City of Phoenix - File #: 26-1055

• File #: 26-1055
• Type: Ordinance-S
• Status: Agenda Ready - Office of Government Relations Department
• Meeting Body: City Council Formal Meeting
• On agenda: 6/17/2026
• Title: Ak-Chin Indian Community 2026 Gaming Grants (Ordinance S-53007) - Citywide
• District: Citywide

Title

Ak-Chin Indian Community 2026 Gaming Grants (Ordinance S-53007) - Citywide

Description

Request to authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to apply, accept, and if awarded, enter into related agreements for up to $1,698,443.17 in new funding from the Ak-Chin Indian Community under the 2026 funding cycle. Further request authorization for the City Treasurer to accept and the City Controller to disburse funds as directed by the Ak-Chin Indian Community in connection with these grants.

Report

Summary

If awarded, these monies would be applied as directed by the Ak-Chin Indian Community towards the following:

City Applications

• Housing Department: $30,000 for the Aeroterra Community Center Computer Lab Refresh, which will replace 16 aged workstations in the community center's public computer lab. The lab serves 374 users monthly across after-school, GED classes, job services, and benefits access in the Edison-Eastlake Community.
• Housing Department: $25,150 for the Senior Digital Skills Building Program, which provides affordable housing seniors with hands-on training to learn essential computer and internet skills so they can confidently and safely use their digital devises in daily life.
• Housing Department: $54,120 for the Housing Storytelling Fellowships, which will fund 10 fellowship stipends for residents of affordable and mixed-income households to attend a 10-credit two-semester storytelling course at the South Mountain Community College.
• Human Services Department: $150,000 for the Childcare Supportive Service Pilot, which will reduce gap-filling childcare assistance to individuals currently enrolled in City of Phoenix Adult and Dislocated Worker Workforce programs who are unable to fully access or utilize existing childcare support due to program limitations.
• Office of Homeless Solutions: $60,000 for the Homeless Diversion and Housing Stabilization Project, which establishes a rapid-response diversion fund to provide targeted financial stabilization for individuals transitioning out of emergency shelters and into permanent housing.
• Office of Public Health: $45,000 for the Free Period Packs Program, which makes free menstrual hygiene supplies easily accessible and available, especially to adolescents and people in need, through distributing period packs at Phoenix Public Libraries.
• Phoenix Police Department: $76,321 for 4K Axis Cameras, Protective Gear, and Defensive Tactics Equipment, which these investments will help equip personnel with tools, technology, and environment needed to protect both the community and the officers who serve it.
• Phoenix Police Department: $92,969 for the Covert Cameras and Less Lethal Ammunition, which will help equip Crime Impact Unit officers with eight less lethal launchers with an essential tool for safely and effectively managing high-risk incidents, while five covert cameras will enhance the department's capability to conduct physical surveillance without alerting suspects, resulting in more authentic behavioral observations and improved investigative outcomes.
• Phoenix Police Department: $97,240 for the Digital Fingerprint Scanners, which will allow police officers utilize hand-held fingerprint devices to identify subjects based on biometric technology accurately in the field rather than transporting them to a precinct for identification purposes.
• Prosecutor's Office: $25,250 for Essential Support Items for Specialty Court Participants, which will help alleviate practical barriers that prevent Specialty Court participants from meeting program requirements. The project provides participants with essential support items to address immediate needs and improve their ability to attend court, participate in treatment, maintain communication, and manage daily responsibilities.
• Street Transportation Department: $185,000 for the Safe Routes to School Project, which will complete four Safe Route to School studies in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty, limited transportation access, and elevated pedestrian safety risks. The goal is to identify actionable recommendations to improve safety for students in these areas.

Nonprofit Applications

• 1N10 dba one-n-ten: $50,000 for the Health and Wellness Program, which will expand mental and behavioral health services to undeserved communities.
• 3rd Decade: $25,000 for the Financial Education and Mentoring Program, which dedicate to transforming financial outcomes for young adults in their "3rd decade of life" as they face every day financial challenges and barriers to economic stability by empowering participants with strategies needed for long-term success.
• 100 Club: $20,000 for the Safety Enhancement Stipend Program, which will help reduce injuries and deaths among public safety members.
• Arizona Association for Foster and Adoptive Parents: $10,000 for the Family Camp, which provides foster, kinship, and adoptive families with a restorative, supportive weekend experience designed to strengthen family bonds, reduce isolation, and promote caregiver resilience. Funding will help cover direct program costs to ensure families can attend at little to no cost while participating in a structured environment that includes educational sessions for caregivers, trauma-informed support, and recreational activities for children and families.
• Arizona Cancer Foundation of Children: $30,000 for the Family Stability & Basic Needs Support Program, which will support access to food, hygiene supplies, clothing, and basic household necessities to reduce financial strain and ensure families have consistent access to daily essentials.
• Arizona Humanities Council: $10,000 for the Blue Corn Festival, which will support funding for the annual Blue Corn Festival, a community celebration of Indigenous American culture, literature, and youth literacy. The festival features traditional blue corn-inspired dishes and local cuisine, art by Indigenous and local artist, poetry readings, storytelling, a Kid Zone with games, crafts, and free books for children and families, cooking demonstrations, and pop-up bookshop.
• Arizona Science Center: $10,000 for the Focused Field Trips, which help provide 833 Title I students with free Focused Field trips at Arizona Science Center in 2027.
• Arizona's Children Association: $30,000 for the Kinship Care Continuum Program, which supports kinship families across both formal and informal child welfare settings.
• AZ Bluebirds Baseball: $20,000 for the AZ Bluebirds Baseball program, which is a dedicated organization enriching the lives of Native American youth through baseball.
• Creighton Community Foundation: $25,000 for the FrescaZona Medical Food Box Program, which improves health outcomes for low-income households managing diet-related chronic diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes or hypertension, by combining nutritious food boxes with nutrition education, health coaching, and care coordination.
• Cultural Coalition, Inc.: $5,000 for the 8th Annual Portal to the Past Festival, which will support funding the festival at the Se'dav Va'aki Museum and highlight the water legacy of the Ancestral Sonoran Desert People with O'odham artistic traditions of song and dance performances and demonstrations, a TOKA match, and free museum entry with activities that focus on the prehistoric canal system and the water sustainability in the desert.
• Everybody Matters: $25,000 for the K-12 School Program, which will support the K-12 School program, which aims to train and place approximately 40 social work interns in Arizona schools. This initiative will provide 10,700 sessions of personalized mental health care for students, helping to address the states youth mental health challenges.
• Family Promise of Greater Phoenix: $30,000 for the Step-Up Housing for Phoenix Residents Program, which provides transitional stability for families as they exit emergency shelter, rebuild income, grow savings, and prepare for independent living. Operating year-round Step-Up Housing delivers immediate housing-focused intervention and short-term support that helps families move from crisis to long-term stability.
• Franciscan Friars of the Holy Spirit: $100,000 for the Restoration of Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto, which will help restore a 100-year-old grotto that fell into disarray. Funding will provide a place of hope and prayer to a community and a place of respite for those who struggle mentally or emotionally.
• Fresh Start Women's Foundation: $10,000 for The Impact Program: A Holistic Approach to Economic Stability, which is design to prepare individuals for sustainable employment through job readiness training, skills development, and supportive services.
• Gabriel's Angels (Paws for Youth): $10,000 for the Pet Therapy Program, which provides pet therapy programming to children and youth ages six to 18 through partnerships with Title I schools and child-serving agencies.
• Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona: $20,000 for the Safety Enhancement Stipend Program, which will support the purchase of construction materials and contracted repair services for HVAC replacements and repairs, plumbing repairs, electrical work, flooring replacements, accessibility modifications, exterior safety improvements, and other critical health and safety interventions.
• Human Services Campus, Inc.: $50,000 for the Lodestar Day Resource Center Renovation, which will help renovate the Lodestar Day Resource Center (LDRC), the central service hub at Key Campus for individuals experiencing homelessness. Serving more than 300 individuals daily, the LDRC connects clients to essential services, including health care, benefits, and housing navigation, in a safe, centralized, and reliable environment.
• Jazz in Arizona, Inc. - The Nash: $25,000 for The Nash Music Lab, which expands access to high-quality music education to undeserved youth by providing hands-on experience in digital music production, recording, and composition.
• Jewish Family & Children's Service: $25,000 for the Behavioral Health for Older Adults Program, which provides compassionate behavioral health care designed to improve the lives of older individuals in Maricopa County.
• Maricopa County Community College District Foundation: $75,000 for the 2027 Empowering Students with Basic Needs and Emergency Assistance Project, which supports students struggling with food and housing insecurity and allows them to have access to basic needs through the project.
• National Council of Jewish Women. Arizona: $20,000 for the Ruth Place: A Healing Center for Survivors of Sexual Violence Program, which provides scholarships to 10 low-income Maricopa County survivors of sexual violence so that they can participate in Ruth Place's 6-month, trauma-informed healing program.
• Rosie's House: $5,000 for the Afterschool Music Program, which supports 150 under-resourced youth grades one to 12 with access to a free, high-quality music education summer program providing music lessons, free loaned instruments, healthy meals, performance opportunities, a field trip to the Musical Instrument Museum, and more.
• Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center (SARRC): $20,000 for the SARRC Community School Phoenix, which helps provide SARRC's Community School in Phoenix to a projected 50 children in 2027.
• SS. Simon & Jude Cathedral School: $20,553.17 for the SSJ Sacred Space Project, which supports phase 3 of SS. Simon and Jude's outdoor learning area project through the purchase and installation of 16 concrete benches to create a welcoming sacred gathering space for students, families and parishioners.
• The Diamond Child Foundation, Inc.: $25,000 for the Diamond Child Healing & Restoration Initiative, which supports individuals and families impacted by addiction, trauma, grief, and hardship through educational panels, testimony sessions, counseling resources, wellness activities, meals, and restorative care packages.
• The Heard Museum: $25,000 for the Creative Aging Program, which is designed to help participants (55+) develop their artistic abilities through intentional, step-by-step instruction.
• The Joy Bus: $25,000 for the More than a Meal Program, which supports the nourishing of people facing cancer through home-delivered, medically tailored meals with compassionate connection.
• Tonatierra Community Development Institute: $81,840 for the Cualnemilizli ("Good Life") program, which helps areas of health and the environment via growing native crops using traditional and environmentally-friendly agricultural techniques, native seed preservation and exchange, and food distribution and critical health services to families in need.
• Vista College Prep: $30,000 for the Social-Emotional Learning Program, a curriculum which will strengthen student wellness and school culture across three campuses by promoting growth in mind, body, heart, and spirit, while equipping them with academic success and long-term well-being.

The gaming compact entered into by the State of Arizona and various tribes calls for 12 percent of gaming revenues to be contributed to cities, towns, and counties for government services that benefit the general public including public safety, mitigation of impacts of gaming, and promotion of commerce and economic development. The Ak-Chin Indian Community will notify the City, by resolution of the Tribal Council, if it desires to convey to the nonprofit a portion of its annual 12 percent local revenue-sharing contribution.

Financial Impact

There is no budgeted impact to the City and no general-purpose funds are required. Entities that receive gaming grants are responsible for the management of those funds.

Department

Responsible Department

This item is submitted by Deputy City Manager Frank McCune and the Office of Government Relations.