Purpose

The purpose of the Initiative was to help both immigrants and long-term residents from Aspen to Parachute understand one another better and become more connected to their communities. The primary goal was to work alongside our neighbors to insure that the Aspen to Parachute community is a welcoming place for everyone who comes here to live and work. Through our project we were promoting a more knowledgeable community that accepts people, helped to orient newcomers and provided an atmosphere of support for all people who are new to the community.

The Initiative has reached the end of its funding cycle but is leaving behind four years of dedication to immigrant integration. Our Resource Guide for Newcomers reached hundreds of immigrants from Aspen to Parachute. The Orientation Workshop Series on Challenges of Raising the Immigrant Child and Health and Disease Prevention provided invaluable information about the US system to over 100 immigrants. Mini-grants helped fund over 30 integration activities in the region. Citizenship Drives helped over 150 people process their applications for citizenship. A dedicated Steering Committee of community leaders had been working over the years to ensure the funds from the Colorado Trust were wisely used to encourage and benefit community integration activities.

We would like to see the resources we created over the years be useful for everyone in the community in years to come. One way to accomplish this is keeping our website. Here you can access the Resource Guide for Newcomers (available in English and Spanish). You can listen to Immigrant Stories. For newer stories, please visit www.kdnk.org Please contact Immigrant Stories organizer, Walter Gallacher, through the Immigrant Stories request form on this website, if you are interested in telling your immigrant story, or know of someone who might be. You can find information about our mini-grant recipients and their activities. Visit The Region section to learn more about the Aspen to Parachute region. If you want to learn about Immigrant Integration around the country, visit section Helpful Links. 

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to our Fiscal Agent for their invaluable support over the years, to the dedicated Steering Committee members who donated their time, energy and knowledge to the Initiative, to Walter Gallacher for his humane and caring approach in recollecting the stories of immigrants, to all organizations that had worked with us to ensure our message and work gets to the community, to everyone who had been involved in the Initiative through the various projects. Last but not least, we would like to thank The Colorado Trust and Spring Institute for their amazing financial and technical support - without it we could have not been able to carry out our work. 

If you want to tell your immigrant story or know of someone who might be interested in telling their story, please e-mail Walter Gallacher at chaco@sopris.net