Start-Up/Alaska

The purpose of START-Up/Alaska is to support the vision of the Alaska Works Initiative
which is that:
Alaskans who experience disabilities are employed at a rate as close as possible to that of the general population.

START-Up/Alaska, a partnership that includes individuals with disabilities, family members, state agencies, advocacy organizations, business and industry, and service providers, will pursue the following strategies:

  • Promote self-employment as an expectation to individuals with disabilities, their families and service providers
  • Promote the expectation that people with disabilities can start their own businesses
  • Transform service provision to support self-employment as an option
  • Promote and foster the use of mentors
  • Make better use of resources and funds
  • Develop and/or change policy to enhance self-employment resources

Project Summary
START-Up/Alaska builds upon existing initiatives to support Alaskans with disabilities who want to start their own businesses. Although many people with disabilities wish to be self-employed and some supports are available, Alaska lacks a comprehensive self-employment infrastructure integrated across workforce investment, disability, and economic development systems. Some barriers to self-employment include:

  1. poor linkages to self-employment resources;
  2. lack of experience by workforce investment and disability providers with self-employment;
  3. limited availability of training and hands-on technical assistance;
  4. lack of State agency policy (with the exception of the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation) that supports self-employment.

START-Up/Alaska will attack these barriers, using funding from the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy (click here to visit the START-Up/USA
website - http://www.start-up-usa.biz/) to launch a research and demonstration project to:

  • Update and expand resource mapping and needs assessments to identify strengths and limitations of existing resources and ascertain training, technical assistance and policy needs.
  • Develop, test, evaluate and disseminate a customized self-employment model at one-stop job centers in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and southeast Alaska.
  • Develop, test, and evaluate a real and virtual business incubator program.
  • Modify and/or develop policy that facilitates permanent, systemic change that results in more Alaskans with disabilities becoming self-employed.

One of the primary purposes of the project is to provide training and technical assistance to providers, agency personnel, and aspiring entrepreneurs and their families. An extensive training and technical assistance schedule has been developed.  More detailed announcements about each training will be provided at least a week in advance of the training session. Please click here
to see training announcements. Contact the us if you’d like to be added to the announcement email list.

View the PowerPoint
presentation on START-Up/Alaska. (.pdf version)

To view the schedule of free trainings and technical assistance sessions, please click here


Start-Up/Alaska Training

For more information on START-Up/Alaska, contact 907.269.5703.