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Strong families are the foundation of a healthy society and vibrant economy.

Governor Dunleavy’s Healthy Families initiative is focused on making Alaska the healthiest and best place to raise a family. This initiative recognizes the importance of prevention and strong families as the foundation for a strong economy.

The Healthy Families framework elevates existing projects and establishes newly funded initiatives, leveraging both state and federal funds. The initiative incorporates multiple strategies including administrative actions, statutory changes, staffing and budget adjustments, and cross-agency collaboration.

The Healthy Families initiative is supported by three pillars:

I. Healthy Beginnings

This pillar is the cornerstone of healthy families and prioritizes maternal and child health. It emphasizes preventative measures for youth, such as healthy diets and physical activity, and works toward expanding and improving childcare and after school programs.

II. Health Care Access

This pillar addresses behavioral and physical health care access, which is fundamental to healthy Alaskans and their families. It focuses on working with partners to create a robust and resilient health care workforce. It supports aging in place and establishes the Office of Health Savings within DOH to align how we pay for health care to achieve better outcomes and whole-person care.

III. Healthy Communities

This pillar builds on existing efforts to create healthy workplaces and to increase safe and affordable housing. It will reduce the burden of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and address chronic diseases by launching the Fresh Start Campaign to connect Alaskans to prevention programs.

Governor Dunleavy proposed $9.5 million dollars (UGF) in the FY 24 operating budget to launch Healthy Families activities within DOH. We are excited about this investment in the health and wellbeing of our Alaskan families.