Home

Community Collaboration

Posted in

We are continuously involved in community collaborations

Collaboration is key in nurturing a thriving community.

One of the Sustainability Alliance's main focus areas is helping to facilitate community collaboration in La Plata County through project support, volunteerism, and dedication to a vision of sustainability. Sustainability cannot exist without collaboration.

In the past, we have had specific teams designated to building collaborative community projects, such as the Community Resource Project, which is discussed below. Today, we aim to support others who are making efforts toward collaboration and cooperation. 

We are currently involved in supporting the following community collaborative programs and projects:

We are always keen to learn of any new community collaboration projects happening in La Plata County. Please contact us and let us know how to help support and facilitate more community collaborations!

Past Community Collaborations

Nonprofit Organization Resource Guide

The Community Resource Project team compiled a Nonprofit Organization Resource Guide for La Plata County. This guide was a step toward the larger-picture goal of creating a comprehensive Community Asset Inventory encompassing social, ecological, and environmental entities in our community.

The goals of the Nonprofit Guide were to identify and make available the nonprofit organization resource assets supporting the social web in our community and to facilitate connections and collaboration among organizations with interrelated goals, which would in turn expand capacity.
 
This project was initiated to strengthen the community's knowledge of local assets and provide a foundation to utilize undiscovered relationships inherent in those assets.

The Importance of Community Asset Mapping

By Eliza Searles

Community asset mapping is a valuable, though non-traditional, approach to community development that concentrates on assets rather than deficiencies. Various aspects of an area, including the surrounding environment, community members, and business activity, contain beneficial assets that the rest of the community can draw from. However, without an overall sketch of what exists in the local area, these benefits could go unnoticed and underutilized by those who may share a vested interest in the topic.

Though a fairly small community, Durango is filled with value. The rich history of the land provides a comfortable setting in which to live. The area is known for its sense of community and its vibrant downtown, and newcomers soon notice the high level of activism and involvement of residents. A lot of positive energy is shared for the purpose of bettering the local and extended community.
 
Worldwide, environmental, social, and economic vitality is being threatened due to the lifestyle choices of modern society. While many specific reasons can be cited, one way to summarize is to express that people often do not consider the ‘bigger picture’ when making day-to-day choices. As everything within nature is interrelated throughout space and time, this ignorance has had negative consequences for Earth and all inhabitants. The continued sustainability of such absolutely depends on recognizing and respecting interrelationships.
 
As detailed above, Durango has great potential to become a community representative of this societal shift. Perhaps the seeds of this change have already been planted here...but who knows? A community asset mapping project will begin to piece together a universal understanding of what already exists within the community, and to formulate connections that will enable sustainable existence.