The long-awaited renovation work to the Alaska Black Caucus Equity Center will begin Thursday, May 18th.
The renovation team, partners, donors, and supporters will tour the facility, witness the “ground-breaking" and be available to respond to questions. The organization is anticipating a completion date in late September, early October. The media is invited to cover the historical event at 1:30 PM, meet our renovation team and ask questions of the contractor (Bauer Construction) and design team (SALT).
The Alaska Black Caucus raised over $2M to purchase and begin major renovations to the nearly 6,000 square feet 2-story building located in downtown Anchorage at 605 Barrow Street. The remaining roughly $800,000 still needed to complete the renovations is being sought and “there's great hope most of those funds will come from the M.J. Murdock Trust Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the Pacific Northwest" said President and CEO Celeste Hodge Growden who recently met and discussed the project with the incoming CEO of Murdock, Romanita Hairston at a private dinner hosted by Diane Kaplan. Donors thus far include: The Municipality of Anchorage/Anchorage Assembly; Rasmuson Foundation; Providence Hospital; KeyBank; National Bank Alaska; GCI and individual supporters.
The Equity Center will provide a permanent home to the ABC to run their programs and respond to the community-identified needs and infrastructure gap identified in the recent published Black Health Needs Assessment prepared by the University of Alaska Anchorage Social Work Department. The Equity Center will also provide a centralized public community space for Black Alaskans and their allies to celebrate, console, share resources, and foster community, while being a community investment project that can centralize the delivery of programs targeting known disparities evidenced in the data on Black Alaskans. ABC will offer below market rates to other BIPOC-led start-up businesses and BIPOC organizations while executing initiatives that will enhance the quality of life for Black Alaskans. The building will also provide a commercial kitchen for struggling food service business owners and offer healthy cooking classes to help BIPOC communities live longer lives.