A four-part series to connect community and envision a greater Eagle County
If there is one thing this community is not short on it’s opinions. It’s what makes the Vail Valley special — we can come together with vastly different opinions, listen, learn, talk and come out with a resolution. That’s what “Finding Our Way Home Housing Collaboration” is all about — your opinion, and the collective work it will take, to keep the Eagle River Valley a vibrant place where locals can thrive.
Last year, local governments from each town in the Eagle River Valley supported the regional housing needs assessment – with more than 1500 respondents. With the completion – Habitat for Humanity Vail Valley spearheaded this next effort to continue the conversation. As the valley becomes less affordable and is more difficult for the workforce to live and thrive, nonprofits, organizations, businesses and governments have come together to ask community members to help create a roadmap for the future.
“The collaboration begins with Habitat for Humanity and many of its community partners recognizing the overwhelming need for housing in Eagle Valley and the toll it’s taking on families that are struggling to figure out where to find the next place to live or how to afford the place they have,” explains Bill Fulton with Civic Canopy, which is helping facilitate the collaborative housing effort.
“Habitat was eager to move beyond our usual role of helping build affordable homes. We worked with partners in our community to convene everyone in a larger conversation about how to find solutions to problems that have been growing over the years,” adds Elyse Howard, VP of community affairs & philanthropy. “We will collaborate and using the best research possible to make concrete changes.”
There are four meetings for everyone in the community to gather, share stories, explore data and find solutions. The idea is that towns, governments, individuals, nonprofits come together around common goals and work together to build off each other’s efforts to make changes happen.
There are concrete steps that will take place to move forward. The first begins with YOU, your friends, neighbors, family members or book club. Take (and share) this survey.
- Polish the vision and begin to define how we’ll measure progress.
- Look at how we’re doing against the data. Figure out the root causes of the challenges and how we can develop strategies to address them.
- After a series of action items and exploring solutions, we’ll have a community road map going forward of a vision of where we are headed.
We need community input to create a shared vision for the future.
“The vision certainly includes housing but really we will be envisioning a thriving community in 25 years — imagining Eagle County as a place where everyone can live, work, and play now and for generations to come,” Fulton says.
We’re asking everyone to take a few minutes to take the survey to help gather language and goals around housing, affordability, staying connected and being a collaborative community.
“We want to make sure this language really resonates and includes a broad number of voices and shaping it. We’ll dive into the work of reaching final agreement on the vision and then identifying the indicators of progress.”
We are working to create inspiring solutions for the community.
The first meeting took place in November and the next one is Thursday, January 22 at 5 p.m. We’re hoping for hundreds of people to come together!
Learn more: Attend the meeting Thursday, January 22 and Colorado Mountain College. Take the survey. RSVP. And share this information!
