Six months after a fall assembly in which hundreds of AMOS leaders pressured state legislators to restore mental health funding, leaders persisted in their quest -- writing an OpEd and testifying before the legislature.

"This isn't just a tax issue. This is an issue of life or death," testified Travis Stanley, pastor of Norwalk Christian Church and leader with AMOS. AMOS criticizes a state law capping the amount counties can collect for such services to the amount they collected in 1996, regardless of whether the county grew since then. "Keeping the cap at 1996 levels — when I was 16 — has killed people. People have lost their lives because of this," he said.

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When neighborhood users of SPICE, a synthetic marijuana with side effects including seizures and disorientation, began walking into traffic and collapsing on church and school grounds, leaders from St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church stepped into the void to identify solutions. Church leaders, in collaboration with Southern Arizona Interfaith, soon launched a campaign to "Give them Food" in addition to collaborating with local law enforcement and county health department to educate the community about the drug and prevent its sale. Over 250 area residents attended one of the community meetings.

In fall 2016, SAI and Pima County Interfaith hosted a nonpartisan accountability session drawing more than 500 leaders to address several issues, including SPICE. In front of hundreds of voters, candidates promised to introduce a bill to criminalize SPICE ingredients and to help law enforcement press charges against dealers.

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One hundred Valley Interfaith Project leaders from Legislative District 28, North Phoenix and Paradise Valley, gathered February 11th for a Civic Academy on state education finance.

VIP leaders detailed fiscal constraints the state placed on public education over the past 40 years, which once ranked in the upper half of states for per pupil spending.

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