The Black Legacy Project aims to reduce polarization by focusing on guided conversations and songs about racism.
Equity
Posted inEnvironment, Equity, News
As Colorado schools get hotter, air conditioning is still out of reach for some
Schools across Colorado began opening for the fall semester in the middle of August, with daytime temperatures reaching into the 90s in some places. Tens of thousands of Colorado public school students attend school in buildings with no air conditioning in their classrooms, and often—especially in buildings that are many decades old—no air conditioning in […]
Posted inPolitics and Government
Denver office of social equity blasted by city auditor for lack of strategy, progress after 2 years of work
Two years after it was launched, the Mayor’s Office of Social Equity and Innovation still doesn’t have a cohesive strategy for its initiatives or for assessing progress toward increasing equity, and eliminating racial and social injustice citywide, the city auditor says. The office also failed to disclose pertinent contract information before the audit process ended, […]
Posted inEquity, News
An “invisible population” of Colorado parents in college faces barriers to obtaining degrees
Most weeknights, after her 3-year-old daughter, A’nyah, falls asleep, Molly Clark cracks open her textbooks and studies until her eyes “feel like sandpaper.” “As soon as I feel like it’s not any use anymore, I’ll backtrack a few pages, put my bookmark in, and I’ll go to bed, which is usually around 12 to 2:30,” […]
Posted inCulture, Equity, News
How should history be told? Rising Colorado voices are pushing museums to rethink their approach
Long before the height of the civil rights movement, something rare was starting in the Colorado mountains. Nestled in Gilpin County, “a Black utopia” thrived for nearly four decades in the form of a mountain resort built by African Americans, for African Americans — the only of its kind west of the Mississippi. Operating between […]
Posted inEquity
18 Denver programs, many working to direct kids away from trouble with crime and substance misuse, share in $12M
Melissa Mouton founded 5280 High School in Denver after meeting a teenager who had gone six months without using heroin. When she asked him how he stayed sober, the teenager said he had to drop out of school because it was like a “drug den.” The encounter left Mouton, a physician, with a nagging feeling. […]
Posted inEquity, News
Denver will pay $48,000 to settle claim that people with disabilities were overcharged to see Red Rocks shows
Denver will pay $47,950.90 to settle a discrimination claim that alleged wheelchair-accessible seats at Red Rocks Amphitheatre were more expensive than non-accessible seats in the iconic city-owned venue. Amy Fink, a concertgoer who after six years of cancer treatment uses a wheelchair, first brought the complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice after the cost […]
Posted inEquity, News
Colorado FAFSA rate rebounds but falls short of national average
The number of Colorado high school students completing federal financial aid forms increased for the first time since the start of the pandemic. That’s the good news. The bad news is that even Colorado’s improving rate falls well below the national average. Overall, Colorado’s Federal Application for Financial Aid completion rate increased by 2.2 percentage […]
Posted inNews, Social Services
Former foster kids started a new Colorado nonprofit to help young people. TikTok is taking it nationwide.
One young woman who aged out of foster care was about to have her phone service cut off for not paying the bill. A teenage boy living in a homeless shelter while waiting for a foster placement reached out because he was lonely and hungry. And a mother who was fighting to get her children […]
Posted inEquity, News
Food trucks are helping keep Grand Junction kids fed while school’s out for summer
At the age of 4, Jade Peak has no doubt about her favorite food: grilled cheese sandwiches. She was in luck on a recent summer day when a Lunch Lizard food truck nosed into a parking lot under a sprawling shade tree in Grand Junction’s Lincoln Park. A squad of “lunch ladies” hopped out and flipped open […]