Executive Summary

In partnership with community members, Lifespan Local was founded to address the numerous disparities— economic, health, food access, childcare, and education— that characterize the experience of diverse populations in Southwest Denver. Southwest Denver is home to working class families, immigrants and refugees, and the greatest concentration of children in Denver. In recent years, gentrification has accelerated the rate of displacement and magnified the detrimental impacts of poverty. Historically, the neighborhoods have been ignored by powers-that-be and so community members have developed distrust of government and instead leaned on their own infrastructure to support one another. Although Lifespan’s staff come from the community and directly reflect the lived experience of program participants, we recognize our inherent power as an organization with resources. Accordingly, in all our work, we listen to community members first and determine our responsive actions next. This approach is informed by the community based participatory research framework, which honors both evidence-based practices and practice-informed evidence. Lifespan Local is responding to voiced community need by offering: leadership training, food distribution, public health information, maternal mental health programming, parenting supports, job training, and youth suicide prevention. In response to the pandemic, we launched a public health information team and direct cash assistance-- these pandemic programs continue today, shifting to meet evolving needs. We invest in community members so that activities can be sustained through the increased capacity of community residents themselves. We approach our work from a systems- and strengths-based perspective with an emphasis on diversity, equity, and community-based leadership.

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