Local First Foundation

Local First Foundations Healthcare Initiative serves as a locus of community accountability to foster community well-being. We partner with Peak Health Alliance, a nonprofit healthcare purchasing cooperative, to increase health insurance affordability and reduce the cost of living for residents of southwest Colorado. We collaborated with the League of Women Voters to help launch the La Plata Healthcare Improvement Coalition, which brought together 40 community members to address challenges affecting local residents; Foundation staff co-chaired two coalition workgroups to support this work. We compiled a directory of local mental healthcare providers and regularly shared resources with the business community to support workforce mental health following the pandemic. Staff also served on a steering committee to guide the community health needs assessment conducted by San Juan Basin Public Health.

Program Development focuses on building a local movement to invest in addressing our communitys most pressing concerns. During 2023, our efforts focused on collaborating with other community nonprofits and government agencies to assess how the community can meet the need for affordable housing and childcare, as well as ongoing efforts to promote local business resilience and continued recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Local Self-Reliance Program includes working with the Local First Independent Business Alliance to sponsor campaigns that raise public awareness of the value of participating in the local circular economy and of adopting sustainable business practices. This program provides general sponsorship of Durango First Fridays in which local businesses serve as a venue where local artists and artisans can showcase their work to the general public, thereby advancing community arts and culture and strengthening the local creative economy.