Greater Phoenix Forward: Sustaining and Enhancing the Human Services Infrastructure

Reports and Publications

September 2008

Robert Ashcraft, John Hall, Barbara Robles, Jose Ashford, Teri Kennedy, Elizabeth Segal, David Becerra, Flavio Marsiglia, Timothy Tyrrell, Debra Friedman, Rob Melnick, Randy Virden, Nora Gustavsson, Tanya Nieri, Nancy Welch, Tom Rex



Maricopa County has experienced remarkable population growth for decades, and will continue to do so. But while expanding metro areas tend to pay close attention to physical infrastructure—diligently budgeting for roads, sewers, schools and the like—there is often a relative lack of attention to meeting the future demands for human services.



Greater Phoenix Forward, by ASU’s College of Public Programs and Morrison Institute, aims to help fill that gap. It offers community and policy leaders and human services practitioners the latest data and new perspectives for understanding the Valley’s human services infrastructure and a “big picture” of future needs.



The report contains:



    Data describing human services structures and functions in Maricopa County

    Trends for the populations who provide and use these services

    Analyses of how to sustain the present level and quality of human services

    A glimpse of how current service trends could play out by 2012

    A presentation of critical policy challenges for the future



Relying on the expertise from throughout the College of Public Programs, this report analyzes 12 critically important topics, including children and families, poverty, substance abuse, and Latinos.



Major support was provided by Valley of the Sun United Way and the City of Phoenix, with additional funding from Alcoa Foundation, SRP, APS, and Downtown Phoenix Partnership.