- An Alliance For Community Action
- (970) 256-7650
- info@WesternColoradoAlliance.org
Uncompahgre Valley Alliance Newsletter: June, 2023
Uncompahgre Valley Alliance Newsletter: June, 2023
Greetings from the second Uncompahgre Valley Alliance Quarterly Update! I can’t believe June has already passed us by.
The past three months have been marked with a lot of travel, learning, and beginnings. I thought I could share some photos from that time to capture all the fun.
UVA’s New Leadership
The most exciting development in Uncompahgre Valley Alliance is our Organizing Committee! This group is providing the guidance to relaunch our local Alliance. They are strengthening the affiliate, rebuilding our base, and picking our next issue campaign based on our recent deep listening work. This is a team of wonderful people who care deeply about this community. I am very grateful I get to work alongside them as we prepare for this next phase of our local Alliance, so be on the lookout for all the great news coming from this leadership team!
New Alliance Headquarters
For those of you who don’t know, Western Colorado Alliance has a new office in Grand Junction! We welcomed everyone to explore our new space on June 1. We were blown away by the support and are very excited for this chapter, and it was great to see Montrose representation there, especially our supporters from Olathe! If you are ever in the downtown Grand Junction area, please stop in and say hi to our staff. They’d love to show you around the place at 601 North 1st Street.
Montana Adventures
I was fortunate enough to attend two events conducted by Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC) in May and June. At Continued Education for Organizers (CEO), I was in space with other organizers who have organized for less than five years in the network. I was able to build up my meeting facilitation, membership, and campaign skills.
And in June, a majority of our Alliance’s staff traveled to beautiful Polson, Montana to spend relational and learning time with other staff across the WORC Network at WORC’s Annual Conference. I was a presenter for two sessions, which was an amazing experience. I am lucky to be able to participate in these gatherings. It helps improve my organizing to better serve the county and region! We will also be sending two local Alliance members to the Principles of Community Organizing (POCO) training taking place in Billings, Montana in late July. We couldn’t be more proud to send these members to strengthen their leadership and organizing skills.
That’s all for now! Thanks for your continued support of local community organizing and leadership development, all in pursuit of a healthy, just, and self-reliant Montrose County. Feel free to email me! You can also call or text me at (904) 814-9735 whenever you need.
Bianca Diaz hails from northeast Florida, and brings a background in volunteer management, activism, and community building. She worked in the procurement world for a few years before making the big leap to move out west. She landed a position as an AmeriCorps VISTA with Colorado Canyons Association and the Bureau of Land Management to connect youth and families to the three National Conservation Areas here on the Western Slope. During her year of service, she realized that helping people and working to solve the root causes of our most pressing social issues was her true passion. Off the clock, she loves reading random Wikipedia articles, listening to music, taking care of her worm compost bins, walking her dog, and stargazing!