Foco Speaks Out!
Poudre River Public Library District, Colo.
Innovation Synopsis
Foco Speaks Out! promotes vital conversation around local issues of social and racial justice to deliberately build a community where every person is treated with dignity and respect. It is a platform for stories to paint a reality of local inequities while inspiring people.
Challenge/Opportunity
It is a series of dynamic events that generates abundant awareness through community engagement and forms a path of personal growth through directing deep self reflection. It allows people with different points of view to see the reality of our community through an equity lens while providing paths to take action. The challenge lies in the polarizing nature of current conversations around racial and social justice in America.
Key Elements of Innovation
We are using a liberation psychology model, where presenters and local nonprofits allow safe spaces for usually marginalized communities to liberate those in the margins, while at the same time providing safe spaces to those who are not affected by inequities due to their identities to explore the reality that others live on a daily basis in our community.
Achieved Outcomes
We have partnered with many local nonprofits, including the Human Relations Commission and others and hosted two programs with more than 500 attendees that have stated the program opened a different reality for them and offered them the opportunity to connect and take action towards changing the makeup of iniquities in our town.