01 CTI
Culturing
Commons Teach-Ins
Free monthly sessions on how communities have actually taken care of land together — past and present. Open to everyone. No prerequisites.
● active get on list →
★ We care for the place we share
SPIRIT of the Front Range.
A Colorado nonprofit helping neighbors and communities along the Front Range take care of the land, water, and life we share.
● Cover photographed for SPIRIT · 2024
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★ What SPIRIT is
A nonprofit acting as connective tissue for the work of caring for the Front Range.
SPIRIT is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We are the connective tissue for the people, neighborhoods, and organizations already caring for the Front Range. We handle the institutional work — fundraising, fiscal hosting, the legal pieces — so the practical, on-the-ground work of tending this place can flourish.
We are a small team at the beginning of something, and we do not pretend to have all the answers. SPIRIT is scaffolding for the Front Range commonsWhat we share and are responsible for together — the air, the water, the soil, the relationships that hold the community. Not an abstraction.Full glossary → — the larger civic body the people of this region will build together. Our job is to make ourselves obsolete: to build something the community can carry, and then step aside.
In time, the Board will not look like us. It will be Indigenous leaders, elders, and longtime community stewards who actually represent who lives here. That is the direction we are walking.
What SPIRIT is — 02 —
★ Live programs
Easy ways to get involved.
Free or pay-what-you-can. Open enrollment. No prerequisites. Sign up to hear when something opens near you.
★ everything we run is free or pay-what-you-can
02 SS
Belonging
Solidarity Suppers
Long-table dinners that bring together community leaders, elders, and Indigenous neighbors — with listening circles, storytelling, and the slow building of relationships.
● active get on list →
03 NRP
Coordination
Neighborhood Resiliency Programs
Free 12-session training that gives a small group of neighbors the relationships, skills, and plan to weather an emergency together — instead of alone.
● active get on list →
↳ also coming: community-decided grant rounds for local projects
→ See all programs Easy ways in — 03 —
★ The work, in four parts
Four threads, woven together.
Our work is organized into four threads. They are not separate — every program touches all four — but naming them makes what we do easier to follow.
↓ see Programs above for what these look like in practice
Pillar · Allocation
01
Allocation.
— harvest, summer
Putting funds directly into the hands of the people doing the actual work — through community-decided grant rounds and mutual aid. Our first round is being designed now — transparent, community-led, with at least 50% of every dollar raised going straight to the work.
★ outcome: fairly-distributed care
Pillar · Coordination
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Coordination.
— pond · Boulder Creek watershed
Building the tools, agreements, and shared funds that let neighbors and organizations decide things together — by consent, not majority vote. How we decide is part of the work.
★ outcome: coherent collective will
Pillar · Belonging
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Belonging.
— Listeners' Council · blessing
Building a shared sense of home through long-table dinners, walks, and listening circles — centering community leaders and elders, especially our Indigenous neighbors whose knowledge of this place goes back generations.
★ outcome: real, embodied solidarity
Pillar · Culturing
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Culturing.
— offerings · Solidarity Supper
Building the culture, skills, and shared understanding the work needs — through gatherings, skill-shares, and public teach-ins on the long history of communities caring for shared land.
★ outcome: a living, transmissible practice
★ all four are active in every program we run
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★ Six promises
What guides us.
How we work — 05 —
★ water in red rock
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What we're building toward
The Front Range Commons.
The Front Range commonsWhat we share and are responsible for together — the air, the water, the soil, the relationships that hold the community. Not an abstraction.Full glossary → is a way for the people who live here to decide together how to care for this place — alongside the foundations, agencies, and organizations already at work. Anyone who lives in this bioregionA region defined by its land, water, and life — not by political lines. A watershed, an ecosystem, the human and natural communities that depend on each other. The Front Range is one.Full glossary → can join. SPIRIT provides the legal scaffolding so the Commons can focus on the actual work.
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★ A few terms, plainly
Begin with the words.
A few words come up often on this site. Here's the short version of each. Hover any *underlined* word elsewhere on the site for an inline definition.
→ More definitions on The Commons pageBioregion
A region defined by its land, water, and life rather than by political lines — a watershed, an ecosystem, the human and natural communities that depend on each other. The Front Range is one.
The Commons
What we share and are responsible for together — the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil under our feet, the relationships that hold the community.
Commoning
A verb. The everyday practice of caring for what we share. A *commons* is the garden. *Commoning* is the gardening.
Built to be replaced
Our promise that SPIRIT is a starting scaffold for community work — not a permanent institution. Success looks like handing the work off and stepping aside.
The words we use — 07 —
★ Support the work
Every gift moves us toward a more connected Front Range.
Your gift funds public teach-ins that build shared understanding, Solidarity Suppers that deepen relationships, neighborhood preparedness programs that give people the skills and the plan to weather an emergency together, and grant rounds that put resources directly into the hands of the people already doing the most vital work. This is how a place learns to take care of itself.
★ thanks for reading → next update coming Spring
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