Strengthening Neighborhoods: Twelve Years of Building Community

Strengthening Neighborhoods: Twelve Years of Building Community


Strengthening Neighborhoods, in partnership with Community Resource Center, operates an annual leadership class for community members.  This Neighborhoods Leadership Development Program (NLDP), which is offered in English and Spanish tracks, is a "how to" primer on enhancing leadership skills for grassroots leaders.  Graduates are honored each year at the Annual Strengthening Neighborhoods Celebration.

For the past twelve years, The Denver Foundation’s Strengthening Neighborhoods Program (SN) has helped residents of ten partner neighborhoods* use their existing strengths and assets to make their own communities better places to live. And for twelve years residents of these partner communities have expressed a common concern—the difficulty they have in coming together across lines of difference, including differences in race, class, culture, age, sexual orientation, and other potential dividing lines.  One of the most enjoyable ways that partner communities come together is through block parties.  These celebrations bring diverse residents from all parts of the community together through the shared language of food, music, and laughter.

“If there is anything positive to be said about an economic downturn, it is that tough times often encourage people to come together,” says Patrick Horvath, director of SN.  In recognition of the efforts that so many partner neighborhoods made to build community in this way in 2009, SN made its Annual Celebration, held October 9 at Bruce Randolph Middle School, into a great big indoor “block party.”  Guests of all communities, ages, races/ethnicities, languages, professions, and socioeconomic backgrounds came together to share, in English and Spanish, each others’ accomplishments, and to talk about ways to build more inclusive neighborhoods.  Click here for a quick slideshow of photos from the event.

*  The Strengthening Neighborhoods Program makes grants to resident-led projects in the following communities:  Commerce City, Original Aurora, and the Denver neighborhoods of Clayton, Elyria Swansea, Globeville, Highland, Northeast Park Hill, Skyland, Sunnyside, and Whittier.