Prior to 1967, Arizona had one of the highest infant mortality rates in the country. That year, in an effort to reduce the high infant mortality and morbidity rates, Arizona applied for and received a federal demonstration grant. The grant was designed to reduce infant death by transporting critically ill newborns born in rural hospitals into intensive care centers. As a result, there was a dramatic decrease in neonatal mortality. Part of that grant was to provide home based Community Nursing Services to the infants and their families. Community Health Nurses provided follow-up home visits for the NICP infants and their families up to one year of age.

The Project conducted a State‐level environmental scan to develop a more comprehensive picture of the early childhood‐serving environment in Arizona. An effort was made to identify current funds utilized across multiple State agencies that support programs to address the physical, emotional, social, cognitive, and behavioral health of children from birth to eight years of age. This report describes the landscape of systems, programs and other resources currently available in Arizona that are working to address challenges facing young children, birth to age eight, and their families.

Health Start is a neighborhood outreach program that helps high-risk pregnant women obtain early and consistent prenatal care and, for their children, timely immunizations. Its mission is to educate, support, and advocate for families at risk by promoting optimal use of community based family health and education services through the use of community health workers, who live in, and reflect the ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic characteristics of the community they serve.

In order to continue to provide crucial sexual violence prevention and education services to its statewide community, the Arizona Department of Health Services, Sexual Violence Prevention and Education Program began comprehensive planning in November 2006, the second year of a five-year funding cycle. The plan was developed as a means of achieving the vision of a culture that supports healthy, respectful relationships through primary prevention efforts and zero tolerance of sexual violence in Arizona communities.

Vision screening of children, unlike hearing screening, is not currently mandated by Arizona state law. The purpose of this document is to provide information, guidance and recommendations for implementing a vision screening program for children ages 3 and older in school and community settings. This document provides guidance and practical information on the screening process, appropriate screening tools, referral criteria and follow-up procedures.

A number of significant positive and negative economic impacts could result from Pima County's SDCP and related programs, according to an analysis of existing research on large-scale conservation planning undertaken to provide a framework for community decision-making. This report offers no final verdict on the net economic impact of Pima County's current, ambitious initiatives in habitat conservation and growth management. However, it does provide a framework for future assessment and decision-making.

Though the Great Recession may be officially over, all is not well in Arizona. Three years after the collapse of a massive real estate “bubble,” the deepest economic downturn in memory exposed and exacerbated one of the nation’s most profound state fiscal crises, with disturbing implications for Arizona citizens and the state’s long-term economic health.

This brief takes a careful look at the Grand Canyon State’s fiscal situation, examining both Arizona’s serious cyclical budget shortfall—the one resulting from a temporary collapse of revenue due to the recession—as well as the chronic, longer-term, and massive structural imbalances that have developed largely due to policy choices made in better times. This primer employs a unique methodology to estimate the size of the state’s structural deficit and then explores the mix of forces, including the large permanent tax reductions, that created them. It also highlights some of the dramatic impacts these fiscal challenges are having on service-delivery as well as on local governments. The brief suggests some of the steps state policymakers must take to close their budget gaps over the short and longer term. First, it urges better policymaking, and prods leaders to broaden, balance, and diversify the state’s revenue base while looking to assure a long-haul balance of taxing and spending. And second, it recommends that Arizona improve the information-sharing and budgeting processes through which fiscal problems are understood—so they may ultimately be averted.

A series of 51 individual “stakeholder” interviews and two focus groups conducted with members of the Pima County business community in fall, 2001, documented significantly divided opinion about the likely economic impacts of the county’s Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan (SDCP). The results of the stakeholder inquiries were striking. Only one major finding reflected consensus, while several others revealed sharp differences of opinion in the business community about the potential economic impacts of the SDCP and associated initiatives.

What do we mean by "shoes waiting to drop?" We mean the trends that are already well under way — but that we can't quite see yet. These trends could overwhelm us if we don't spot them now and aggressively use our knowledge to plot our course for the future. The five "shoes" highlighted in the report are: A Talent Shake Up; Latino Education Dilemma; A Fuzzy Economic Identity; Lost Stewardship; and The Revenue Sieve.