Philanthropy Focus: Child Crisis Arizona

Child Crisis Arizona’s mission is a simple, yet crucial one – to provide children and youth in Arizona a safe environment, free from abuse and neglect, by creating strong and successful families.

One of the most rewarding parts of philanthropy is seeing nonprofit partners grow, evolve, and have an even greater impact in our community than ever before. One such organization is Child Crisis Arizona, with which we began a partnership through The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation many moons ago, in 2013. At that time, we worked with both Child Crisis Center and Crisis Nursery—two outstanding, local organizations that merged in 2015 to become the Child Crisis Arizona we know and love today.

Torrie Taj (CEO Child Crisis Arizona) and I were among the 25 Outstanding Women in Business of 2022 named by Phoenix Business Journal

Child Crisis Arizona’s mission is a simple, yet crucial one – to provide children and youth in Arizona a safe environment, free from abuse and neglect, by creating strong and successful families. Since that 2015 merger, under the visionary leadership of Torrie Taj, the organization has more than doubled in size and scope of services which include but are not limited to offering high quality early education; behavioral and mental health support; access to basic needs (clothing, shoes, diapers); six shelter homes for children and youth, newborns to age 21, who need care through the foster care system; child wellness exams and immunizations…the list goes on.

While this explosive growth in services has allowed Child Crisis Arizona to serve a greater number of children and families, it has also caused staff to be displaced and dispersed across the Valley to make space for additional classrooms and shelter beds. With this challenge in mind, we were so proud to continue our partnership with Child Crisis Arizona earlier this year with a $1 million award to support not only the organization’s ongoing operational costs, but also, with great excitement, the opening of its highly anticipated Center for Child & Family Wellness.

The Center for Child & Family Wellness will centralize Child Crisis Arizona’s operations and become the new home to the critical services listed above and then some. Think space for art and music therapy, a foster care and adoption wing, a full-service kitchen to provide meals to clients, and a counseling support center. It will truly be a transformative space and community beacon for children and families in Arizona.

Congratulations to Torrie and the incredible team at Child Crisis Arizona – keep up the phenomenal work!