I attended a meeting of church leaders and interested community members last night here in Phoenix. The meeting was organized to start thinking through ways that parishes and community organizations can respond to burgeoning economic crisis here in Phoenix. (Our main industry has been construction and land development. That is frozen solid along with the credit market – and probably will be for a long while because of the overbuilding that occurred during the real estate bubble.)

The best take-away from the meeting was a link to a website the our present Arizona Gov. set up over the past few years. If you’re in AZ check out www.az211.gov. Excellent clearing house to find social service agencies and resources for people in need.

The nice folks running the website have even set up a special page with links for those in our community who are facing imminent foreclosure or who have been laid-off and are watching the savings disappear. (And their friends):

“You can help others who are feeling the economic crunch by encouraging families, friends, neighbors, colleagues and people you come into contact with at work or school to visit this website. You can also print and hand out the information below. Finally, visit our Spread the Word section for other ideas on helping to promote this project.”

Check it out here.