We Are Chaffee’s Future Belonging Project Overview:
Chaffee County Public Health’s storytelling initiative, We Are Chaffee (WAC), is honored to have received funding for a 2-year project from Belonging Colorado through The Denver Foundation.
Belonging is a feeling that one truly belongs. It is associated with strong social connections, psychological safety, and feeling that you have a voice. Having a sense of belonging helps manage stress and other behavioral issues. When we feel we have support and are not alone, we are more resilient, often coping more effectively with difficult times in our lives.
One way to move toward a culture of belonging is to help people from different political or cultural states to bridge the differences between them. We Are Chaffee’s Future (WACF) Belonging Project’s focus will be on bridging divides within a small group of intergenerational participants through the fostering of constructive dialogue and exposure to active engagement opportunities to create trust and understanding across group lines. The work will culminate in the creation of public art and shared stories throughout the county that represent the participant’s personal experiences and reflect the group’s shared sense of community belonging. In addition, through the exposure to the participant's public art and a public education outreach effort, the ideas of belonging will resonate with community members and visitors.
WACF is excited to announce that we have engaged 14 participants ages 14 to 78 for this project. These community-minded people represent the diversity of the county and will be placed into intergenerational pairs to work together. The bridge building workshops will be intensive, and facilitators will utilize the UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center’s Bridging Difference Program skills to provide guidance.
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We are excited to announce that We Are Chaffee has hired two local artists to help with this project and have developed a rough timeline. The belonging work with the participants is happening now and the art development process will begin early in 2026! We hope to have designs ready for Board/Council reviews at the beginning of March with installation occuring in May. Stay tuned for celebrations related to the completion of the artwork sometime in June!
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We are actively looking for spaces for artwork that are highly visible and located in Buena Vista, Salida and/or Poncha Springs. Please contact us with any thoughts or ideas!
Do you have questions?
Do you or your organization want to support these efforts?
We would love to hear from you!
Contact: Lisa Martin LMartin@chaffeecounty.org
Chaffee County Public Health Community Advocacy Coordinator
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Read more about the project funders here:
About The Denver Foundation
For 100 years, The Denver Foundation has been building a stronger, thriving Metro
Denver, Colorado, and beyond. We’ve received $2.1 billion from generous
donors and given $1.6 billion in grants to support community initiatives. We’re the
foundation of Denver, connecting and collaborating to address the current and
future challenges of our community. To learn more about The Denver Foundation, visit
www.denverofundation.org
About Belonging Colorado
Belonging Colorado is a bold, new effort to bring people together in new ways, grow
resilience in our state, and expand Coloradans’ sense of who belongs. We seek to
invest in good ideas for building connections across lines of difference—racial, ethnic,
socioeconomic, political affiliation, age, and more. Our state is not immune to the trends
of social division and disconnection affecting our nation. It is more essential than ever
that Coloradans work effectively across differences to bridge divides and support our
state's long-term health, resilience, and well-being.
About the Greater Good Science Center
Based at UC Berkeley, the Greater Good Science Center provides a bridge between the
research community and the general public.
Find out more: https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/who_we_are