When you’re looking for information about community resources, it can often be a frustrating patchwork of Facebook pages, word-of-mouth and community billboard posters. BRAVE (Building Respect and Valuing Everyone) wants to change that by creating a free online Wrangell Resources Directory.

“We’ve been doing the Resilience Fair for eight years,” said BRAVE volunteer Kay Larson, “which brings together a wide range of service providers related to the health and development of families. However, it’s just once a year and focuses on family services. The online directory will provide year-round accessibility and more types of information.”

The goal of the directory is to broaden its listings to include a wider range of community resources, to help meet all kinds of needs. 

“Our community has had to be so self-sufficient for so long,” said Maleah Nore, a BRAVE volunteer. “People have always had to ask around but didn’t always know who to ask. We saw this as a need in the community and we’re trying to fill it.”

The directory is anticipated to serve as a digital hub where people can search for resources by topic or need. “We’re hoping for it to be comprehensive,” said Nore.

Food assistance, addressing domestic violence, senior services, pet services, afterschool programs, cultural activities, child care, taxi phone numbers — anything that benefits the community.

The last Wrangell phone books were printed in 2020.

“We will continue to lean on our partnerships, including the state public health agency, Wrangell Cooperative Association, Alaska Children’s Trust, Women in Safe Homes (WISH), hospice and the (medical equipment) loan closet — they all have a stake in our community. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, but we are trying to reduce barriers to access,” said Nore.

“A life well-lived is being able to connect with the outdoors, with your neighbor, with your culture,” she said. “All of these things matter when measuring the quality of life in our community. This website will remind us of how much we depend on each other and how important that is.”

The project has been a goal for some time, but BRAVE is a volunteer program that just recently became an official IRS-recognized nonprofit. “Our capacity to do programs and projects ebbs and flows depending on our volunteers,” said Nore. 

Juneau web developer Shane Munck had been looking for an opportunity to support rural communities, and offered to design the Wrangell website and provide tech support to keep it up to date.

“Everything is coming together,” said Nore. “It won’t be perfect, but we don’t need perfect. We just need information.”

BRAVE is encouraging Wrangell service providers of all categories — public, private and nonprofit — to submit their information by Friday, July 24, to contact@wrangellresources.org. Launch of the official website is anticipated later this summer.

Anyone with questions about the directory or how to get listed can call 907-204-0530.