A Fresh Start and New Beginning

Keyda moved to Fairbanks from Atlanta with her younger son in 2016 after a family tragedy. Today, she helps connect fellow Alaskans to housing resources at Interior Alaska Center for Nonviolent Living.

“I was in a really dark place after my son was murdered,” she reflects. “I needed to be there for my younger child. I needed to get away.”

Alaska called to her as a distant place, far away from Atlanta where she could begin a new life. She and her youngest son made their home in Alaska’s second-largest city, Fairbanks, after falling in love with their neighborhood and community. “Fairbanks saved me,” she says.

In 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Keyda was one among many eligible Alaskans who through Alaska Housing Rent Relief – a federally funded program – remained safely housed. “I was looking at this tiny cabin for me and my son, I could barely afford it...relief money helped me pay my rent so that I could focus and rebuild.”

Over 10,000 fellow Alaskans persevered and were stabilized in their homes or apartments through the rent relief program.

New Horizons

While new to the city, Keyda worked several labor-intensive jobs until shortly into the Covid-19 pandemic she fell, fractured her foot and as a result, lost her job.

With a son at home, she had the question: what next?

The answer, unexpectedly, appeared in her Facebook feed through an advertisement highlighting education for peer support professionals. The 40-hour training, offered by Alaska Behavioral Health, was Keyda’s first step to becoming a State Certified Peer Support Specialist – a professional who uses their lived experience to mentor and support others in the recovery process.

As of the time of this writing, Keyda is celebrating 15 years of sobriety – an accomplishment  she attributes, in part, to her decision to move to Alaska.

A week after completing the training, the facilitator asked her to apply for a new peer support position at Alaska Behavioral Health.

“I interviewed and got the job. I was the first peer Alaska Behavioral Health in Fairbanks,” Keyda says.

It was the beginning of her career in community support and advocacy.

As a Peer Support Specialist, Keyda found reward and purpose utilizing her personal experiences to support others. “I love working with people,” she says, “I knew this was what I wanted to do.”

After four years in the role, she decided it was time for a new challenge and took a break from peer-to-peer services to try administrative-based work. She quickly realized she missed the direct client interaction.

“I didn’t get the same satisfaction,” she recalls. “It was more distanced. It wasn’t that hands-on work that I preferred and found inspiring.”

Keyda realized that directly supporting Alaskans in need was important to her both personally and professionally.

When a position opened up at Interior Alaska Center for Nonviolent Living (IACNL), she applied.

Today Keyda uses her personal experiences and stories to drive her passion and work as a program manager at IACNL.

“I love it,” she says. “I don’t regret taking that break because that break led me here and I think this is what I’m supposed to be doing.”

Advocating for Alaskans

Tucked near the center of Fairbanks proper, IACNVL is a nonprofit that provides programs to intervene and prevent domestic violence, sexual assault, suicide, and violent crimes that negatively impact the community and surrounding Interior villages. Its operation includes a 52-bed emergency shelter.

The Center is a recipient of several housing resources offered by AHFC including Housing Vouchers and Survivors Assistance for Escaping Trafficking - known throughout the industry as SAFE-T. Combined, these grants offered to Alaska nonprofits provide both emergency and longer-term housing along with supportive services to survivors of human trafficking.

As a program manager who once personally received support by Alaska Housing Finance Corporation through rent relief, Keyda now works to connect Alaskans in need to resources, shelter, legal support and more.

“I am very grateful and happy that Alaska Housing is able to offer different voucher programs that allow people to be able to focus on other goals without having to worry about where they are going to sleep each night or where their kids are going to be,” she says.

"I've been in the shoes of a lot of the people that we serve and it makes me happy to be here for others, because I know firsthand what it's like."