Affordable housing, mental health care and child care are some of the biggest challenges in the Roaring Fork Valley, which is why Mountain Voices Project focuses on community organizing and civic engagement.
Katie Martin Langenhuizen, a leader at Mountain Voices, sat down with reporter Regan Mertz to talk about how they’re trying to tackle these common dilemmas.
The conversation below has been edited for clarity and length.
Regan Mertz: So, starting off, the Mountain Voices Project is based in Garfield, Pitkin and Eagle Counties.
It is a coalition made up of several organizations that work together to build civic leaders in the community and help to hold public systems accountable.
So, Katie, how did this organization get started?
Martin Langenhuizen: Mountain Voices Project got started, it was born out of a different nonprofit called MANAUS, and a man named George Stranahan knew of community organizing and wanted to bring it to our community, thinking that all voices should be heard at the table, making sure that some voices aren't swept under the rug, and just giving more voices to civic organizations.
Mertz: What need was it trying to address in the community?
Martin Langenhuizen: An analogy someone used recently that I thought was really good is we have Chambers of Commerce for small businesses, the business community. So this is kind of like that, a concept of a small business, you know, wants to have a voice and participate, but it can be hard as a single business to do that. It'd be hard as a single civic organization to know how to step in or have a voice. And so it's the collective coming together of civic organizations so that we can figure out what our common interests are.
Mertz: Back in 2022, Mountain Voices leaders talked to Glenwood Springs City Council about advancing the ballot proposition for a 2.5% increase in the lodging tax to invest in workforce housing.
So, why did Mountain Voices feel the need to get involved in this? And what has come out of this tax?
Martin Langenhuizen: Yeah, our needs are decided among the civic organizations and all the leaders involved in this group based off of what we're hearing in the community, the conversations we have with each other. We really value listening and relationships. And so recently, those issues that the group has wanted to be focused on are mental health, childcare and housing. And so housing was already something we determined was a priority, and when the Glenwood initiative came up, we jumped in and got involved and wanted to support it and participate in it, so there'd be more voice of varied perspectives.
Mertz: Some initiatives that you’re looking into are child care and mental health, so what are you doing with those particular topics?
Martin Langenhuizen: There's really a need for some more robust mental health in our community for all people, and affordable, but especially bilingual, bicultural. And so then they started exploring and researching what some options might be. And so I believe the current idea is that there'd be kind of a pilot program of trying to help a pipeline of, hopefully young people or others that want to become mental health professionals that live in this community already, and help them. They’re partnering with CMC and others to try to kind of incubate some mental health providers that could be from our community and for our community.
And then another issue that we're supporting right now is the CECE coalition. It’s a group up and down the valley working on getting some early childhood education, which like preschool, for example. They're trying to create a special tax district. Mountain voices project has some numbers involved in reaching out to the commissioners and to others. They did the listening campaign first.
Mertz: Alright, where do you see the organization going in the future, especially with political divides increasing in the US?
Martin Langenhuizen: Yeah, this is what we're built for. We've been building relationships with each other for years between all these organizations and in our community, so that we have that connection and that common interest in these moments. And so we really have been intentional about getting to know people that are different than us, whether that's language, whether that's socioeconomic status, whether it's different faith groups talking to each other. And so it feels like this is, you know, not necessarily a problem for us. It's a great thing, but we are concerned, and we especially try to listen to our most vulnerable members. And there's a lot of fear and a lot of stuff going on right now, as you said, and so we're just continuing to listen and see if we need to evolve.
Mertz: Alright, thank you so much, Katie.
Support for this Nonprofit Spotlight series comes from the Aspen Community Foundation.
