[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 75 (Thursday, May 5, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2354-S2356]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Tribute to Alison Kear

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, it is Thursday, and it is my favorite 
time of the week. And I can see the pages are getting all excited about 
another edition of the ``Alaskan of the Week.'' We get to talk about 
someone who is making a big difference in Alaska, someone whose spirit 
is helping others.
  We always like to end the week on a positive note here in the U.S. 
Senate, usually with an ``Alaskan of the Week'' speech. So before I get 
to talk about our special Alaskan, an incredible woman named Alison 
Kear, I am going to give a little update about what is going on in 
Alaska.
  So, as I mentioned last week, winter is no longer coming; winter is 
on the run. The sun is out longer and longer every day. Let me give you 
a real cool example. In Utqiagvik, known as Barrow--the northernmost 
city, community, in North America at Point Barrow--the sun is getting 
out longer and longer each day.
  Now, remember, just 3 months ago, Utqiagvik had no sun--zero, zilch. 
Utqiagvik gained more than 17 minutes of daylight from yesterday. Isn't 
that cool? It is kind of amazing. The sun rose at 4 a.m. and will set 
tonight after midnight. Four months ago there was no sun. So a lot 
going on.
  In Anchorage, the home of Alison, our Alaskan of the Week, it is in 
the 50s, balmy this weekend. So it is a great time to be in Alaska. 
There isn't a person who doesn't long to visit the great State and join 
us up there. So please come and join us.
  So let me go back to Alison Kear, who is doing a great job in Alaska, 
our Alaskan of the Week. She runs a very special organization called 
Covenant House, one of 33 Covenant Houses in the United States, Canada, 
and Latin America.
  Covenant House's mission is to help with youth homelessness. That 
means, of course, helping provide short- and long-term housing for 
young people who are experiencing homelessness. But to really help our 
young people--all people--get into a stable situation, whether that 
means to reunite with family or get into a permanent home, what 
Covenant House does involves so much more.
  At Covenant House Alaska, they offer so much more, and that has been 
Alison's incredible legacy. So let me talk about Alison, who started 
with Covenant House in 1997. So she is celebrating 25 years with the 
organization, a silver anniversary. Way to go, Alison. We are so proud 
of her.
  She was born and raised in Florida. She went to college in Texas. She 
arrived in Alaska in 1994 armed with a graduate degree in healthcare 
management, a job at a local hospital in Alaska, and big ideas about 
where her life would lead her. Initially, at least, those plans did not 
involve Covenant House. In fact, according to Alison, they didn't 
involve Alaska for too long. She arrived--as she said recently to some 
of my team as we were putting this together--in the last frontier with 
big hair, a couple of fancy suits, and a plan: If she spent 3 years in 
Alaska

[[Page S2355]]

working at a hospital, she would probably get transferred to a big city 
of her choice in the lower 48 to run a hospital of her own.
  So that was the initial plan, Madam President. But like so many 
before her, her plans started to change. And like so many before her, 
the change of heart toward Alaska started making her think: Hmm, maybe 
I am going to stay here. Maybe I have a great life ahead of me in the 
great State of Alaska.
  Now, it happened a bit slowly. Alaska grew on her, as it does for so 
many people. She moved into a house with a great group of people her 
age. She began to ski, enjoy the great outdoors, have fun, make 
friends, friends who eventually turned into her extended family.
  Slowly, Alison began to question that earlier plan she had that she 
was so committed to, and that started to lead to her thinking: I think 
I am going to have a great life here in Alaska. Her best friend was the 
executive director of Covenant House Alaska. Then--25 years ago--it was 
a crisis shelter that offered few services and, to be honest, was 
struggling to actually stay open.
  Her friend asked Alison if she could volunteer a few hours of her 
time helping with grant writing. So Alison said: Sure. I will do that, 
a little bit of time.
  And when her 3 years were up, that same friend said to her: You know, 
Alison, I think you should stay. I think you need a mission right here 
at Covenant House.
  Something about that rang true for Alison. So in 1997, she started 
work at Covenant House in development for $9 an hour--with no health 
insurance, by the way. So she started kind of at the lower levels of 
Covenant House and started to work her way up.
  And then the mission that she never knew she needed found Alison. She 
tells a story about a Thanksgiving celebration they were having at 
Covenant House. There was a boy sharing the meal with them, someone 
whose own story was filled with unspeakable trauma, even horror. He 
talked about his family: ``I don't think my mom ever loved me,'' he 
told the group, ``but I am glad that she had me because you guys here 
at Covenant House love me.''

  That is powerful. That is very powerful. That simple statement hit 
Alison. She called her mother, Mary Whittemore, that evening, crying to 
her mom. You always loved me, Alison told her mom. When she 
internalized that and realized how important that love is, the concept 
of who she was and what she could be changed forever.
  And I would say it changed Covenant House forever. Because of the 
love her mom gave her, she realized, too, that she had a big enough 
heart for love, especially at that wonderful organization. And Alison 
has spread that love, that devotion and commitment to thousands of 
Alaska's youth since that time, she and her team--her ``rock stars,'' 
as she calls them--at Covenant House.
  When she started--get this in terms of progress--Covenant House, as I 
mentioned, was a crisis shelter with a budget of about $900,000. Under 
Alison's leadership and the hard work of so many others, it is now an 
organization with a budget of about $15 million, with a new job 
training center and more education and employment services than ever 
before.
  Great job, Alison.
  And it has also become a nationwide model for helping youth. Through 
sheer tenacity, determination, and grit and through deep partnerships 
throughout the communities--not just in Anchorage but even beyond--
Alison has led that effort. Roughly 200 kids a day from all over our 
State--thousands a year--are served by Covenant House Alaska.
  So how do they do it? Let's say you are a teen. I know our pages 
can't imagine being a teen. Let's say you are a teen and you can't stay 
at home any longer. Maybe there is abuse or family addiction or you 
have aged out of foster care, and you don't have a place to sleep. 
Think about that. Unfortunately, a lot of teens have that problem in 
America.
  And in Alaska, remember how cold it is--often below zero in the 
winter--and how horrible it is to sleep outside. So many of these kids 
are from rural parts of our State and have had to travel hundreds of 
miles to get to Anchorage. So now they are in the big city. They are 
likely to be traumatized, confused, lonely. It is bitterly cold 
outside. They have no place to go.
  These are children, and it is heartbreaking whether you are in Alaska 
or anywhere else in the lower 48. So imagine that.
  Now imagine this. Enter Covenant House Alaska. Covenant House has an 
outreach program, an incredible team of dedicated employees and 
servants to the people, to the kids, who walk the streets, go to malls, 
to homeless camps, wherever the kids might be. They give them some 
food, basic essentials, and tell them about Covenant House. That is 
what Alison's team does. They begin developing a relationship of trust 
because most of these youth have actually never had a trusting, stable 
adult in their lives.
  What do the youth find when they get to Covenant House? First, there 
are people who welcome them, who smile at them, who treat them with 
kindness, who treat them with respect. If they are hungry, they get a 
warm meal, and they get shelter. And if they are dealing with trauma, 
they get counseling.
  Eventually, if they decide they need to finish school or earn their 
GED, there is a classroom there. If they are pregnant or already have a 
baby, they will learn positive parenting skills.
  Covenant House Alaska partners with several other amazing Alaskan 
organizations onsite--this is a big deal--what they call wraparound 
services, so the kids don't need to go back on the streets. These 
different partners who work with Covenant House offer everything a teen 
needs to learn about in terms of life skills that so many of us take 
for granted.
  And what is so amazing is that someone at Covenant House will stay 
with you for as long as you need it. They provide those services, 
even--this is really important--even after you leave the shelter, to 
help these teens navigate the system, apply for jobs, get an apartment, 
get transportation, get them through a crisis that they might be 
having.
  All the things that we as parents do for our own kids, Covenant House 
does in so many ways for these kids--almost everything they might need 
to have a chance, an opportunity, a bright future.
  Now, of course, Madam President, it is not that easy. It sounds easy, 
but it is not easy at all. Some of these youth have experienced 
unspeakable trauma. And I am going to talk a little bit about a tough 
subject, but it needs to be spoken about. For far too many of these 
youth, especially the young women and even some of the young men, they 
have been trafficked by bad people.
  And the statistics are horrific. A 2017 study from Loyola University 
found that 28 percent of the young people being served at Covenant 
House Alaska identified themselves as survivors of human trafficking--
28 percent. A disproportionate number of these teenagers are Alaskan 
Native--young women, many of whom who have been lured out of their 
villages with a promise of a better life, and they have been lured into 
trafficking.

  At Covenant House, the leadership has not shied away from these 
statistics, and I think that is a testament to Alison and her 
leadership. Instead, they talk openly about it. They have studied it. 
They work tirelessly and diligently with law enforcement and other 
agencies in Alaska to address this scourge, which, of course, we have 
in Alaska, and we have throughout America.
  Importantly, they make these survivors--and all the young people who 
come to Covenant House--feel safe. They call it ``creating sanctuary'' 
for the youth at Covenant House, and it works. It works. Alison said 
there are countless stories of young people who walked into Covenant 
House Alaska in crisis--traumatized, scared, lonely, very hurt--who are 
now happy high school and college graduates, working, with their own 
families, doing great things for the State. Some have even come back to 
be staff at Covenant House. I have had the honor of meeting a number of 
these young Alaskans who are contributing so much.
  Alison is the key reason why this has all happened successfully. She 
is tenacious. She is smart, stubborn--that is not my language, by the 
way; that was

[[Page S2356]]

her own language--ambitious and loving for her kids. Joe Hemphill, 
Covenant House Alaska's chief development officer, calls Alison a 
``visionary for kids.'' He has known her for 25 years, and Joe said 
this about Alison:

       One thing . . . hasn't changed [in over 25 years]: she has 
     never taken ``no'' for an answer and she still doesn't.

  But her heart leads. When you talk to her, she will tell you that 
love is truly the answer for all that ails our communities and 
certainly for all that ails our young people in them.
  ``How great it is to create a space where someone can . . . feel 
love,'' Alison said, ``to take it and to give it.'' She continued:

       It's the only thing that has truly changed communities 
     [when you think about it]. Homelessness is not a singular 
     experience. It's about a void in relationships, it's about a 
     void of love.

  Again, Alison credits her mother--that is very sweet, especially as 
we are approaching Mother's Day--for helping her understand what love 
means and how she can give it to others and how it can make a huge 
difference in all of our communities.
  So I want to thank all the staff at Covenant House Alaska for doing 
such great work, day in, day out, 24/7, 365 days a year. As I 
mentioned, I want to thank you. My wife Julie also wants to thank you. 
Julie has had the honor of working at Covenant House for several years 
as staff and on the board and she has seen firsthand all the great work 
that Alison and her team have done for our youth in Alaska.
  Again, to all of Covenant House, thank you for walking alongside our 
youth who have not had love in their lives and yet who are resilient 
and working hard to find a positive path in life. The Covenant House 
team is making that happen.
  And, of course, thank you to Alison for leading this exceptional 
team. By the way, Alison, I know your birthday is coming up, so happy 
birthday. And most importantly, thank you, again, for being our Alaskan 
of the Week.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon is recognized.