Customers can join us in helping keep children and families safe, strong, and resilient.
Through our TEP Gives program, we’ll make a donation to a local nonprofit group for each customer who signs up for Budget Billing, e-bill or Auto Pay. TEP’s donations in the fourth quarter of 2021 will go to the Arizona’s Children Association (AzCA).
The organization, founded in Tucson in 1912, is the oldest and largest statewide, not-for-profit child welfare and behavioral health agency in the state. More than 40,000 children and families across Arizona receive support each year in areas including:
- Safe foster and adoptive homes for kids in need
- Counseling and resources to address trauma and abuse
- Training and tools to promote successful child development
- Support for caregivers raising their relatives
- Guidance to help at-risk families stay together
- Life skills and mentoring for youth in foster care
TEP’s contributions to the AzCA and other charities are funded from corporate resources that won’t be recovered through our rates. The additional donations that result from TEP Gives will help the group strengthen its family-focused, culturally sensitive and outcome-driven programs across the state.
Wendy Erica Werden, TEP’s Manager of Community Investment and Philanthropy, said every child needs a support system – and every parent sometimes needs help with strategies for strengthening positive family interactions.
“Through our longtime partnership with the Arizona’s Children Association, we’ve seen the difference that structured, supportive programs can make in providing a path forward for children in crisis, and in preserving and unifying at-risk families,” she said, noting community assistance is one of TEP’s philanthropic focus areas.
AzCA President and CEO Jacob Schmitt said every dollar matters in meeting the needs of vulnerable children and families. “We truly believe that every child deserves a permanent home that is safe and nurturing, and with the community’s support, we work hard day in and out to achieve that goal.”
Celena, a former foster youth, said the program made an incalculable difference in her life. “If I hadn’t gotten the support from my family, from Arizona’s Children Association, from anyone who has every helped support me in my life up until this point, I can honestly say, I don’t think I’d be here right now. I would either be doing drugs on the street, or I would be dead.”
TEP Gives makes it simple to support our community by signing up for programs that help keep our energy service easy and affordable. Thanks to our customers signing up for these services, TEP contributed nearly $20,000 each to the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, The Nature Conservancy and Junior Achievement of Southern Arizona earlier this year.
New beneficiaries will be selected periodically throughout the year to provide customers with opportunities to direct charitable support other causes. Sign up online through My Account, the TEP Mobile App or by calling Customer Care at 520-623-7711.
