By Sierra Morse, Communications and Marketing Strategist
Between what a family needs and what they receive, there is often a gap unrelated to whether the right program exists. The gap sometimes exists because the right people haven't met yet.
Arizona has many different systems intended to help families: behavioral health and child welfare, early childhood education and housing, workforce
development, victim services, and tribal community supports. What those systems lack is connectivity between and among themselves. Families feel that gap most acutely, leading them to move from program to program, retelling their story each time, hoping they find someone who knows where to send them next.
On May 12, Prevent Child Abuse Arizona took a direct step toward closing that gap with the inaugural Provider Connection Expo. Supported by the Arizona Department of Child Safety Office of Prevention and the Maricopa Family Support Alliance, the event brought together 82 organizations and hundreds of professionals around a simple premise: systems only work when their parts are connected.
Carol Lopinski (Maricopa Family Support Alliance) leads an activity on "Social Connections", one of the five Protective Factors
Providers connect with each other at the Maricopa County Public Health Booth
PCAAZ Executive Director Claire Louge put it simply in her welcome: "The stronger our relationships, the stronger our families."
The providers in the room understood exactly what she meant. Home visitors and Head Start educators sat alongside postpartum mental health specialists, fatherhood program coordinators, domestic violence advocates, refugee health workers, foster care agencies, family resource center staff, behavioral health providers, and mobile health outreach teams. Separately, each serves a slice of a family's life. Together, they represented something closer to the whole picture. That wholeness was the point.
The expo was structured around the Protective Factors Framework. This research-based approach centers on the conditions families need to grow and thrive: parental resilience, social connections, knowledge of parenting and child development, concrete support in times of need, and children's social and emotional competence. Each organization's table featured a poster outlining their top services, eligibility requirements, and geographic service area, giving providers a concrete, low-barrier starting point for identifying referral partners they hadn't known before.
Throughout the event, members of the planning committee facilitated activities tied to the Protective Factors Framework, giving attendees a shared language and conceptual common ground.
"Events like these remind us how powerful collaboration can be when we come together with a shared purpose," said Elena Zavalza of notMYkid.
For many attendees, the most valuable outcome wasn't a handout or a presentation, but a conversation with someone across the table they'd never thought to call. When providers know each other, families stop falling through the cracks. They can more easily get the help they need, and a real chance at a purposeful and happy life with hope for the future.