Strengthen Community Health

Increase food access for all through systems and policy change.

Continue to advance health equity and food security with and for La Plata County BIPOC, senior and rural residents by directly tackling systemic food system barriers and opportunities, building impacted communities' sense of belonging and agency while supporting participation and leadership and developing a cross-sectoral network of food and health system partners who center equity, inclusivity, collaboration and power-sharing as they engage in their work.

Create a worker-owned platform cooperative of rideshare drivers in Colorado through the Drivers Cooperative-Colorado to increase drivers' control over their working conditions, reduce worker exploitation and increase driver earnings. This cooperative model has been pioneered by The Drivers Cooperative in New York which has over 6,000 members, yielding pay increases of up to 30% for drivers and a reduction in driver expenses by up to $1,500/month.

Build community through increased local food production efforts with the aim of increasing nutrition security, resiliency and economic development. This will take a two-prong approach to community-based food production by focusing on individual households and community initiatives and support will be provided to backyard gardens, community gardens and farms/ranches.

Continue the shared work to address root causes of hunger by investing deeper in community engagement efforts and leadership development opportunities for community leaders. At the direction of our community leaders, identify the most pressing root cause issues and short- and long-term goals to take collective action on.

Complete a community-led and owned Community Benefit Agreement and redevelopment planning process focused on systemic change to achieve equity, justice, and inclusion in the Park Hill Golf Course development.

A MRI to allow a community land trust to expand statewide and offer more Coloradans of color homeownership opportunities.

Build capacity with emergent community leaders of color to guide core coalition agencies on better engaging and empowering our community members experiencing hunger via the Mesa County Hunger Alliance. The goal is to challenge current mental models around health equity and expand relationships to build leadership capacity internally with agencies committed to addressing and understanding racial equity, and externally through direct empowerment of the community members we serve.

Set priorities and develop and implement strategies to improve the local food system guided by a well-established coalition of residents. To make deeper and broader systems change, FIRC and the Food Equity Coalition will invite community food provider partners to the table to build connections and relationships while also promoting capacity and awareness of DEI, power dynamics and mental models that influence our work.

Empower the communities most impacted by food insecurity in Pitkin, Eagle and Garfield Counties. Our explicit, but not exclusive focus, will be on Latinos experiencing food insecurity. Support 100% community-led solutions to food insecurity for systems change and the realigning power in support of equity, inclusion and access.