Our Community
Our People:
Pima County has over one million residents. Located in the south of Arizona, Pima County includes urban, rural and suburban neighborhoods as well as two Native American reservations. Based on the census data from 2000, we have over 35% Hispanic/Latino residents, over 55% white residents, over 3% African American over 3% Native American and over 2% Asian American.
The vast majority of the county population lies in and around the city of Tucson, filling much of the eastern part of the county with urban development. Tucson, Arizona's second largest city is a major commercial and academic center.
Our Strengths:
One of the biggest assets in our county is our residents. There is a deep passion in them for community. When they are well organized, they have demonstrated a powerful influence in community change efforts. Another of our strengths is our location. Our winters are fairly warm attracting many retirees and winter visitors (snow birds). Because of this most of our movers and shakers are older adults. Retirees generally have time available during the day so we are able to do more community organizing. The weather also allows neighborhoods to have events or do small outdoor projects year round like gardening.
Our Challenges:
County neighborhoods typically do not have as many resources as city neighborhoods. Some lack basic municipal services and infrastructure (roads and sidewalks). This general lack of resources has been coupled with recent loss for many neighborhoods in the county of discretionary funding for infrastructure changes. These recent changes and lack of resources have required many of the residents to think outside the box when developing strategies for community change initiatives.
Our winter visitors (snow birds) provide more resources and people power for many of our movements and projects however; in the summer months they usually leave to avoid the desert heat leaving many communities empty. Sometimes neighborhood projects come to a halt because of the loss of so many of their members.
A big difference from most of the country is the fact that the most involved population is that of older adults and seniors. We are always searching for new ways to involve youth as leaders where generally it seems to be the other way around.
Our Communities for All Ages:
Our Communities for All Ages work began as a partnership between community residents and organizations within the small neighborhood of South Park. PRO neighborhoods, an organization dedicated to community revitalization through active community participation, provided mini grants to small community groups that addressed key community concerns. The intergenerational community organizing work was so successful that PRO Neighborhoods now supports the development of intergenerational organizing and advocacy in neighborhoods across Pima County.
