who, specialize in the same area. So for example, folks who specialize in feeding. So, that's our first committee that we organized.
Speaker 3:So that's Salvation Army and the Food Bank and Red Cross. So making sure all of those folks folks are grouped together, they're all communicating, on time and, coordinating resources to go to the people that need it the most, at the right time. So that's what we've really focused on this year is making those responses, more connected, more coordinated.
Speaker 2:Interesting because, you know, I've been having the same conversation, locally here as we've talked about how can we better communicate, the situation as it unfolds. We set up a webcam on the river this year that's accessible on our website. There are multiple webcams out there. The city has some. We've talked with our friends at K2, the public station here to say how can we coordinate as media in the city to make sure all the information is getting all the right information is getting out at the same time.
Speaker 2:And so we're working on that project this year and I think we're going to have a great plan implemented in time for God forbid anything happens. Well, fantastic. Thank you for the work. If somebody is interested in in learning more about this process, maybe getting involved, especially with organizations that are are, like the United way, what, what should they do?
Speaker 3:Well, you can definitely contact me at my email. I will get back to you because that's what I usually do is respond to emails. So, my email is voad@unitedwayseak.org, which I can spell if that helps.
Speaker 2:Do that.
Speaker 3:Voad@unitedwayseak.org. And you can contact me there with any questions. We're always looking for input from the public, and and folks to help be involved in this process. So please reach out.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. Thank you for coming in, and thanks for the great work you're doing in our town.
Speaker 3:Alright. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to Capital Chat on KINY, your connection to the people and organizations making a difference in Juneau in Southeast Alaska. Subscribe to the Capital Chat podcast everywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts and at kinyradio.com.