Our Guiding Principles

We seek to provide rigorous, equity-focused evaluations in community health, nutrition security and education to address the soci-political determinants of health and reduce health disparities. We deliver evidence-based insights to support community strengths and assets through accessible evaluation, reports and research. We support collaborative partnerships that build and sustain resilient communities.

Arizona’s Cultural Richness

In Arizona, we have tremendous cultural and demographic richness. The evaluations we oversee are designed to work in a wide variety of communities, and be responsive to Arizona social, cultural, and linguistic norms.

  • Within and overlapping Arizona’s borders are 22 federally recognized tribal nations (Figure 1).
  • Thirty-one percent of Arizonans are Hispanic (90% of Mexican descent)2
  • Four urban areas [Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff and Yuma] have populations >50,000 – the rest of Arizona is classified by varying degrees of rurality, from moderate-sized cities and towns to small towns with populations < 2,500 residents.
  • Arizona contains border communities, agricultural communities, communities of older adults (“snowbirds”) and a rich variety of religious and spiritual traditions.

Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that the lands on which we evaluate are the ancestral homelands of indigenous peoples who have stewarded this land since time immemorial. The University of Arizona is a borderlands university located on the territory of the Hohokam, the Tohono O’odham, and the Pascua Yaqui peoples. We honor and celebrate the cultures and contributions of the Indigenous people throughout the State of Arizona.5

References

  1. Our data on Hispanic population come from the Pew Research Center, 2014 population statistics by state. https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/states/state/az
  2. Our data on Arizona rural population comes from https://ers.usda.gov/
  3. Our tribal homelands map comes from the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona: https://itcaonline.com/maps/
  4. Our land acknowledgement statement is modified from this one written by the Community Gardens of Tucson organization: https://www.communitygardensoftucson.org/about/