Cultivando

Testimonials from program participants help illustrate the caliber of our trust and relationship building with the community members we do this work with:

"Cultivando fue la herramienta más bonita en mi vida que me hizo crecer y sentir que yo podía salir adelante". | “Cultivando was the most beautiful tool in my life that helped me to grow and to feel that I could forge ahead.”

“A través de Niños Saludables en el Hogar, no solo aprendí sobre salud y nutrición, sino también a creer en mi capacidad como proveedora de cuidado de niños”. | “Through Healthy Children at Home, I not only learned about health and nutrition, but also about growing my capacity as a child care provider.”

"Cultivando es más que un programa: es un espacio donde se cultivan valores, se sanan heridas y se construyen nuevas oportunidades". | “Cultivando is more than a program: it is a space where we cultivate values, heal wounds and build new opportunities.”

“The school children are experiencing nose bleeds, that’s just not normal. I had one of Cultivando’s air monitors in my house to help measure contaminants. I participate because I live here with my son and my husband, and we are concerned about the pollution.” - Commerce City Resident

That’s Rufina, a Commerce City neighbor. She first engaged with Cultivando’s work in 2019 by joining the pláticas, community conversations ranging from mental health topics to environmental education. One of Cultivando’s Promotoras would pick up Rufina and drive her to and from workshops the first few years until Rufina got a license and her own transportation.

Promotoras, who live in the area, help connect neighbors to one another and to Cultivando’s health equity work. Hosting community dialogues and learning spaces is only half the battle when so many participants struggle to access them. 

They routinely help to minimize barriers and promote sustained engagement.

“I began to absorb more and more information. I now do my part towards building a better world, and a healthier future for my son.”

We believe that those who are closest to the problem need to be involved in co-creating solutions and guiding the process. It’s imperative that impacted individuals have a voice in shaping the policies and programs that serve and engage them. Accordingly, the Promotora model at Cultivando helps recruit community members into leadership roles who then in turn help gather community input that ultimately informs organizational priorities and societal change. 

We are 100% community-informed and -led:

• Cultivando's Promotoras and all staff are individuals with lived experience across health inequity issues and who are from the local neighborhoods we operate in.
• We build trust through community pláticas (conversations), capacity-building workshops, learning spaces, training sessions, rallies, press conferences, celebratory activities and events.
• We gather with communities at transit-accessible venues and include language interpretation, dependent care offerings, and adequate nourishment.
• We gain input through surveys, interviews, 1:1s, and other community-led dialogue spaces.
• Community members help shape the solutions we pursue collectively by joining as staff, contractors, board members, and interns.
• We support communities into taking leadership roles in neighborhoods, schools, nonprofits, the private sector, and public office.
• We build inroads for communities to engage directly with policymakers and corporate leaders and voice their concerns.
• We advance the narratives and perspectives of our communities and challenge censorship and other barriers to truth sharing by working with the media.