The Arizona Injury Surveillance and Prevention Plan establishes objectives and proposes strategic actions to avoid injury. The actions proposed are based on the knowledge that many seemingly accidental injuries could have been prevented by taking precautions, avoiding unnecessary risks, and/or enacting and enforcing laws such as drunk driving laws or seat belt laws.

The Arizona Department of Health Services offers a vast array of programs that benefit every state resident and visitor. I like to remind people that we are with you from birth to death. In fact, we provide certificates for both events through our Office of Vital Records. If you drink the water, eat the food, require hospital or nursing home care or use a child care facility, the Arizona Department of Health Services has touched your life in some important way. Assuring the quality of our food and water, setting standards for hospitals and nursing home and child care, maintaining the State’s vital records, screening newborns for genetic diseases, protecting the public from disease and overseeing the state’s mental health system and Arizona State Hospital are just some of the duties of the Arizona Department of Health Services.

This report is a result of the "2002 Equitable Treatment of Minority Youth" report produced by the Arizona Supreme Court Commission on Minorities in the Judiciary. One of the recommendations issued in that report was to create an annual report card to assess progress on the reduction of over-representation of minority youth in the juvenile justice system. The decision has been modified to produce a report card every other year. The first report serves as a baseline for the second, third and fourth report cards. The intent is to illustrate the current situation, provide a basis for future comparison, highlight areas of special concern and compare these results with the prior report card.

This report represent the efforts of the Commission since its reactivation under a new mandate in May of 1994. The goal of this work group is to develop policies and programs that will facilitate the growth of minority applicants seeking appointments as judges, commissioners, judges pro tempore, special masters, clerkships, and internships.

Shortly after selecting Judge Roxanne Song Ong as Commission Chair and reconstituting its membership, Chief Justice McGregor directed the Commission to develop a strategic plan with projects that seek to enhance fairness and equity in the judiciary and present a report at the December 2006 meeting of the Arizona Judicial Council.

The conference looked beyond the juvenile justice system proper to examine the roots and potential solutions to the over representation of minority youth in Arizona’s juvenile justice system. Through this important undertaking and the dedication of the Commission on Minorities, Arizona demonstrated once again its important role as a leader in shaping the future of the juvenile justice system.

Since the release of the CDC’s recommendations to improve preconception health in 2006, the Arizona Department of Health Services and its partners across the state have made steady progress in improving awareness about preconception health and increasing access to preconception health services. The Bureau of Women’s and Children’s Health assessed internal programs serving women and children to identify opportunities for integrating preconception health education and services into program policies and procedures.