FAQs


What Is Chanlyut

Chanlyut (pronounced “shawn-loot,” Dena’ina Athabascan for “new beginnings”) is a two-year residential work-training and educational program offering a new beginning for men who want to become productive members of society and turn around the self-destructive patterns in their lives.

Residents commit to living in the program for two years and pledge to follow three key rules:

  • No alcohol or drug use
  • No threats
  • No violence

Program Philosophy

A Commitment to Change

With no professional staff, Chanlyut provides a structured, yet self-governed path for participants to overcome the challenges of addiction, homelessness and/or reentering society after incarceration. Organized as a family and emphasizing a peer-to-peer philosophy, Chanlyut stresses personal growth through hard work, commitment to change, and taking personal responsibility for one’s actions. Chanlyut is modeled after San Francisco’s successful Delancey Street organization.

What are the specific goals?

  • Empower men with the sense of purpose, self-respect and confidence through hard work and commitment to change in a family environment.

  • Achieve a high-school equivalency diploma, post-secondary school enrollment, and/or formal vocational training

  • Gain skills and experience in several business training schools in order to obtain employment after graduation

What does Chanlyut provide?

Chanlyut is built upon the belief that people can transform themselves by developing self-respect through hard work, commitment to change and taking personal responsibility for their lives. The Chanlyut program offers the following:

  • Community/family-style living where residents learn and practice respect for one’s self and others, earning more responsibilities and privileges over time

  • Room, board and clothing

  • Life skills training, including personal financial management

  • Coping skills to solve problems and learn self-discipline

  • Individualized educational counseling

  • Connection to medical services

  • Sobriety support

  • Vocational training in at least 3 core areas

  • Community involvement and service

Vocational Training

Building Skills for the Future

Chanlyut residents are charged no fees to enter the program, and receive food, housing, clothing, education and all other services at no cost. To assist with program expenses, Chanlyut operates several resident-run small businesses that serve as vocational training schools and provide residents with marketable job skills upon graduation from the program. All revenues from Chanlyut businesses go directly back into the programs and services and help make the Chanlyut mission possible.

As residents near graduation from the program, they work ‘outside’ of the Chanlyut enterprises, but continue to reside in Chanlyut. This gives support as they transition beyond Chanlyut and into the broader community and their new lives.

Chanlyut businesses include:

Mountain View Diner
Chanlyut Catering and Wholesale Foods
Lawn Maintenance and Snow Removal
Building Maintenance and Janitorial Services

Background and History

Chanlyut is based on the Delancey Street model for education and rehabilitation which began in San Francisco, and focuses on active learning—behavior, values, and work skills—rather than therapy.

In 2007, Cook Inlet Tribal Council established the Chanlyut program in the Mountain View neighborhood of Anchorage, and in the fall of 2011, completed the expansion of its residential facility, increasing the program’s capacity to 50 residents.

Generous contributors to the Chanlyut program include the State of Alaska, the Rasmuson Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and numerous Alaskan businesses and individual donors.

How to Apply to Chanlyut

  • Write a letter of interest to:

    Bill Tsurnos, Program Director
    3149 Mountain View Drive
    Anchorage, AK 99501

  • The program director will contact you (or the jail) to conduct an in-person interview to determine whether Chanlyut is right for you and you are right for Chanlyut.

  • There is currently no waiting list for Chanlyut.

  • Men with convictions for arson or sex offenses are not eligible to apply.

  • You must be physically and mentally able to work, take no medications, and be ready to work hard to change your life.

For more information contact:

Bill Tsurnos, Program Director
907.441.0181 or wtsurnos@hotmail.com

 

“I know from experience what it’s like to be caught up in a revolving door. You get in trouble. You have no money. You have no home. You get in trouble again. But I know people can break these patterns. I’ve done it. With the assistance of Chanlyut, I can help show the way for these guys to a better way of life. If they have the desire, we can build on that, and I know they can be successful.”

 

– Bill Tsurnos

Chanlyut Program Director

Delancey Street graduate