Phoenix is booming in a bunch of different ways. The tech sector is exploding, thanks to an influx of investment by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Intel and others. Our healthcare industry is expanding to meet the needs of a growing — and aging — population. Phoenix is becoming a hub for new-economy industries such as […]
Tracy Baynes’ original education was in oceanography. So how did she end up starting an education nonprofit in Arizona? Baynes came to Arizona to work at BioSphere 2 a couple of decades ago and was moonlighting doing semester-at-sea programs for students, as well as instructing for the National Outdoor Leadership School, or NOLS, for short. […]
Many people think that people who are experiencing homelessness are always experiencing homelessness, or close to it. But nothing could be further from the truth, especially when the economic factors of the past few years come into play. While rising property values are great for home and property owners, that upward pressure has raised rental […]
A new initiative by Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust funds arts organizations throughout the Valley. There’s an old saying that if you give someone a fish, they will eat for a day. But if you teach someone to fish, they’ll eat for the rest of their lives. That philosophy is somewhat unofficially at the core of […]
Cloud Covered Streets Provides a Ray of Sunshine for People Experiencing Homelessness Robert Thornton grew up wanting to be a baseball player, but thanks to injury, his dream didn’t pan out. So he ended up, as he puts it, “stuck in a rut for about seven to 10 years, just bartending and thinking, ‘This isn’t […]
Kidney transplant brings family closer together This is a story of giving part of oneself to others. Literally. Brad Nagel is a mortgage banker in Phoenix with a large extended family. About 20 years ago, he was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease. It was a fluke — he had just had a daughter and wanted […]
Valley of the Sun YMCA Print Studio Provides Work Training for Underprivileged Children You know all those signs and posters and stickers promoting social distancing? Those things are expensive! For a nonprofit organization, they can be downright cost-prohibitive — especially if your nonprofit has multiple locations Valleywide, all large facilities with hundreds of employees, volunteers […]
notMYkid helps young people battle addiction and the effects of the pandemic It was just one pill. But it created one of the most heartbreaking tragedies imaginable. Megan Macintosh’s 18-year-old son Chase went to see friends one night in January 2021. She didn’t fully understand the ramifications at the time, but Chase had started experimenting […]
GPEC and partners focus on expanding Arizona’s economic base When we think about economic development, we tend to think in terms of home runs. Landing a big new industry for the state. Luring a company from another market. Opening a new manufacturing facility or tech lab. The kind of stuff that makes for good headlines. […]
Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona builds its first 3D-printed house in the U.S. In or around the year 1440, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. It was one of the tickets out of the Dark Ages for humanity, allowing for the mass production of books for the first time and enabling people to expand their […]
