Flagstaff Arizona
The historic neighborhood of Southside is the oldest continuously occupied neighborhood in the city of Flagstaff. Over the years, the diversity of our population has continued growing and now includes African-American, Hispanic/Latino, White and Native American residents. Our residents hold a strong sense of home and community, and are proud of our cultural diversity. There is a state run university within the town, which is both an asset and a challenge. The university brings valuable resources, jobs and business to the community, but (like many low-income neighborhoods that are homes to universities), we have faced a range of challenges over the years in creating relationships that meet the needs of long term residents, university students, staff and faculty alike. In creating the Communities for all Ages Team, which includes both local residents and members of the university, we hope to begin a process of creating real and meaningful dialogue and action across our differences and hopefully generating useful lessons for other community coalitions bringing together both university members and long term residents.
The Southside Communities for All Ages is a partnership between residents of all ages, local organizations, the Southside Community Association and NAU’s Civic Service Institute. After an extensive community assessment and team building process we developed a vision of making the Southside whole through improving the relationship between the community and the university, promoting the value of the Southside’s historical and cultural contributions to Flagstaff and creating intergenerational gathering spaces within the community. To date we have been involved with a range of exciting partnerships, initiatives and cultural events that have helped us contribute to this vision.
