The mission of Higher Ground, A Resource Center is to empower one life at a time to reach, transform, and elevate the community through love and building character. For 12 years, Higher Ground has specialized in providing comprehensive support to critically at-risk students suffering from the effects of childhood trauma and poverty. The students in the program are the most vulnerable in the Tucson community. Trauma, especially at a young age, directly impacts one’s ability to build Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) skills that help people navigate their behavior. Higher Ground provides Social-Emotional Learning skills through recreational activities at their Wellness Center and is the lead agency for developing the Community Schools infrastructure in Tucson’s high-needs neighborhoods. The Tucson Community Schools Initiative is charged with transforming schools in Tucson to Community Schools, schools with an integrated focus on academics, health and social services, youth and community development, and community engagement.

Higher Ground is more than just a place, but rather, it’s a culture-infusing catalyst that aims to create system-wide change, building up our high-need communities – one child and family at a time – and creating collaborative networks of support that ultimately uplift our entire city.

Higher Ground feels that the best way to empower people and help them realize their opportunities is to focus on the relationships with the people they serve, recognizing the unlimited potential every individual possesses for a meaningful, responsible future, working to convince each person to believe this is possible, and supporting them in becoming the heroes of their own stories. By investing in the mental, emotional, social, spiritual, and physical health of each individual, Higher Ground invests in the health and well-being of our entire community.