Northwest Aurora is home to a vibrant community made up of one of the most diverse populations in Colorado. It is also a historically underserved region facing increasingly constant challenges around housing and economic development for its residents. Additionally, NW Aurora also presents itself as a destination for migrant workforces with varying legal statuses who see it as a community where they can continue their life’s journey.
Located near the heart of Northwest Aurora, the Aurora Economic Development Coalition (AEOC) stands as a community steward looking to support current and new residents to settle and thrive in the neighborhood. The AEOC does this by focusing on three main areas of work: empowering workers, addressing social determinants of health, and building community wealth. With four people in the core team and a network of on-call support, the AEOC spearheads efforts that consider the holistic needs of the NW Aurora community. These include projects housed within the AEOC like the Dayton Street Day Labor Center that supports day laborers in the area, the Migrant Response Network that was started as a response to the heightened influx of migrant populations to the Denver/Aurora metro area during the latter half of 2022 and using culturally relevant approaches for increasing access to healthcare. The AEOC has also played key roles in partnership with organizations such as Food Justice NW Aurora, the Aurora Cultural Arts District, and Village Exchange among others.
Operating within a fast-changing environment, it is necessary that the AEOC remain light on its feet ready to jump on the next opportunity to support the community. At the same time, it is just as important to acknowledge team capacity and center their energy on core offerings. The tension between remaining responsive to all while also attempting to carve a space for specific core offerings is one we have seen with partners across the state who serve communities at the margins of society—low income, varying legal status, experiencing housing insecurity, etc. There exist several reasons why this is the case, including communities at the margins being more vulnerable to experiencing the impacts of a crisis such as the one caused by the coronavirus in 2020.
Sometimes the work moves at such a speed that it is hard to look back at just how much we are doing. When this happens, it is important to make intentional space to slow down, collect our thoughts, reflect on team capacity, and evaluate how what we are doing supports our organization’s purpose and goals. This is what the AEOC did in June of 2023, bringing in support from the Canopy to conduct a work mapping session where we took the time to list every aspect of the AEOC’s work and how much was being done by each team member. During this process, we recognized that, although the AEOC has been tapped in to be part of a lot of projects, the organization is moving toward becoming a convener in the space—bringing together folks to harness their collective power. The mapping session also allowed the team to express feelings of overwhelm and being stretched thin while also recognizing the importance of the work they do and the support each of them feels from each other.
What practices do you engage in to reflect on the work you do and how you do it?