01 CSE
Culturing
Commons Sense Education
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We care for the place we share
SPIRIT of the Front Range.
A Colorado nonprofit helping neighbors and communities take care of the land, water, and air that we share.
● Cover photographed by True To Essence · 2024
If you live on the Earth, you already share a home.
We belong to more places than we have names for.
Here on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, we live in our homes, communities, and neighborhoods, but we also live in a watershed, a living ecosystem, and a long stretch of mountains meeting the plains with its distinct weather and particular patterns of land, water and life.
The watershed doesn't start on a property line. The wildfire doesn't respect county limits. The lines on a map cannot actually separate us from each other or from the land that holds us, because we are not separate from the living world. We are part of Nature, just like a fox, a forest, or a river, and our belonging to the living world implies responsibility for its stewardship.
As people who call this bioregionA geographically and hydrologically defined area characterized by distinct ecological features that together form a coherent biocultural home.Full glossary → home, we choose to take responsibility for taking care of what takes care of us – the lands, the water, the air, and each other.
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Our mission
We know the way is together.
Mission. SPIRIT serves as connective tissue for the regenerative bioregional movement activating here on the Front Range.
The reality is, there are hundreds of people already doing this work locally: watershed stewards, Indigenous land keepers, neighborhood organizers, regenerative farmers, artists, musicians, teachers, healers.
By lifting up and connecting existing regenerative initiatives, projects, organizations, and communities, SPIRIT aims to build the infrastructure that supports coordination and coherence among them, so we can take even better care of what we all share.
We call that infrastructure the Bioregional commons“The Commons” points to the living realities of shared place — the commonality of the ecologies and resources for which all residents of a place share responsibility, and on which all residents depend.Full glossary →, the space between us that belongs to and is governed by everyone who shows up in the spirit of care for our shared home.
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Live programs
Easy ways to get involved.
With care-based programs to foster solidarity within our neighborhoods and communities, and to bridge with the displaced original ancestors of these lands to find a good way forward together, SPIRIT aims to provide a practical backbone for the establishment of the Front Range Bioregional Commons.
↳ The SPIRIT programs all interconnect. Solidarity Suppers foster relationships, the Commons Sense teachings build understanding, the Neighborhood Resiliency Program builds enduring capacity, and the Grant Rounds (coming soon) put resources in motion.
02 SS
Belonging
Solidarity
Suppers
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03 NRP
Coordination
Neighborhood Resiliency Programs
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All of our programming prioritizes access and equity.
→ See all programsSubscribe to events on our community dashboard. For inquiries, email admin@spiritofthefrontrange.org.
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The Present Moment
SPIRIT was formed in response to the following challenges and pressing concerns facing people of place on the Front Range:
01 Climate turbulence has arrived.
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The East Troublesome Fire in 2020, the second-largest in Colorado history. The Marshall Fire in 2021. We live in one of the fastest-warming corridors in the country. Smoke seasons are getting longer. Our non-renewing aquifers are drawing down. The climate crisis is here now.
02 Our civic fabric has thinned.
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Many of us don't know our neighbors by their names and stories. The habits and customs that held the village together through good times and bad have largely disappeared. We have become estranged from those with whom we have the most in common – land, water, air, culture.
03 High-level coordination tools are missing.
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Hundreds of groups already work along the Front Range — watershed organizers, farmers, neighborhood coalitions – and they don't know each other and are not well-incentivized to collaborate. Good work is already happening here, but the connective tissue that links it all together is missing.
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water in red rock
What we're building toward
The Front Range Commons.
A decentralized, member-directed network-in-formation dedicated to cultural and ecological stewardship, and community-led resource allocation; a space where anyone can contribute, propose projects, share resources, and participate in organizational governance.
the front range commonsA decentralized, member-directed network-in-formation dedicated to cultural and ecological stewardship, and community-led resource allocation; a space where anyone can contribute, propose projects, share resources, and participate in organizational governance.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 geographically and hydrologically defined area characterized by distinct ecological features that together form a coherent biocultural home.Full glossary → can join. SPIRIT provides the legal scaffolding so the commons“The Commons” points to the living realities of shared place — the commonality of the ecologies and resources for which all residents of a place share responsibility, and on which all residents depend.Full glossary → can focus on the actual work.
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The work, in four parts
Four Pillars, woven together.
SPIRIT exists to coordinate a decentralized movement of local leaders engaged in economic re-localization, Indigenous revitalization, neighborhood resiliency, and bioregional regeneration. Our four pillars guide us toward alignment with that purpose.
↓ see Programs below for what these look like in practice
Pillar · Culturing
01
Culturing.
— offerings · Solidarity Supper
Meals, gatherings, and community experiments that grow patterns of relationship. Solidarity Suppers, Commons Sense teaching and listening, skill-shares — everyday practices that help neighbors show up for each other with increasing intelligence, experience, care, and particular style.
★ outcome: a living, transmissible practice
Pillar · Solidarity
02
Solidarity.
— Listeners' Council · blessing
Building a shared sense of responsibility for each other. Long-table dinners, shared walks, and mutual aid. The long, slow work of helping people contribute to and benefit from Commons practices where we share what we care about and care for what we share, so that everyone has what they need to thrive.
★ outcome: real, embodied belonging
Pillar · Coordination
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Coordination.
— pond · Boulder Creek watershed
The tools and agreements that let people and groups decide things together. Shared calendars, regenerative projects, fund-disbursement, community-led decision-making. With Mesh networks, microgrids, local-first tech, distributed tool libraries, neighborhood farm exchanges, community-owned servers, we are building the infrastructure for real resilience – at the speed of trust.
★ outcome: coherent collective will
Pillar · Allocation
04
Allocation.
— harvest, summer
Putting funds directly into the hands of the people doing the actual work. Community-determined grant rounds, twice yearly — funded and allocated by the people who live here. Quadratic funding amplifies broad support over large donations. We fund what matters to us.
★ outcome: fairly-distributed care
★ the four pillars are activated through the programs we run
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Support the work
Every gift moves us toward a more connected Front Range.
Your financial contribution supports programming, community-led allocation rounds, and the shared infrastructure that makes a flourishing bioregion possible.
Every donation moves toward a more resilient, more connected Front Range — through Commons Sense education that opens understanding, Solidarity Suppers that deepen relationships, Neighborhood Resiliency Programs that build real preparedness, and Community Grant Rounds that put resources directly in the hands of the communities doing the most vital work.
thanks for reading → next update coming Spring
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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 Words pageBioregion
(noun) — A geographically and hydrologically defined area characterized by distinct ecological features that together form a coherent biocultural home.
The Commons
"The Commons" points to the living realities of shared place — the commonality of the ecologies and resources for which all residents of a place share responsibility, and on which all residents depend.
The Front Range Commons
A decentralized, member-directed network-in-formation dedicated to cultural and ecological stewardship, and community-led resource allocation; a space where anyone can contribute, propose projects, share resources, and participate in organizational governance.
Commoning
Commoning on a bioregional level directs our attentions and energies to where we can directly relate to the consequences of our stewardship, labor, and care.
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