Impact Maker Leaders Kickoff Another Exciting Year

Valley Leadership’s Impact Maker is headed into its fifth year of work, which made it all the more special to have our first-ever Impact Maker Kickoff Event at BARCOA Agaveria in downtown Phoenix in-person. For many of our Team members, this was the first time meeting in-person since before the pandemic!  The energy in the room was terrific. 

Over 25 Impact Maker Team members and strategic partners gathered to connect, learn about the exciting work taking place across Teams, and discuss new opportunities to expand our collective impact.

The goal for the Kickoff was to explore ways to cross-pollinate all the amazing work our Teams are doing to see where work could be scaled.

Currently, we have 10 Impact Teams making measurable progress on Arizona’s most pressing issues: Child Well-Being, Education, Environmental Sustainability, Health, Jobs and the Economy, and Racial Justice. Team members spent time learning about what other Teams are working on and where collaboration could make existing work move faster or grow results. 

For example, the Housing and Healthy Neighborhoods Team wants to think about where trees get planted to provide shade and reduce heat – the main focus of the Tree Equity Team.  Or how the Workforce Development Team could join forces with the Child Well-Being Team on ways to align family resource centers with job supports.  

See more photos from our Impact Maker Kickoff on Facebook.

It was inspiring to see how the tangible work of the last several years can now get applied across many different issues areas through this innovative model.   

We are excited to see where Impact Maker work will go from here!  

Special thank you to all our 75+ Impact Team members, partners and supporters working to accelerate the impressive work done so far.

Curious about our Impact Maker program and its work in the most pressing issues throughout Arizona? Meet the teams and learn more about their work to better our communities!