Good work for Arizona
Elders and youth are among the fastest growing populations in Arizona. This information helped influence the Arizona Community Foundation’s decision to spearhead the Good Work for Arizona partnership. The goal is to support in an ongoing manner the capacity of Arizona organizations and institutions to leverage the potential of older Arizonans to address community issues.
The foundation seeks to expand and strengthen the Good Work for Arizona network by building on the coordinated efforts between the foundation, Community Experience Partnership (CEP) participants and the partners in the area of promoting older adult civic involvement. The foundation’s approach is infusing a culture change in Arizona organizations and institutions about what this important demographic shift will mean for their operations. It also is providing a vehicle to amass resources around the partnership's shared commitments on aging, civic engagement and community issues relative to the broad goals of strengthening conditions for individuals and families in Arizona.
The Arizona Community Foundation is leading a process that employs a series of activities and strategies working toward its goals by:
- Expanding the Good Work for Arizona network by engaging existing project partners as catalysts for promoting and employing the civic engagement of older adults to improve outcomes for Arizona’s communities.
- Telling a new story about long-term community change that benefits all ages through the meaningful, intentional and progressive civic engagement of older adults
- Building capacity at both the network and local community site levels to implement specific demonstration projects that build on the specific Communities for All Ages framework (4 to 5 sites), and other nonprofit capacity building and mature workforce development initiatives across the state
Communications and awareness
The foundation is engaging in an approach that focuses initially on communications and awareness building in the public, philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. To support this, important emphasis is being placed on maintaining and building on local partnerships established during the assessment phase of this work. Activities comprise several foundation and partner convenings including the Governor’s Council on Aging, a donor/board member forum at the foundation, and an Arizona Grantmaker’s Forum.
Supporting this effort, the foundation announced its new round of Communities for All Ages grants and training to Arizona nonprofits, as well as an RFP incorporating the civic engagement of older adults into its guiding principles as a pillar of community development strategy. Workshops across the state were conducted that laid out the core values and framework of Communities for All Ages and the civic engagement of older adults.
In July, the foundation received a grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service and was awarded 18 AmeriCorps VISTA members. These members work with existing staff of foundation regional offices in Prescott, Flagstaff, Sierra Vista and Yuma—which serve all counties outside the Phoenix metropolitan area. Work there is focused on developing community funds to connect nonprofits to foundation strategy initiatives. A component of their training and work involves engaging older adults in community work.
Foundation partners—such as the Alliance for Arizona nonprofits—are following up with additional nonprofit town hall sessions in an effort that complements the foundation’s nonprofit capacity building grant cycle for 2009.
Through the foundation’s Communities for All Ages initiative and its statewide AmeriCorps VISTA project, a technical assistance delivery system for nonprofits, corporations and individuals is being developed and shared. A goal of Good Work for Arizona is to connect its work with other various programs and activities such as:
- Arizona Community Foundation—AmeriCorps VISTA, Communities for All Ages, Education Initiative
- Piper Trust—Next Chapter, Respectability and Experiences Matters
- Governor’s Council on Aging—Mature Workforce Development
- Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits—Experience Senior Corps Arizona, Nonprofit Capacity Building
Additional partners leverage the education sector and include Maricopa Community Colleges, Yavapai College, Prescott College and Arizona State University. Of equal importance is the engagement of additional local funding partners and their designated sites through cross-sector collaborations that facilitate mobilization of older adults in the nonprofit, education and governmental agency sectors.
Opportunities and challenges
Because the Arizona Community Foundation is a statewide philanthropy and strives to provide service to a broad and diverse area, that breadth of range creates both opportunities and barriers to a successful effort. And, as with other participating CEP participants, this project is highly collaborative and the project partners, while sharing common goals, also have distinct priority areas that must be pulled together.
