‘Neighborhood News’ Archives
Art Parties! Semilla Center for Healing and the Arts
By Interim Director Bart Buch and Artist/Board Member Angela Barrera A Party Invitation: We had a hard year last year, in many, many ways. Covid-19, economic hardship, violence, addiction, police brutality, social unrest, and homelessness have all increased the neighborhood's fear and isolation. One good thing that came out of the emergency of the uprising last year was getting to know new neighbors and looking out for one another during troubling times. We hope and feel better times are coming, Spring is arriving, and we at Semilla Center for Healing and the Arts have an idea, An Invitation! We want to help create better times with new connections, strengthening existing connections, and increasing community trust using art and parties - Art Parties! to celebrate together and continue looking out for one another. In March, Semilla Center started hosting these art parties on the first Wednesday of the month, first online while it was colder outside, then we will meet [...]
Little Earth Partnership Redefines Research
By SARAH McVICAR Reprinted with permission from Metropolitan State University”™s Institute for Community Engagement and Scholarship https://littleearth.org/scout In 2015, Metropolitan State Human Services Professor Roberta Gibbons and residents of the Little Earth community embarked on a rare, shared project that would impact them both in fundamental and enduring ways. Like Little Earth itself ”“ the only Native-preference Section 8 housing community in the nation ”“ the initiative was unique from the start. It began with a proposal for a small research grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to gather data about the drivers and causes of violence at Little Earth ”“ and potentially secure a subsequent larger grant to fund community programming. At the heart of the project was the unique way in which it embodied its model of Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) ”“ what the Healthy City program defines as a [...]
