Helping families in transition during a pandemic

As COVID-19 continues, many families are still in need of daily assistance, and a local organization aims to help fill the gap.

Revive Alaska Community Services is made up of community faith leaders. The organization initially set up the COVID-19 Faith Leaders Task Force to help tackle coronavirus related needs in the community.

Now the organization is shifting its focus to assist the Anchorage School District with its Child-in-Transition program. There are about 950 families who are in between homelessness and finding permanent housing.

"Some of them are living in their cars with family, but the point is that the pandemic affected them grossly because they were already down and the pandemic now has affected them more," Pastor Prince Nwankudu, president of Revive Alaska Community Services, said. "There are more people who are not in transition because they lost jobs during the pandemic, so there are more children who now need help."

Most of the children receiving help come from families facing hardships, challenges, or loss of jobs -- especially now due to COVID-19.

"Helping these children with daily essentials will make them successful when they're learning," said Jennifer Schmid with Revive Alaska Community Services. "A lot of these kids are part of the Anchorage School District, and we know that it's hard to focus and hard to concentrate on learning when you're hungry."

For information on how you can help, visit Revive Alaska Community Services'