Locally-Focused Work

Provide an accessible, culturally specific, familiar and trusting space that will serve as a hub for grassroots programming for people of color in the San Luis Valley.

Promote the health and wellbeing of American Indians of all tribal nations living in the San Luis Valley by positively promoting and strengthening determinants of health through social unity, health equity, and cultural education development.

Support the transition from volunteer-based to a more established organization, focusing on community issues that address education attainment, public safety, economic opportunity and other social determinants of health. Enable the RLC to hire two part-time community organizers.

Provide a peer mental health and case management program to help refugee, immigrant, and first-generation teens and young adults improve their own mental health, and case management that can help their entire families. Partner with aligned youth organizations operating in the space and other centers nearby, to provide ongoing opportunities for youth to connect, build community and receive meaningful support for themselves and their families.

Dedicate resources to build organizational effectiveness, provide general operating support, contract with external learning providers, develop communities of best practice and expand collaborations for sustainability.

Renovate and convert the Avondale Elementary School playground into a much-needed community hub recreational space, to include amenities for all ages.

Develop and start implementation of individualized community plans for four individual communities in the San Luis Valley, ensuring that all projects are symbiotic and mutually beneficial to all communities while also building a comprehensive plan comprised from each of the communities.

Serve health, behavioral health, social, and emotional needs of LGBTQIA+ communities through partnership with Civic Canopy, the school district, Eagle Valley Behavioral Health, My Future Pathways, and Red Ribbon Project, to address health/behavioral health equity, underrepresentation, stigma, and youth support to help LGBTQIA+ individuals embrace their identities, and teach the rural community about implicit bias and microaggressions towards LGBTQIA+ people.

Support the expansion of programs into four communities across the San Luis Valley that serve youth in a way that is culturally responsive to the individual needs of each area and to improve and sustain the quality experiences offered to youth.

Incorporate traditional and non-traditional community partners for input in the community skate park planning process through an Equity-Centered Community Design approach.