A community college located in Phoenix, Arizona, in the United States, Phoenix College is the oldest community college in the entire country.

Founded in 1920, the college became part of the Maricopa County Community College District in 1960.

Programs Offered

Phoenix College is the Oldest Community College and Higher Education Provider of the United States

Community Developers should utilize participatory methods to gain insight into the strengths and weaknesses within a local cultural group or community (Rubin and Rubin, 2008). Although participatory methods are valuable in mobilizing communities to achieve their goals, they can inadvertently give more power to already empowered community groups. In the middle of the neighborhood is a methadone clinic and last year state officials engaged our community group in participatory methods to decide if the clinic should be relocated to encourage development. The focus group approach did little to access the opinions and needs of less affluent individuals in the community who might be utilizing the clinic for services. There are often gaps in between the ideals and rhetoric of community participation and “the actual practices of so called participatory programs” (Stone, 1989). Those staff members believe egalitarian self reliance is important to the community development project, for without this key ingredient, participants will continually rely on the project with an “antithesis of development” (Stone, 1989). Without the participation of the community, the project will not work, thus in reality the institutions are dependent on the community’s participation. As in a watershed project in Nepal, as the project became more realistic, the community increased creative ideas as well (Stone, 1989). In Nepal, the participatory approach was more familiar to the community as “obey” rather than self rely (Stone, 1989). Participatory approaches certainly do add to sustainable development. Participatory approaches could give also give more power to powerful groups if left unchecked. Second, information sharing is absolutely important in preventing powerful groups from having more power. Powerful groups can easily buy more power through their money. Fourth, participatory approaches would need to develop strong leaders and leadership in different groups. Good leadership develops power. Building Powerful Community Organizations: A personal Guide to Creating Groups that can Solve Problems and Change the World. Solidarity and agency: Rethinking community development. Human Organization, 54(1).Stone, L (1989). Cultural Crossroads of Community Participation in Development: A Case from Nepal. Human Organization, 48 (3).Rietbergen-McCracken, J., Narayan, D. (1998) Participation and social assessment: Tools and techniques. Chapter 9: Learning about Personal Community, Social Needs through Action Research. In, Community Organizing and Development 4th ed. Pearson, United States.