🌹 Learn More about Blossom Where You Are Planted Projects

The Foundation organizes its “Blossom Where You Are Planted” community model across five Arizona zones — bringing education, screening awareness, and support to families where they live.

Statewide Reach · The Five Zones
1
TucsonZone 1 · Southern Arizona
2
West ValleyZone 2 · Metro Phoenix West
3
East ValleyZone 3 · Metro Phoenix East
4
Central PhoenixZone 4 · Urban core
5
PinalZone 5 · Central Arizona
Reach Amplifiers
Every newbornStatewide newborn screening reaches all Arizona births.
360° SCD HubA digital home for patients, families, providers, and volunteers.
Community eventsEducation, outreach, and awareness across all five zones.
🌹
Listen: Coach Carla on Community Support ZonesAbout 2½ minutes · the story behind Blossom Where You Are Planted
Read the transcript

Hey there. It's Coach Carla.

I want to tell you about something the Sickle Cell Foundation of Arizona has been building — and honestly, it's one of my favorite things we've ever done.

We call it Blossom Where You Are Planted.

For a long time, if your family was living with sickle cell in Arizona, support meant going somewhere. Driving to a clinic. Driving to an event. Driving to a meeting downtown — sometimes an hour or more each way, with a child who doesn't feel well in the back seat.

And we kept hearing the same thing from families: we want to be part of this — but the distance is a lot.

So we flipped it around.

Instead of asking families to come to us — we're coming to you.

Blossom Where You Are Planted.

So we've started by identifying five Community Support Zones across southern and central Arizona.

Zone One is Tucson and Eastern Arizona. Zone Two is the West Valley. Zone Three is the East Valley. Zone Four is Central Phoenix. And Zone Five is Pinal County.

Twenty-one communities, and more than a hundred families already connected.

And five is where we're starting — not where we're stopping. As families raise their hands and the need grows, we'll add more zones.

Every single zone has real people in it — a Community Support Director who lives there, knows the neighborhoods, knows the hospitals, and knows the families by name.

This isn't a map. It's not a program on paper.

It's your neighbor. It's someone in your zip code who understands what a pain crisis at two in the morning feels like, who can tell you which emergency room in your area actually knows sickle cell — and who can show up.

Because a rose doesn't need to be moved to a better garden to bloom. It needs someone tending the ground right where it already is.

That's what “blossom where you are planted” means to us.

Find your zone. It takes about ten seconds — just look at the map and find your city.

Then join it. Meet your Director. Meet the other families near you.

And if you look at that map and your community isn't lit up yet — please, tell us. That's not a closed door. That's exactly how the next zone gets started. Some of our strongest communities began with one family raising a hand.

You don't have to do sickle cell alone. And you don't have to drive across the state to prove it.

Find your Community Support Zone. We'll meet you right where you are.

We are so glad you're here.

Support that comes to you

For years, being connected to sickle cell support in Arizona meant traveling to it — to a clinic, to an event, to a meeting across the valley. For families managing pain crises, school schedules and work, that distance was often the reason they stayed disconnected. Blossom Where You Are Planted turns that around: rather than asking families to come to the Foundation, the Foundation is organising itself around where families already live.

We’ve started by identifying five Community Support Zones across southern and central Arizona, covering 21 communities — and five is a starting point, not a ceiling. As families raise their hands and demand grows, more zones will be added.

Meet Your Community Support Directors

Behind every zone is a person. These are the family leaders carrying this work in their own communities — the ones who answer the call, show up at the hospital, and make sure no family in their zone feels like they’re doing this alone.

👆 Tap a zone chip above or a marker to see its leader & referral resources.
📍
Select your zone
Tap a marker or a zone above to see how to get connected in your area.