- An Alliance For Community Action
- (970) 256-7650
- info@WesternColoradoAlliance.org
Looking inward, moving forward
In our Alliance and in our communities across the Western Slope, we’ve passed some momentous milestones in the past few months:
More than a year of COVID distancing and shutdown, election cycles at all levels that mobilized a new
generation of voters and activists, revelations on local impacts of the global climate crisis, the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder and a national reckoning with race and inequality, just to name a few.
In a time that has challenged us in so many ways, we embrace the opportunity to reflect on what’s happened, what we’ve learned, and how we’ve reoriented our thinking and modes of operating in a COVID-impacted landscape.
With all the changes in our world, each of us have had the opportunity to readjust, recalibrate, and refocus our energies. We don’t take for granted the awesome power that we can feel and build when we’re together in person, and each of us feels a deep excitement for the possibility to do just that as things begin to reopen.
However, the new digital world thrust upon us all allowed our Alliance to cast a broader net and build new relationships when we couldn’t be physically close and offered options for people to attend events on their own terms. The audio/video issues of our Zoom year (you’re on mute!) have refined our listening and boosted our patience and sense of humor through shared moments of learning. In seeing snapshots of each other’s homelife in the background, we’ve gained fresh perspective and a deeper appreciation of the humans on the other side of the screen.
We emerge from this challenge with more tools and flexibility to work together to increase our impact on important issues in ways that work best for our members.
We will continue to examine the impact of events in the last year on individuals and communities across the Western Slope.
We have sharpened our focus on how we can connect, build power, and maximize our collective influence on the issues that are most important to our members.
In this issue of the Clarion, you’ll see what we’re working on with members and leaders in communities across the Western Slope, in our state capitol, and nationwide. We look optimistically forward to engaging with you in the critical work that lies ahead.
Andreya has a background in secondary education, and currently works with the nonprofit District 51 Foundation. She is an active leader on local issue campaign teams in Grand Junction and Mesa County. In addition to the Western Colorado Alliance board, Andreya chairs the Grand Valley Parks and Recreation Foundation, and is on the board of the Western Organization of Resource Councils.