Here’s a look at our most recent email newsletter from the end of December:
I don’t know about you, but this buffer time between the busyness of the holidays and the new year is my time to reflect on the past year and look to what is coming next. Part of this reflection is looking back at the work we’ve done together with Edgewater Collective and thinking about what is coming next.
Looking Back at 2024
- The highly successful Jefferson County Family Leadership Training Institute (FLTI) transitioned from Jeffco CSU Extension to be a program of Edgewater Collective.
- We started gathering community input on our Big Dream of purchasing the closed Molholm Elementary and turning it into a community center with partners.
- During June, we led another successful Jefferson Success Academy with a great team of educators to help late elementary students grow in their math skills.
- After eleven years of focusing on the Edgewater community, we expanded our mission to focus on working with Latino communities across Jefferson County.
- We launched our fourth Latino-led worker cooperative business, Edgewater Cleaning Coop, joining Casitas Pin Pon Coop, Cuenta Conmigo Coop, and Rocky Mountain Language Coop, as we work toward increasing community wealth in Jefferson County Latino communities.
Looking Ahead to 2025
- In January we will start our first cohort of community leaders in the Family Leadership Training Institute program!
- We will continue supporting the growth of our worker cooperative businesses. We are working with Casitas Pin Pon to help them start an in-home nanny share program and working to connect Rocky Mountain Language Coop with local hospitals to offer medical interpretation services.
- And maybe this will be the year that we are able to purchase Molholm Elementary with community partners!
We Need Your Help Supporting Immigrants in Jefferson County
For the last few months we have been meeting with community partners who work directly with Latino immigrants in Jefferson County. There is a lot of fear in our communities about the incoming presidential administration.
We are prepared to do the following in the new year to support Latino immigrant communities in Jefferson County:
- Lead Know Your Rights trainings
- Distribute Know Your Rights cards so community members are ready if ICE agents go to their homes
- Craft a statement in support of immigrants that community partners can support as well
- Lead trainings for educators on how they can support immigrant families
- Distribute resources for helping families prepare the documents and plans they will need if deportations begin
- Develop Support Teams for schools with a high majority of Latino students so community partners are ready to activate if deportations begin
Given the political realities in Jefferson County, Edgewater Collective stands in an important place to lead efforts to support immigrant families with community partners. There are risks in making politically divisive statements, but we are committed to standing with our Latino, immigrant communities in Jefferson County. We would love your support as we continue this important work.
Here are two ways you can support this essential work over the next year:
- Share about our work: Follow us on Facebook or Instagram and share about our work supporting Latino communities, especially as the new administration starts creating new policies that spread fear among communities. We want to make sure communities have access to the resources they need.
- Support this work through donating: Currently, we do not have any grants to support this important work informing immigrant communities about their rights and connecting communities with resources to help them feel prepared and safer. Your donations make a huge difference in this work! Click here to donate.
Thank you so much for continuing to support the work we do together!
Joel Newton
Executive Director
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