AWA began in late 2000 when concerned citizens and low-income working people in Anchorage heard of the success of organizing drives of seasonal workers and farm workers in Oregon. Low-income working people, determined to launch an organizing effort of their own that enabled them to build a collective solution, banded together with others in the community who had previously attempted to organize to change conditions in low-income communities. Students, teachers, professionals, clergy and other concerned residents joined in the effort on a volunteer basis to fight for a permanent solution to poverty.

AWA was founded as a free and voluntary unincorporated private membership association of the area’s low-income workers. AWA’s uniquely successful method of Systemic Organizing enables anyone who dares to care and is willing to work to build an organization that unites low-income workers with allies from all walks of life who are also affected by the economic problems faced by low-income workers.