AKSourceLink came into existence through the efforts of a unique partnership of rural and urban and Alaska Native and non-Native organizations from every region of Alaska, including the 12 Alaska Regional Development Organizations, Alaska Village Initiatives, the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development (UACED), Western Alaska Community Development Association, and the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community & Economic Development’s Office of Economic Development.
Service providers had been aware for some time of the challenges facing small businesses in a state as geographically diverse as Alaska, with many remote rural communities. A 2007 study published by the University of Alaska Anchorage Institute for Social and Economic Research and UACED – Viable Business Enterprises for Rural Alaska – found that many rural small business owners across the state either did not know what help they needed or did not know where to find the help they wanted.
A web-based approach seemed to offer the most effective solution to linking a comparatively small population spread across an area one-fifth the size of the Lower 48 – especially since the U.S. Census Bureau recently reported that Alaska leads the nation in Internet access from any location and ranks second in home Internet access.
AKSourceLink will not only spur greater capacity-building across the state, it is also bringing service providers together to better understand existing resources, identify gaps in services, and plan how to meet the unfulfilled needs of the small business community.
Funding for the start-up and initial implementation of the website was provided by the Denali Commission. The Economic Development program at the Denali Commission continues to provide rural communities with the tools necessary to plan for their own sustainability. See the Denali Commission for program details.
