On behalf of the Board of Directors and the staff of Akeela, thank you for visiting our web-site. We hope my brief overview will give you a sense of what Akeela is and what it has to offer.

Akeela is a 501 (c)(3) organization offering prevention programming and mental health and substance abuse services to the people of Alaska. We have a committed staff and an involved Board of Directors that believe improving the quality of life of Alaska’s people is a cause as well as a service.

Akeela was the dream of recovering drug users who, in the mid-70’s, saw a need for residential treatment for adults in Anchorage. Their dream came to fruition in the form of Future House, a program using the Therapeutic Community modality of substance use treatment, to serve men and women in Anchorage. Within a couple years, the name was changed to Akeela House, but the service remained the same. Since the first name change, the name has gone through a couple metamorphoses, but Akeela has remained a core part of the name so that communities throughout the State recognize the company and the value and quality of the services we provide. They routinely send clients from the most remote corners of the State to Akeela for help.

Akeela prides itself on being a statewide service provider. In our more than 35 years of existence we have offered and are offering a variety of services including residential and outpatient substance use disorder treatment, specialized women’s substance use disorder treatment, transitional housing, mental health services in Anchorage, and prevention programs offered throughout the State’s many rural villages as well as its larger communities. One of our more unique programs provides apartments for our mothers in residential treatment and their children. We make on-site daycare available to their children so the women can participate in treatment. We also provide substance use disorder treatment in most of the penal institutions and mental health services in an additional institution.

We have recently entered into a large program expansion by assuming the operation of the Gateway Center for Human Services located in Ketchikan, Alaska. With the addition of Gateway to our family of services we provide a full continuum of mental health services, mental health transitional housing, residential and outpatient substance use disorder services and related intervention services in Southeast Alaska. 

In less than twenty years Akeela has grown from a staff of 11 to a 120 member staff of committed professionals. It serves hundreds of clients in its treatment programs and hundreds more in its prevention programs. If you are looking for information about our services, please contact us. We hope you have found our web-site helpful and will visit it regularly.

Rosalie Nadeau,
Executive Director