Az Land Fund

AZ(LAND) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit venture dreamed up by people living in the heat of the Sonoran desert. We bring together barrio innovation to provide educational, ecological, and innovative resources and research insights for communities of color. Our work gets inspiration from the nopales, our ancestors and elders on this land to collectively engage in the work of future making so that we may continue to survive on these lands for the next thousand years. We work to collectively mobilize community, assets, shared experiences, and ancestral knowledge to empower historically underserved peoples at the intersection of environmental and racial justice. To accomplish this work, we have developed and implemented the 'Barrio Innovation Approach.' The Barrio Innovation Approach lays out four program focus areas to collaborating with communities to transform our barrios. Our program focus areas are through Education-History of place-Understanding how the past has created our present conditions, Research and Data Access-supporting access to environmentally focused research and data to elevate community knowledge, Future Building-designing and developing resilient and sustainable Sonoran desert communities, Lastly, Action and Advocacy-raising awareness and increasing capacity to address the environmental inequities present in our barrios.