Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States and celebrates Black freedom, resilience, culture and community. Across Arizona, communities are marking the holiday with festivals, educational programs, business celebrations, music, food and family-friendly events.

Whether you're looking for a large community festival, a cultural experience or an opportunity to support Black-owned businesses, here are some of the ways Arizonans can celebrate Juneteenth in 2026.

The Best Arizona Gifts for Fathers Day 2026

Shopping locally for Father's Day supports Arizona’s regional makers, independent artists, and homegrown businesses. Excellent local gift ideas from Northern, Central, and Southern Arizona.

People often think being local means shopping local, eating local or attending local events.

Those things matter.

But being local is bigger than that.

It's creating opportunities for entrepreneurs. It's investing in locally owned businesses. It's strengthening food systems, supporting workforce development and helping communities access the resources they need to thrive.

At its heart, being local means building an economy where opportunity stays closer to home and more people have the chance to participate in it.

That's the story behind Local First Arizona's 2025 Annual Report.

Inclusive local businesses do more than serve customers — they help shape communities where people feel welcomed, valued and connected. Across Arizona, LGBTQ+-friendly businesses and organizations are building spaces rooted in belonging, advocacy and local resilience.

Creative events that showcase the character of small communities across Arizona allow towns to celebrate what makes them unique. At the same time, these events are welcoming out-of-town visitors who then patronize restaurants, gas stations and hotels, pumping money directly into the local economy. While festivals and events do act as introductions for small towns to non-locals, they also provide seasonal stability for the small businesses that support those towns year round. 

At Local First Arizona, we have spent more than two decades making the case that strong, resilient communities are built from the inside out. The businesses, farms, nonprofits and neighborhoods that make Arizona worth living in don’t just happen, they require intentional investment, thoughtful policy and leadership willing to bring everyone to the table.

Governor Katie Hobbs’ Arizona Energy Promise Taskforce has done exactly that.

The resulting report is a significant milestone, one that Local First Arizona helped shape. Its 31 consensus-driven recommendations reflect input from 36 members, including private-sector leaders, consumer advocates, tribal representatives, nonprofits, utilities, and state agencies. Kimber Lanning, Founder & CEO served on the Governor's Arizona Energy Promise Taskforce, and Vice President of Resiliency Programs Ginger Sykes Torres contributed to one of its working committees. Such rare and broad agreement among typically divergent stakeholders is a point of serious consideration, and one we are proud to support.

Rising energy costs in Arizona are putting increasing pressure on businesses, with projections estimating rates could climb up to 47% by 2050. For companies operating on tight margins, this volatility threatens both profitability and long-term sustainability. Obodo Energy offers a solution through commercial and industrial clean energy systems, including solar, battery storage and energy efficiency upgrades, helping businesses reduce costs and gain more control over their energy future. By investing in scalable solar solutions—the fastest and most cost-effective clean energy option—Arizona businesses can hedge against rising utility rates, improve operational predictability and strengthen their commitment to sustainable practices.

Where your business banks isn’t just a financial decision — it shapes who gets access to capital in your community. Across Arizona, local businesses are often shut out of lending by the same institutions holding their deposits. Community banks and credit unions flip that model, reinvesting locally and building the relationships businesses need to grow. If you’re thinking about your next money move, building a relationship with a local banker now can open doors when it matters most.

For Earth Month, and every month, consider finding ways to support locally-owned businesses that have committed to sustainable practices. To help you find and support local businesses doing valuable climate resilience work, we’ve pulled together a few suggestions of people and places fighting the good fight for Arizona’s environment during Earth Month and all year long.

A new boot camp offered by Local First Arizona aims to build on that resilience — by equipping smaller producers with business tools that haven’t traditionally been tailored to agriculture.

The Ag Business Boot Camp, a hybrid, eight-week program for small to mid-sized farmers across the state, educates participants on business fundamentals through an agricultural lens.

Move Over Bob is an Arizona-based lifestyle brand and publication inspired by the teen magazines of the 1990s and early 2000s, reimagined with a very different purpose: empowering girls to pursue careers in the skilled trades. Where earlier magazines focused on celebrity style and social cues, Move Over Bob highlights pathways to economic stability, independence and long-term opportunity.

One of the biggest barriers to accessing local food in Arizona is a lack of infrastructure — from processing to distribution — for small and mid-sized farming and food operations. That gap is both a symptom and a consequence of a highly consolidated food system, one that reduces local control and increases vulnerability.

Arizona’s Black business community has always been a force — building opportunity, culture and stability in the face of systemic barriers. Long before “buy local” became a movement, Black entrepreneurs were creating essential services and gathering spaces that anchored entire communities.

Honoring Black History Month isn’t only about looking back. It’s about recognizing how those foundations continue to shape Arizona’s local economy today — and why supporting Black-owned businesses remains critical to a strong, inclusive future.

Arizona Statehood Day (February 14) is a reminder of the people, places and stories that continue to shape this state. From border towns and rural communities to cities and neighborhoods across Arizona, our history lives on through local institutions, cultural landmarks and the communities that keep them going.

Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to mean prix-fixe menus, crowded rooms or doing what everyone else is doing. Celebrating the local way means choosing experiences that feel personal, rooted in place and connected to the communities you love.

Across Arizona — from cities to small towns — there are countless ways to mark the day that support local businesses, honor the landscape and create memories that actually feel like yours.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Forestdale Farm, a Flagstaff-based regenerative farm, is reducing energy costs and strengthening long-term resilience by installing a solar array with support from Local First Arizona. Through the Green Business Boot Camp, a federal REAP grant and a low-interest bridge loan, farm owner Rylan Morton-Starner is replacing costly generator fuel with clean energy — lowering expenses, eliminating emissions and gaining greater control over operating costs at a critical moment for rural food producers.

Arizona’s landscapes tell our story — from desert trails and riverbanks to neighborhood parks and small-town main streets. Keeping those places clean, healthy and accessible doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because communities show up to help clean up.

That’s where Keep Arizona Beautiful comes in.

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) play a critical role in filling gaps left by conventional banks, particularly in rural, tribal, and historically underbanked communities — many of the same places Local First focuses its work. When CDFIs are supported, small businesses can launch, grow and serve their communities. When they’re under threat, the ripple effects are immediate — and deeply personal.

Last minute doesn’t mean no thought. It just means the calendar is running at a faster pace than you can keep up with, and that’s okay, because there are so many ways to keep your gift giving local even as time runs out. If you still have some shopping to do, and even if you haven’t even started yet, we have some judgement-free options on how to keep your holiday spending local while completing your last-minute list. 

It takes effort to find the perfect gift for someone. That’s why it would be nice if the gift had a little staying power, too. If the gift itself could give or somehow give back. When you shop locally, you’re already checking one “give back” box by keeping money in the local economy.

And when you shop locally at a business that reinvests its profits in people, the planet or the community, you’re making sure you’re giving gifts with even more impact. If this is the way you’re approaching your holiday shopping season, you’re in luck, because Arizona is a hotspot for mission-driven businesses that are creating social, environmental or cultural ripples with every sale. 

If you’re looking to gift like you mean it this year, by wrapping up gifts that create a lasting impact, here are a few local options you might want to consider.