Strengthen Community Health

Create an endowment fund and build cash reserves in order to increase organizational capacity that will advance health equity and racial justice locally and also have a reverberating impact statewide.

Continue the Family Housing Navigator Program full-time and add an additional part-time staff to assist the Navigator caseload in finding housing for veterans, chronically homeless, youth, families and individuals who are experiencing homelessness. The Navigator Program will continue support in Fremont County and expand the program coverage to the seven counties where the Housing Choice Voucher is already administered.

Support community-led programs and services that seek to address the intersection of distributive and procedural justice to create substantive change in SW Denver that will increase health outcomes for Hispanic community residents.

Lend affordable mortgages to individuals and families with an Individual Taxpayer ID Number (ITIN), in order to buy their first home. ITIN families frequently struggle to buy a home due to their status and Habitat Metro Denver serves as an affordable homeownership developer and mortgage lender, believing that affordable homeownership is transformational and creates stability for families to thrive.

Offer 61, one-, two-, and three-bedroom rental apartment units and a community center where youth and adult education, mental health counseling and self-sufficiency services will be offered to advance the health and well-being of Clara Brown Commons (CBC) residents and neighbors. CBC will also offer 17 for-sale townhomes developed by Denver Habitat for Humanity for low-income buyers.

Support for a food and economic incubator hub located on the reservation in Towaoc. The hub will be a source of healthy food, workforce training and entrepreneurship development, serving as a pathway to building a full-service grocery store. The hub will start and grow Native-run businesses, including a produce stand/grocery, market provisions, commercial kitchen, coffee shop, butcher/deli, classroom space, and a fabrication lab featuring light manufacturing equipment.

Develop a community-designed, flagship bodega, as a means to maintain healthy, vibrant communities by providing consistent and equitable access to fresh and culturally-relevant food. The store will be run by volunteers, community members and Kaizen Food Rescue leadership team members, all who face food insecurity, see the vulnerability in the current systems and reach out to seek help.

This funding is intended to support the organization's ongoing efforts to advance health equity and racial justice in Colorado. Funding will be used for capacity support and organizational infrastructure that aligns with its commitment to health equity and racial justice.

Support Indigenous-led food sovereignty work across Southwest Colorado. Nurture the growing movement in the region to revitalize Indigenous food systems, support Indigenous leadership and innovation and build health equity from the ground up.

Support for this initiative will increase food sovereignty and security while strengthening the local agriculture-food system in Costilla County. Local agriculture traditions will be rekindled, the San Luis grocery store will be renovated and expanded, a new commercial kitchen will increase production of local value added foods, and youth will reconnect to the land, acequias, and healthy food while developing skills that will support them to remain in their villages and secure employment.