Arizona Organizing Project - Arizona Community Foundation

Grant Application

Description of Project and Services:

A. Summary

Mission: Develop and nurture healthy, effective and powerful peer organizations of homeless and
formerly homeless individuals by utilizing tools drawn from the best community organizing and
recovery model curriculum. AZOP’s belief is that the combination of these two forms of education,
united with targeted community resources and heightened attention to peer development
unleashes human spirit, dignity, and value in each person in partnership with communities.

In 2009, Arizona Organizing Project (AZOP) began gathering support and resources to demonstrate
a popular education approach to end chronic poverty while building a healthier and thriving
population in Arizona. With a specific focus on people who live in chronic poverty and suffer
homelessness AZOP aims to find and strengthen these human resources by teaching and
developing skills to create power. With increased confidence and genuine tools, formerly homeless
individuals can and do take action to change and dramatically improve their destiny. Our model
places homeless participants at the center of their succession plan and relieved them of the label
and job of being “recipient”. An important stage of recovery in our program is that the experts in
homelessness advance to serve as Interns and teach leadership skills that help others build a
sustainable and independent life. This unique format of peer education and support has proven
successful not only in saving lives, but has created a strong and lasting social fabric of meaningful
support. Our program has assisted formerly homeless individuals reach the goal of genuine self
sustainability while yielding a renewed and viable commitment to community. Continued and
consistent financial support for AZOP will transform lives in Arizona communities, reduce the
number of chronically homeless individuals and increase the employment rate among the formerly
homeless population, which will result in greater stability to Arizona in general. We aim to reduce
the number of chronically homeless in Phoenix by 10% by the end of 2012, while creating a
strategic coordinated community-wide plan to end homelessness within 7 years.

Field work through these programs accomplishes our mission:

1. Internship Program
2. Neighborhood Leadership Institute
3. Recovery Model Services & Housing for Formerly Homeless Interns
4. Direct Services: Food, Kitchen space, Referrals & Computer access
5. Social Enterprise (currently in development are a bicycle repair business, community
gardens, raising fresh produce, sewing and crochet creations)
6. Peer Group Organizing (5 groups)
-Jefferson Street Gentleman’s Association - Senior men
-Madison Street Veterans Association - Veterans group

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 -Capitol Mall Fellows - Former inmates
-Women of Wealth, WOW - Homeless and formerly homeless Women
-Phoenix Street Life - Homeless Street Leaders

B. Project Purpose

The opportunity we have is to create viable pathways out of chronic homelessness. We believe that
the solution to our problem lies within the shared experiences of ordinary people: the homeless,
those who work to aid the homeless, and their collective wisdom. We use a recovery empowerment
model curriculum that provides an opportunity for those with behavioral health issues, mental
illness, or the affects of homelessness to heal and grow. By generating community partnerships
with those dedicated to end homelessness, we lead community organizing efforts of people who are
homeless with those who want to help. We use a recovery model curriculum that provides an
opportunity to heal areas of human frailty that allowed homelessness to occur. We teach and fortify
skills in all participants, to listen, learn, and foster an environment of empowerment, respect and
dignity for themselves and others. Where we restore and rebuild community involvement by
engaged citizens who were formerly homeless and those in a position to provide support,
knowledge increases for everyone, peer involvement develops, and our Arizona communities
advance from a position of weakness to strength.

Arizona Organizing Project needs financial support to do this work and respond to the increasing
numbers of participants. As we have advanced awareness in the general community we have found
there has been a greater demand for our training, development, and support services. Our efforts
are working and we are building our capacity to keep our commitment to assist homeless people we
meet, but this success has upped the ante for our stakeholders in the community. We have
transformed our office space into an Intern residence and help desk while still tending to the needs
of new members; we provide direct assistance with services to a growing number of people daily.
As such, our staff is in need of office space. Some programs are operating and growing, while our
Social Enterprise Development program needs financial support to reach completion. In partnership
with the Recovery Empowerment Network we seek to expand our effectiveness to meet the needs
of our members in recovery, yet with every step of expansion there are new obligations of support.
Our outreach must continue and to do so we need financial partners to share responsibilities, build
programs, and expand our accessibility with another location.

AZOP’s pathways out of the homeless condition depend on core programs:

1) Internship Program: Designed to provide a stable living environment for people who are
currently homeless, we incorporate hands on leadership development in neighborhood
organizing and public and private life skills development. Responsibilities include conducting
relational meetings throughout the neighborhood, participating as peer support specialist,
leadership development training, and creating and leading community service projects.
2) Neighborhood Leadership Institute: The cornerstone of the institute is an internship program
which develops a cadre of neighborhood leaders and organizers who will create grassroots

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 neighborhood organizations that transform the health and well-being of their communities and
its members.
3) Recovery Model Services and Housing for Formerly Homeless Interns: Personal discovery and
empowerment are essential for holistic wellness and healing from the inside out. Through
modeling and coaching people in supportive listening and responsible leadership, our interns
learn the importance of recognizing their core gifts and develop tools necessary for healthy
esteem of self and others. Recovery empowerment practices a peer-run approach to recovery
from homelessness and all that it entails.
4) Direct Services: Food, Kitchen Space, Referrals and Computer Access: We offer referrals for
people experiencing homelessness to social service organizations that provide access to food,
clothing, health, mental health, housing and other services. We provide weekly wellness checks
through the sponsorship of ASU Nurses. We also offer access to computers, the internet, and
printing for interns and participants. We offer instruction in career development skills, such as
resume-building, interview readiness, and assistance to secure public benefits.
5) Social Enterprise Development: We view social enterprise development as a unique
opportunity for individual and collective leadership to cause economic social change. We work
with people currently living in chronic poverty with a desire and aptitude to be social
entrepreneurs and create partnerships with companies and community leaders to mentor and
teach job skills. The work of social entrepreneur partnerships create enterprises that improve
the common good and solve a social problem in a new, lasting, and effective way that offers
greater sustainability than traditional approaches. AZOP peers have launched a bicycle repair
business, community gardens and fresh produce, (thanks to Tigermountain Foundation and
Phoenix Clean and Beautiful) and sewing and crochet classes with assistance from WOW and
ASU Fine Arts.
6) Peer Group Organizing: We organize and support peer groups for people living in chronic
poverty and currently associated with social service agencies. While well intended, social
service agencies become increasingly dominant in the lives of homeless people and clients often
feel that agencies are not accountable to them. Peer groups are the platform from which the
chronically poor can speak and act on matters important to them. These groups build a
foundation for members to effectively partner with the social service agencies to work together
to end chronic poverty and build healthy and thriving communities.

C. Assessment

Our primary objective is to end chronic poverty in Arizona by providing a participative and
inclusive environment where peer groups of people living in chronic poverty successfully
collaborate with social service agencies and actively transform our Arizona communities to
sustainable health and prosperity. In order to reach this goal we must organize the people most
affected by the conditions of poverty and balance the power between those who are paid to
manage and paid to live, with those who pay.

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We intend to measure our success in two broad areas: 1. Health and well-being of peer group
participants. 2. Transformation of policies and practices of social service agencies and systems
charged to end poverty and build healthy, thriving communities.

In measuring the individual’s health and well-being we will create a system to document the
length of their homeless and other key indicators of their health and well-being and how those
indicators change through the life of their participation. We are currently doing weekly wellness
checks sponsored by ASU Nurses. We intend to partner with a social service provider who has
an understanding of our peer group organizing and education model. This agency would assign
a social worker or sociologist to periodically observe and record the conditions of health and
well-being of at least 50 peer group participants. We plan to utilize standard health indicators
already developed, however one of the key indicators of success is the number and percentage
of participants who find and sustain housing for at least two years.

In measuring the transformation of the policies and practices of social service agencies and
social systems affecting the lives of the homeless, we will track changes that the peer groups
intentionally caused in those agencies and systems. At this time the peer groups are considering
actions in the following areas:

1. Successfully move into new headquarters that is within easy reach and access of our main
target population in central Phoenix and build a 3 year sustainability plan for present and future
growth.

2. All 5 peer groups have credible business and development plans by year end.

3.   The successful completion of strategic plans and execution initiated for 4 new enterprises,
including a bicycle business; community gardens; women’s sewing and crochet business by
March of 2012. 

4.  A legal services and counseling service launched for all our peer partners in English and
Spanish by October of 2011.

5. The completion of a written curriculum that combines AZOP and Recovery Empowerment
Network's  unique approach to community organizing and recovery empowerment model
curriculum by March, 2012 for possible national franchising and distribution.

6. Implementation of assessments by various schools at Arizona State University and Grand

Canyon University in social work, nursing, behavioral health and social justice by September,
2011.

7. Become a nationally recognized model program by January of 2012.

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 D. Organizing Status

In the relatively short time that the Arizona Organizing Project has been established we are
proud to say that our efforts have been effective in connecting with and engaging hundreds of
people currently homeless in being involved in sustainable solutions to end their homelessness.
We have been effective at communicating and demonstrating our services and commitment to
ending homelessness in Arizona, with that success, the need for those same services has
escalated well beyond our projections. We need to expand our campus, add office space, and
intend to create a multipurpose community space for our programming. With growth we face
the need for expansion since demand for services has outgrown our 2010 facilities. We believe
this move is sustainable due to our partnership with Recovery Empowerment Network and
other organizations and because we have dedicated staff of two employees, one partner, and
one intern to secure this funding. However, if we find that we are not able to sustain this level
of growth we would go to a smaller or virtual office arrangement to subtract overhead before
we would cut funding from services.

E. Budget

The budget funding we have committed to AZOP for this fiscal year is $463,000. We have
engaged in a grant writing campaign to request for the project/program expenses approximately
$700,000. including the Pakis Family Foundation

Expenses for the project/program including line items are located on the attached budget.

Priority funding for our organization is always program and services.

Attachments:

a. IRS determination letter

b. IRS Form 990 tax return
c. Organizational operating budget
d. List of current Board of Directors