 
Positive Youth Development State and Local Collaboration
Demonstration Projects
Fiscal Year 2005 Highlights: Arizona
Local community: Murphy School District, Phoenix
About 90 percent of residents are Latino in this urban neighborhood surrounded by industrial zones and a freeway. The collaboration wants to encourage members of the community—including youth, adults, businesses, and schools—to look at young people as assets, resources, and partners. Working with a core set of about 75 youth, the project is giving them leadership skills and getting them involved with the community. Instead of creating programs for youth, collaborators have asked young people to identify and map the things they consider important. In the end, collaborators aim to show that young people can contribute positively to their neighborhoods and communities.
Partners:
Governor’s
Division for Community and Youth Development (grantee agency)
Institute
of Cultural Affairs (lead local partner)
Tumbleweed
Center for Youth Development (Runaway and Homeless Youth grantee)
WHEEL
Council (Wholistic Health, Education, and Empowerment for Life)
Valle
de Sol
Campfire
USA Greater Arizona Council
In Fiscal Year 2005, the Arizona project
- Worked to improve police presence in the neighborhood
- Convened meetings with parents, families, youth groups, and businesses
- Created an identity and logo for the project, naming it “Committed
to Murphy’s Youth,” or “Comprometido con los Jovenes
de Murphy”
- Attended a 3-day meeting for community stakeholders, partners, youth, and school administrators, in which participants discussed ways to work together to help youth and boost community development
Challenges to the collaboration project’s work include
- Communicating with parents, many of whom speak only Spanish
- Finding space for concerned community members to meet and youth
to hang out in a neighborhood with no recreation center
- Addressing residents’ concerns about health issues, environmental
hazards, and zoning permits
- Helping young people to feel respected and listened to by their
community