The AK Nurtured Living Story
The Brief Version By Kelly Macon
How it all began and where we are now!
My Mom Wendy and bonus Dad Joel Davisson ran a girls ranch in Cherokee, California for about 18 years. It was a last stop home for teen girls who had been incarcerated or who were headed towards being incarcerated.
I worked at that home each summer for many many years. My children and I would leave as soon as school was out and head to California for the summer on the ranch! It was an amazing place!
At the time my “real job” was a special education teacher, teacher consultant and eventually an administrator of behavioral interventions for a separate day school program for the Anchorage School District.
In about 2005 my folks moved to AK and opened a group home. They initially provided a home for young men experiencing behavioral challenges and then moved into group home care for clients on IDD waiver.
In 2015 they decided to retire and move to AZ. Joe Macon and I retired from the school district with the intention of taking over my folks group home in Palmer AK as contractors for HAHOC.
Around 2018 new regulations were adopted regarding group homes and being contractors. We learned then that we needed to open our own agency or do something different in terms of how we provided services.
So, we opened AK Nurtured Living!!
Since that time we have grown a bit! We now have four group homes in three locations. We have our original Palmer house, a Wasilla duplex that is licensed on both sides and most recently we have opened a home in Eagle River.
We currently provide service for about 16 amazing individuals through our Residential Group Homes. And we have about 20 individuals that we are honored to provide Community Services to; such as Day Habilitation, Supported Living, In-Home Care, and Respite Care.
We currently have around 40 wonderful staff members, We believe deeply in Professional Development. We believe in competitive wages. We believe in offering benefits in ways that we can. We currently offer a 401K with matching funds. And we are always working towards the possibility of offering additional benefits.
We are looking towards the future and are excited about all the possibilities and adventures we can offer to our community as we grow and learn together!
