This report examines community concerns and challenges related to extreme heat during a typical year and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It considers which policies have helped address these concerns and challenges and identifies potential opportunities to further support community members with the challenge of extreme heat. The report focuses specifically on American Indian and Latino/a community members, given their disproportionate risk of experiencing detrimental impacts of extreme heat and overlapping risk factors for negative outcomes of COVID-19.

This report examines community concerns and challenges related to extreme heat during a typical year and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It considers which policies have helped address these concerns and challenges and identifies potential opportunities to further support community members with the challenge of extreme heat. The report focuses specifically on American Indian and Latino/a community members, given their disproportionate risk of experiencing detrimental impacts of extreme heat and overlapping risk factors for negative outcomes of COVID-19.

This report examines community concerns and challenges related to extreme heat during a typical year and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It considers which policies have helped address these concerns and challenges and identifies potential opportunities to further support community members with the challenge of extreme heat. The report focuses specifically on American Indian and Latino/a community members, given their disproportionate risk of experiencing detrimental impacts of extreme heat and overlapping risk factors for negative outcomes of COVID-19.

The purpose of this report is to provide descriptive statistics about firearm deaths in Arizona from 2015 to 2017. Morrison Institute for Public Policy partnered with the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety (CVPCS) to compile, analyze and report on all firearm deaths in a three-year period. Through the mechanisms of data integration and abstraction from death certificates, autopsy and toxicology reports, and law enforcement investigations, the Arizona Violent Death Reporting System (AZ-VDRS) as a National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) partner, seeks to contribute to public understanding of firearm deaths in Arizona. Understanding the scope and nature of firearm deaths at state and local levels informs local and state authorities, policymakers and other stakeholders.

This brief, prepared as part of Morrison Institute for Public Policy's Spotlight on Arizona’s Kids project, outlines evidence-based services that help reduce or prevent child abuse and neglect, including home visiting, parent education, domestic violence services, and substance abuse treatment. Morrison Institute, supported by the Arizona Community Foundation, recently released an interactive story map that provides information on child abuse and neglect prevention resources throughout Arizona. To view this resource visit: https://morrisoninstitute.asu.edu/content/interactive-maps-child-abuse-and-neglect-prevention-resources-arizona

COVID-19 has disrupted almost every facet of American life, but the pandemic’s economic impact has been especially challenging for some of Arizona’s renters. Prior to COVID-19, approximately one in seven Arizonans lived in poverty, which is defined as earning less than $13,000 a year for a single adult and less than $22,000 a year for a three-person family. More Arizonans are one crisis away from severe financial hardship and potential eviction than just Arizonans living in poverty. Preventing an eviction “avalanche” after Arizona’s eviction moratorium ends is critical to the state’s finances because the costs, shouldered in part by taxpayers, associated with eviction and homelessness can be staggering. While financial support from unemployment insurance programs, the federal CARES Act, and Arizona’s eviction prevention fund are helping some Arizonans navigate the initial economic fallout from COVID-19, there are still thousands of Arizonans on the brink who have applied for rental assistance and not received support.

Arizona State University's Morrison Institute policy analyst David Schlinkert is a doctoral student at ASU. He recently traveled to Florence Detention Center to observe an asylum court proceeding for one of his immigration policy classes where he discovered that for many asylum seekers, the purgatory of seeking asylum may seem more like an eternity, and the detention stay more like a prison sentence than any prospect or promise of safety and freedom.

When families are strong and children thrive, the community prospers. The 2019 Arizona Town Halls will address the topic of Strong Families Thriving Children. Town Hall sessions will focus on how we can collectively support families and children so that they are better able to overcome risk factors such as adverse childhood experiences and economic downturns.