2006 Leadership Summit

Leadership Summit Press Release (pdf)

FAQ's

What is the purpose of the Summit?
What is the Year 2020 goal?
Why is it important to address these challenges?
How can the businesses get involved?
What are the Collaboration’s Blue Ribbon programs?
What does the Collaboration hope to achieve?

What is the purpose of the Summit?
The Collaboration’s intent is to raise awareness among business and civic leaders of the struggles of the poor, particularly low-wage working individuals and families, and the importance – and feasibility – of increasing prosperity and raising the state’s quality of life. The Collaboration will use this event to set a community goal to do something about it by the year 2020, and offer specific ways for the business community to get involved.

What is the Year 2020 goal?
The Collaboration’s goal is to raise Arizona’s ranking on several key quality of life indicators to above the national average by the Year 2020. The United Way of America’s State of Caring Index that tracks changes in health, safety, education, and economic well-being ranks Arizona 49th in its latest ranking. Notable problems include:

• Declining apartment affordability and homeownership
• Increasing numbers of high school dropouts, teens using drugs, crime and the medically uninsured
• Rising number of families with children headed by single parents

Why is it important to address these challenges?

• The needs are real: The poor are not mere statistics. Nearly half represent children and the elderly - our most vulnerable residents.
• Makes economic sense: Research shows that broad-based well being of residents, along with decreasing poverty, is important for sustaining economic growth.
• Builds community and goodwill: We have lost our interdependence. It is time to rediscover our natural support system - neighbors helping neighbors.
• It’s our responsibility: Many in our community live according to some kind of faith or values that embrace the notion that helping those in need is not simply a matter of charity, but of responsibility and justice.

How can the businesses get involved?
At the City of the Future – 2020 Summit, the Collaboration will unveil its new initiative called AZ LeaderForce (AZLF). Its main purpose is to increase the business sector’s involvement in proven programs and efforts that will support low-wage working individuals and families. AZLF has two parts:

1. AZ LeaderForce Individuals: Engaging a select group of business leaders through an annual process that will inspire, equip and meaningfully involve them in efforts to meet community needs.
2. AZ LeaderForce Companies: Assisting committed businesses that pledge to look at the needs of their own low-wage workers, while encouraging their employees to volunteer with the Collaboration’s Blue Ribbon programs.

What are the Collaboration’s Blue Ribbon programs?
The Collaboration has identified six areas that it believes are essential to creating opportunities for low-wage working families: 1) affordable childcare; 2) youth mentoring; 3) affordable housing; 4) job training; 5) family support (addiction intervention, counseling, etc.); and 6) affordable healthcare alternatives. Working with the Valley of the Sun United Way, the Collaboration will be selecting and showcasing best practice programs each year in each of these six areas that are: 1) innovative; 2) community-based; 3) holistic; 4) collaborating with others; and 5) outcome-focused.

What does the Collaboration hope to achieve?
To increase prosperity for all, the Collaboration believes it will require bold new leadership and a willingness to persevere. It will require a change in the way people and institutions think, behave, and use their resources. Through AZLF, the Collaboration wants to re-establish the ethic of community involvement and social responsibility in a new generation of business leaders. By profiling and working with its growing number of Blue Ribbon programs each year, the Collaboration hopes to call attention to proven programs that are working in our community in an effort to strengthen and expand their impact to serve more.