Factors Contributing to Poverty
- Low Wages- State job forecasts for 2008 by the Arizona Department of Economic Security predict that half of the state’s workforce will be employed in either tourism or retail trade at an average wage of about $12 per hour, or less than $25,000 per year.
- Education - According to research, only one out of ten individuals in the bottom income quintile have a chance to get out of poverty without appropriate education, and Arizona has had the highest high school drop out rate in the nation.
- Affordable Housing - The 2000 Census reports that 16 percent of existing homeowners and 30 percent of renters pay 35 percent or more of their income for housing, a level that often disqualifies residents with landlords and mortgage lenders as too great a risk.
- Health Care - St. Luke’s Health Initiatives reports that Arizona’s uninsurance rate in 2000 was one of the highest in the nation at 16 percent or 805,000 people without health coverage.
- Child Care - Families with a child under 5 spend an average of $325 per month on child care, according to a national Urban Institute study. Low-income families spend $1 of every $6 earned on child care.
The Need for Collaboration
There are many organizations and efforts working toward good causes but many operate ineffectively and are underresourced. There is also a considerable duplication of efforts. Thus, there is a need for both broader community-wide mobilization and a consolidation of efforts.
The Need for Nonprofit Accountability
Our community also needs to increase the accountability, and hence credibility, of social service efforts and results. There is the need for a mediating “voice of reason” to urge those with resources (human and financial) to invest in “what works” or show a better impact.
United Ways across the country have been working to do this by identifying and building on community strengths and assets that will impact communities through meaningful results. For example, the Valley of the Sun United Way states that the Results That Matter Fund is the best way to address the issues that matter most in our community. The Collaboration sees an opportunity to highlight and promote this work, as well as expand on it.
The Need for Leaders
Arizona Republic columnist Jon Talton, in an article entitled “The Search Goes On For Leaders With Passion,” talks about the obvious need to grow new leaders, particularly from the business world:
What's missing are enough leader companies... Anyway, we have leader CEOs. They're living part of the year in north Scottsdale and sending their money ane passion back home. Phoenix (in the past) was made into a city by leader companies and CEOs who passionately loved it. We're still living off their legacy; what's the answer (for the future)? Grow new leaders.
Leadership development and the promotion of ethics and social responsibility are missing in our community. This is a niche the Collaboration can fill.
The Need for Volunteers
The Points of Light Foundation found that only 24% of Arizonans volunteer compared to the 46.8% who volunteer in the highest ranking state of Utah. While we may have difficulty making a direct impact on broad policy changes, we can certainly make an immediate difference through recruiting and developing today’s leaders and volunteers one person at a time.
The Collaboration believes that by increasing attention and involvement in effective programs with proven results, our community will begin to see improvements in various key quality of life indicators over time. The Collaboration will use the United Way of America’s State of Caring Index to track these changes. This Index is a quality of life barometer that incorporates 36 indicators in the following areas:
- Economic and Financial Well Being
- Education
- Health
- Voluntarism/Charity/Civic Engagement
- Safety
- Natural Environment and Other Factors
Taken in their entirety, the state of Arizona currently falls in the bottom quartile of all states on the State of Caring Index.
As the United Way of America’s State of Caring Index shows above, Arizona has
hovered near the bottom over the last decade. Notable problems include: housing distress, increasing numbers of high school dropouts, teens using
drugs, crime and the medically uninsured, and the rising number of families
with children headed by single parents.
However, recent findings suggest that some progress has been made. Forbes ranked Arizona 36th on its “Best States for Business” ranking in 2009.
This ranking measures six vital categories for businesses: costs, labor supply,
regulatory environment, current economic climate, growth prospects, and
quality of life. However, the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2009 “Kids Count” report ranks Arizona 40th in the nation on 10 indicators of child well being,
including education, death rates, and poverty.
While conditions are slightly improving, more individual involvement is needed. Please consider doing what you personally can or join us in our efforts!
The Economic Return on Addressing Poverty
Research by CEO’s for Cities and the Milken Institute has identified six factors and policies that boost the economic prosperity of entire communities. They are:
- Education level
- Science and technology activity
- Export-oriented industries
- Entrepreneurial initiative
- Innovation across industries and sectors
- Reduction of poverty and inequality
The Collaboration agrees and has taken up this ambitious sixth challenge of increasing the overall well being of residents and decreasing poverty, but how?
St. Luke’s Health Initiatives suggests practical ways to build healthy, resilient communities:
- Resilience grows through natural caring relationships.
- It starts with strengthening the natural helping institutions from the bottom up.
- Power responds to pressure, be an advocate.
- Build social support through peer-to-peer learning networks.
- Disappear into leadership, encourage the light in others.
Is Our Problem Too Big or is Our Will Too Small?
For years we’ve approached social needs “globally,” investing millions in top-down governmental solutions. But increasingly we’re rediscovering our nation’s “natural immune system,” neighbors helping neighbors.
Finding Grassroots Solutions
More private charity is being dispensed by neighborhood leaders who are most in touch with the poor, ensuring greater accountability between sponsors and recipients.
What government program, like the local Help4Kidz, has provided hands-on service to 40,000 homeless, abused or abandoned kids and adults since 1995 on a $187K annual budget?
What government drug and alcohol program, like our partner Women in New Recovery, has a 70 percent recovery rate, employs 99 percent of its clients, and pays for 95 percent of its expenses with participant fees?
The Collaboration’s mission is to connect leaders, spot services “that work,” and encourage multi-sector investment in effective agencies like these.
Our Track Record
Through events, summits and targeted technical assistance, the Collaboration has proven that the community is willing to respond.
The Collaboration has helped build the capacity of over 100 faith and community-based agencies in these areas:
- Upgrading staff skills, strategic planning, fundraising, and marketing/public relations
- Developing non-profit boards and other organizational improvements
- Coordinating approaches to providing services and avoiding gaps and duplication
- Establishing partnerships with other non-profits, business, government and philanthropy
