After Gov. Jared Polis proclaimed Nov. 1 “Colorado Nonprofit Day” and as nonprofits from throughout the state convened this 12 months at Connecting Colorado occasions in Denver, Colorado Springs, Sterling, Greeley, Pueblo, Fort Collins and Grand Junction to advance our work collectively, now we have been giving lots of thought to how we collaborate to tackle a few of our most pressing points within the state.
As we rebuild from the aftermath of COVID-19, Colorado nonprofits have an opportunity to dream massive for our communities. From housing to arts and tradition, now we have probably the most sturdy and engaged nonprofit communities within the nation. Colorado is house to greater than 23,000 registered charitable nonprofit organizations, with an annual financial influence of greater than $40 billion and using 10% of Colorado’s workforce.
That is our second to be audacious in our group constructing. Being audacious doesn’t imply that you simply fail in case you don’t notice your objective. It means prompting our communities to have a powerful imaginative and prescient about issues like common entry to preschool and improved maternal well being. And the results of not dreaming massive and never working collectively means now we have surrendered to the established order.
This method isn’t for the faint of coronary heart — probably the most advanced social points from earlier than the pandemic have grown extra intractable. Reasonably priced housing. Homelessness. Immigration. Literacy. Local weather change. Entry to well being care. How we work collectively throughout sectors domestically and nationally the place demand is rising, and sources are finite, issues greater than ever as a result of the work is more difficult than ever.
In line with the Colorado Kids’s Marketing campaign Youngsters Depend knowledge launched this summer time, whereas Colorado’s general little one poverty fee of 15% sits beneath the nationwide fee of 17%, this isn’t true for each group. For instance, in Costilla County, a couple of in each three children doesn’t have their fundamental wants met, whereas Douglas County’s poverty fee is at simply 3%.
Youngster poverty charges by race and ethnicity present now we have work to do as a state. Between 2017 and 2021, poverty charges for American Indian or Alaska Native kids and Black or African American kids in Colorado have been triple the charges for white kids; the poverty fee for Hispanic or Latino kids in our state was greater than double.
Additionally high of thoughts is psychological well being, the place knowledge point out youth 18 and youthful reporting eight or extra days of poor psychological well being doubled in simply six years and emergency room visits for psychological well being causes for kids is up 140% between 2016 and 2021.
The problems confronting our communities, city and rural, are altering dramatically. And we all know that the options won’t be discovered by doing issues the way in which now we have all the time completed them. The rising psychological well being wants amongst younger folks, gun violence and poverty inequities in Colorado won’t enhance by doubling down on stale fashions of service supply that don’t encourage innovation and drive social influence.
How we rebuild issues and if we’re going to actually remodel our communities in Colorado, we should be collaborative, we have to act with urgency and we should be relentlessly centered on outcomes. The choice to kinda lean into local weather and sorta be sure that a few of our children can learn by the third grade will most likely not get us to the place we should be … or the place we must be for that matter, given the expertise and sources that now we have in our state.
As a group, our nonprofits can unabashedly set up daring as the brand new enterprise as traditional with the understanding that we’re going to work collectively to tenaciously and strategically pursue the sources and assist we want from the private and non-private sectors to influence optimistic change.
Connecting Colorado occasions this 12 months introduced collectively greater than 780 nonprofit professionals statewide, fostering studying, collaboration and partnerships on related subjects in every area and throughout the sector. However what issues most is what comes out of those conversations. The nonprofits that take among the concepts we broached and put them into motion is what’s going to make the best distinction in our Colorado communities.
Collaboration coupled with audacity is a strong treatment to the challenges we face.
Jamie Van Leeuwen, PhD, MA, MPH, serves because the CEO and founding father of the International Livingston Institute and is a frontrunner and advocate in public coverage, group improvement and social justice in Denver.
Paul Lhevine, J.D., serves as president and CEO of the Colorado Nonprofit Affiliation the place he works on the intersection of social innovation and civic engagement in Denver.