Our Cover Story activity with the Edgewater Collective Board. Dreaming of what success would look like.

Since we launched Edgewater Collective in the spring of 2013, our Edgewater community has changed quite a bit. Here are some of the changes we have seen:

• Multi-family rental rates in our area have risen almost $400 from $945 in March 2013 t0 $1,331 in July 2016
• The median home price in our area has risen over $100,000 from $219,000 in March 2013 to $332,100 in July 2016
• Recreational marijuana was legalized and Edgewater’s tax revenue has increased significantly as a result of six stores in the city limits
• Jefferson High School was expanded to include 7th and 8th grade students
• A new generation of community leaders is rising up and engaging in civic life
• New businesses opened in Edgewater and brought craft beer, specialty coffee, personal training and other products and services to serve the newer millennial generation moving into Edgewater

This past weekend, our board met for a retreat to discuss how we remain true to our mission of cultivating partnerships for thriving Edgewater families, schools and community in the midst of a local economy that is booming. As we look at our community assets and needs, we felt the need to focus our vision.

As we looked at our past work and what we see in the community, our neighborhood schools rose as the top focus for our organization. And yet as we talked about what it would take to improve our schools, the connection to a thriving community was embedded in the conversation.

So here is Edgewater Collective’s vision that we are working toward:

Thriving neighborhood schools connected to a thriving community

How will this happen? Our work will be focused on three main areas:

• Connecting and resourcing community partners and schools around common cradle to career goals
• Rallying community support for the neighborhood schools
• Educating and encouraging neighborhood families with younger children to learn about and attend neighborhood schools

One of the best parts of our board retreat was dreaming of what this vision will look like when we collectively attain it. We used an activity called “Cover Story” to dream of the news headlines of the completed vision. The one headline that stood out to us all was “Edgewater Schools Lead Jeffco.”

Seeing Edgewater schools lead our county would be a radical shift, but that is what we are dreaming and working toward. Our dream is that this success will include the students that currently attend our schools instead of our school demographics radically changing because of rising housing and rent costs. And it will take us all working together to see that happen.