Giving: Child Crisis Arizona is a Champion for Children and Families

Abuse, neglect and family instability leave deep scars on children, and those wounds often persist from one generation to the next. Thankfully, there are organizations like Child Crisis Arizona (CCA). CCA has worked tirelessly for nearly 50 years to provide safety, hope and opportunity to children and youth throughout Arizona who endure the unimaginable. Through programs focused on prevention, intervention and education, CCA strives to create stronger families and healthier children.

Making an Impact

CCA serves Arizona’s poorest, most vulnerable children and families, many of whom are caught in a cycle of generational abuse and poverty and whose annual income is up to 200% below the federal poverty line. The organization relies on the generosity of donors to fund their $21 million annual operating budget.

In 2017, Larry Pobuda, Executive Vice President & General Manager, introduced the Opus Foundation to CCA. Since then, the Foundation has been a strong supporter of the organization, approving $812,200 in Impact Fund grants and providing a $1,500 Building Community Award.

Much of the Foundation’s early funding supported CCA’s early childhood education programs. More recently, the Foundation awarded two grants totaling $100,000 each in 2022 and 2023 to help fund the construction of CCA’s new Center for Child & Family Wellness in Mesa, AZ. In 2024, an additional $100,000 grant was provided to help furnish the new facility.

The 38,000-square-foot Center for Child & Family Wellness was completed in September 2024. It centralizes CCA’s operations and gives the organization the capacity to significantly increase the number of children and families it serves. In addition to housing CCA’s foster care and adoption programs, wellness classes, counseling services, children’s shelter and community education programs, the center is home to 26 other nonprofits that offer supportive wrap-around services.

“Our Mesa facility is vital to our ability to adequately serve the community,” said Justin Duran, CCA’s Vice President of Development and Communications. “With the space built and paid for, we can give more attention to growing and evolving our programs and services to ensure they continue to meet the most pressing needs in our communities.”

Fostering Success

One of those needs is services for teens aging out of the foster care system. According to Justin, many foster children experience extreme instability and trauma throughout their childhoods, which results in higher high school drop-out rates, homelessness, unemployment and even human trafficking.

“The trauma these young adults may have experienced doesn’t just disappear when they turn 18, yet social services expect them to find a place to live, get a job and become contributing members of society. Not only have these individuals not been given the tools to succeed, they also don’t have a safety net available to them if they struggle,” he said.

To fill this gap, CCA created an extended foster care program that supports those who are 18 to 21 years of age as they transition out of foster care. The program provides independent housing, mental health services and health, education and employment resources. To help fund the program, CCA appealed to donors, including the Opus Foundation.

Of the Foundation’s approved $812,200 in Impact Fund grants for CCA, $300,000 was approved in late 2024 specifically to support the extended foster care program and its related staffing and operational needs. CCA has already received $100,000, which it is using to hire an additional therapist and five specialists; the remainder will be paid equally over the next two years as CCA grows its extended foster care program and the number of young adults it serves.