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December 2025
A Look Back:
Highlights of Advancing The Arizona We Want in 2025
 
Shared Priorities Are Arizona’s Power
 
At the heart of CFA’s work is a guiding truth: the Arizona we want is possible because Arizonans share many core priorities for our future.  Across backgrounds, communities, and experiences, people want many of the same things — for themselves and for all Arizonans. For years, we’ve amplified the public voice through the Gallup Arizona Survey and the Arizona Voters’ Agenda. This year, we took the next step to deepen our impact with Unlocking Potential: Turn Arizona’s Priorities into Economic Gains, showing the returns Arizona can realize by acting on and investing in Arizonans’ shared priorities.
 
 
Top: CFA’s Dr. Sybil Francis poses with fellow
presenters at the MC2026 Scorecard
event in Phoenix.

Bottom: CFA’s Ian Dowdy and Dr. Sybil Francis
join State of Black Arizona CEO Teniqua Broughton
at the Arizona State Capitol to launch the new
Volume V Progress Metrics Dashboard.
 
 
Moving Arizona Forward with Clear, Actionable Insights
 
Strengthening data-driven decision-making across Arizona remained a core priority in 2025, equipping communities, organizations, and leaders with insights to take informed action. Partner-driven work included State of Black Arizona’s Volume V Progress Metrics Dashboard — which provides timely, relevant data to advance opportunities for Black Arizonans — alongside extensive progress collaborations such as supporting Valley of the Sun United Way’s Mighty Change 2026 Scorecard and Greater Phoenix Leadership’s The Peirce Report, Revisited. CFA also developed data tools that complement and build on the Arizona Progress Meters, giving decision makers more ways to explore and apply trusted data.
Where Learning Meets Opportunity for Students, Industry, and Arizona
 
We deepened efforts to ensure students across Arizona have access to high-quality education and strong college and career pathways that prepare them for the future. Through work-based learning programs statewide, students built real skills while making a meaningful difference in their communities– one example being Northern Arizona teens who developed a youth-driven mental health solution through a virtual internship. To expand opportunities even further, we scaled resources and curriculum through Arizona Pathways to Prosperity’s new Resource Hub.  And we continued to meet the needs of both individuals and high-demand industries by supporting workforce initiatives in areas like healthcare and skilled trades.
CFA’s Erin McGehean moderates
a panel at the 2025 WESTMARC
Healthcare Summit.
Guests attended the Blackstone Skilled
Futures launch at South Mountain
Community College, including Sybil Francis,
Chair, President & CEO of CFA.
Students pose with UWNA
President and CEO Liz Archuleta
after receiving awards for their
outstanding contributions.
2025 Southern Arizona Workforce
Leadership Academy Fellows
 
Building a Stronger Workforce Across the State
 
We brought leaders together to share proven practices, strengthen recruitment and retention, and test new ideas that support Arizonans and Arizona’s economy. Southern Arizona Workforce Leadership Academy Fellows unveiled a set of practical strategies to strengthen the region’s workforce, addressing challenges across Pima, Santa Cruz, Cochise, and Yuma Counties. In Northern Arizona, the Good Jobs Network moved into its final phase, and with Local First Arizona, we’re supporting efforts to build a stronger rural talent pipeline to increase wage growth, improve job retention, and expand job quality across multiple industries in five counties.
 
 
 School Participatory Budgeting Expanded to 81 schools across AZ in 2025
 
 
Leaders of All Ages Building Stronger Communities
 
Over the past year, we continued to advance civic engagement statewide — empowering Arizonans, from students to local leaders, to work together on community needs and develop responsive, lasting solutions.
 
School Participatory Budgeting expanded its reach, engaging new schools and communities across Arizona and preparing young people to be informed, empowered civic leaders today and tomorrow.
Arizona students in grades K–12 engaged in innovative civic learning, casting
votes and implementing student-led projects in their schools.
The 2025 LACT Pre-Conference
Session brought Arizonans
together to advance shared
priorities.
 
 
At the 2025 League of Arizona Cities and Towns Pre-Conference Session, more than 100 leaders from across the state joined us to share effective strategies to increase civic participation, build trust between residents and local leaders, and foster the kind of connection that turns local ideas into shared progress.
 
 
 
 2025 Southern Arizona Workforce Leadership Academy Fellows
CFA staff gathered from across the state
at the 2025 staff retreat.
 
 
Give Today to Support Arizona’s Tomorrow
 
Expand our Impact
 
Your support strengthens communities and moves Arizona closer to a future where everyone can thrive.
 
Give in the way that works best for you — whether a one-time gift, multi-year or planned gift, an employer match, a donor-advised fund, or stock — and help advance Arizona’s future.
 
 
 
Center for the Future of Arizona
Center for the Future of Arizona brings Arizonans together
to create a stronger and brighter future for our state.