BLUEPRINT & EQUITY FRAMEWORK

Here’s how the Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger is structured and organized, with diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging centered within all of our work:

OUR COMMITMENT TO EQUITY

Equity is achieved when everyone has a fair and just opportunity to live the healthiest life possible, no matter who we are, where we live, or how much money we make. This requires understanding and removing obstacles that impact hunger, such as poverty and discrimination.

We recognize that poverty and hunger disproportionately impact families and individuals from historically oppressed and marginalized communities – the result of a long history of policies that have created and maintained barriers to opportunity for people of color and non-native English speakers.

At the Blueprint, we strive to center equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging within all of our work. We demonstrate our commitment by:

The Blueprint will demonstrate inclusion by:

• Welcoming and inviting all opinions and perspectives;

• Ensuring everyone is treated with respect and fairness;

• Seeking community and stakeholder voices that have historically been left out; and

• Leveraging the unique perspectives, abilities, and qualities that individuals choose to share.

Here are some of our practices to elevate community voice, build community power, and engage directly with those who have historically been left out:

Being Participant-Centered

Anyone is welcome to join and participate in Blueprint meetings and activities!

Language justice ensures there’s space for participants to speak in the language that they feel most comfortable using. We offer simultaneous interpretation in Spanish and English, along with closed captioning, at all Blueprint-hosted meetings and activities. We also provide all public communication in both languages.

We value and welcome participation by those with living or lived experience. As part of our commitment to equity, compensation is available to anyone who voluntarily participates and is not representing an organization as a paid employee.

Meeting Norms & Expectations

With equity as a core value and central part of our framework, we’ll demonstrate our unwavering commitment throughout every meeting and expect all attendees to do the same. The Blueprint uses established norms and expectations for all meetings to support our pledge to equitable practices.

Standing in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples

We stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and nations, recognizing the original stewards of our lands and the challenges that they continue to face today due to genocide and displacement by colonialism and U.S. public policy.

Our land acknowledgment, written by a local leader within the American Indian Movement, is one way we do this; it’s read at the beginning of every Blueprint-hosted meeting and shared publicly in other ways to honor Indigenous communities and encourage others to learn and take action.

We also support Indigenous efforts through grants for traditional food access, elder storytelling, and accomplice and self-determination trainings.

Accessible Funding Opportunities

We actively develop accessible funding opportunities to support community-based organizations – often those who are traditionally overlooked for funding – to increase healthy food access in their local areas and neighborhoods. They’re intentionally designed to minimize barriers, with only limited requirements to encourage instead of deterring or disqualifying interested applicants.

Additionally, the Blueprint creates shared opportunities for community members to lead decision-making around grant program development and distribution of funds.

Equity Resources & Opportunities

We encourage other organizations to start or continue their own equity journey. The Blueprint offers opportunities and resources like a yearlong equity challenge, which includes a peer learning series, and an equity continuum and self-assessment tool with one-on-one support available for organizations.

The Equity Continuum is a practical, self-assessment tool that aims to provide partners — those working in the field of anti-hunger and poverty — with a way to assess your organization's progression in shifting policies, practices, programs, and measures to advance equitable outcomes. It can be a helpful framework and educational tool for conversations with staff, strategic planning with boards, project and policy development, and advancement of community leadership.