In 1976, a group of concerned women who saw the need for services for battered women established the Alaska Women’s Resource Center in Anchorage, and subsequently organized the first Alaskan conference on domestic violence. As a result of that conference, the state’s first shelter was established in Anchorage in 1977, soon followed by similar programs in Fairbanks, Juneau, Kenai, Nome, Bethel, Kodiak, and Ketchikan.

These programs existed due to the courage and conviction of the many people who volunteered their time to establish and answer crisis hotlines, offer their homes as emergency shelters, and advocate for victims’ rights. However, the programs were not coordinated, little funding existed, and the issues of domestic and sexual violence weren’t well understood or addressed. In 1978, they formed the Alaska Council on Family Violence, which later became the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (ANDVSA) in 1980 as a statewide network composed of the non-profit, community-based programs working cooperatively and noncompetitively to secure funding, share information and expertise, and expand and improve services offered to survivors.

Although federal funding had ended by then, the State funds for the programs increased to $1.8 million for FY81. Funding for the programs was funneled through the ANDVSA for decisions on program funding, with the Department of Health and Social Services only administering and monitoring the grants. There were concerns that having a non-profit group outside of State government making funding decisions was unprecedented and had no statutory base. As a result, the Network and the Department of Health and Social Services developed proposed legislation for authorization to administer grants-in-aid to domestic violence and sexual assault programs. The resulting legislation was AS 18.66, which established the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and placed it in the Department of Public Safety, effective October 24, 1981.i

In the coming years, programs were established across more communities around Alaska. In 1994, the Violence Against Women Act was federally enacted, dramatically improving federal, tribal, state, and local responses to these crimes.ii This was soon followed by Alaska’s own Domestic Violence Prevention and Victim Protection Act in 1996, which expanded definitions and understanding of violence against women.