Over 92,000 people between the ages of 16 and 24 in metro Phoenix who are neither working nor in school present a staggering challenge to the area. These Opportunity Youth (OY) have a lifetime taxpayer burden of $27.3 billion and a lifetime social burden of $218.5 billion. Nationally, the 6.7 million Opportunity Youth have a potential taxpayer burden of $1.56 trillion and an aggregate social burden of $4.75 trillion. Figures like this signal a clear call to action. National and local businesses, along with leading academic institutions have the opportunity to emerge as leaders in decreasing the taxpayer and social costs of OY while simultaneously helping their own bottom line. The opportunity of a collaboration between leading business and leading academic institutions on the issue of OY creates a win-win for the national and state economy as well as the welfare of all citizens.

Early childhood is a critical period for every infant. Raising healthy, happy children is a challenge for every parent. Helping families navigate the first few years of life is the goal of home visiting, a statewide network of free programs that promotes family health and education from pregnancy through early childhood. The network provides nurses, social workers and other professionals to answer expectant and new parents’ questions about such topics as nutrition, health and discipline – in the privacy of their own home.

Early childhood is a critical period for every infant. Raising healthy, happy children is a challenge for every parent. Helping families navigate the first few years of life is the goal of home visiting, a statewide network of free programs that promotes family health and education from pregnancy through early childhood. The network provides nurses, social workers and other professionals to answer expectant and new parents’ questions about such topics as nutrition, health and discipline – in the privacy of their own home.

The biggest economic trend in Arizona over the last decade has been the flat line on various measures of prosperity relative to the national average. Arizona always has been below the national average on measures such as the average wage, earnings per employee, and per capita personal income. However, Arizona compares less favorably now than it did in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The war on poverty during the 1960s succeeded, cutting the national poverty rate in half by the early 1970s. Since then, however, the poverty rate of Americans under the age of 65 has increased. The poverty rate has climbed particularly among children; compared to an average of 15.5 percent during the 1971-to-1975 economic cycle, the poverty rate in each of the three cycles since 1982 averaged between 18 percent and 21 percent. One-in-five children lives in poverty and Arizona has consistently experienced higher poverty rates than the national average for all age groups except seniors.