CIVIC CENTER CONSERVANCY

A PLACE FOR EVERYBODY, EVERY DAY

| DENVER, COLORADO

At the end of winter in 1997, Laurent Thurnheer looked down at the melting snow under his chairlift and saw thousands of pieces of waste under the ski lifts. That was the impetus for launching the Summit Foundation in 2001, an independent notfor-profit Swiss foundation. The Foundation focuses on enhancing awareness and education with respect to the environment, developing concrete solutions for waste at ski areas, and coordinating clean-up days as well as scientific environmental research on waste, plastics and microplastics. The Summit Foundation organized 31 CleanUp events in Switzerland and 10 in Italy last year, raising awareness and gathering the community to help protect the mountain ecosystem and its surroundings. “People from all over the world come to interact with this natural environment,” said Téo Gürsoy, Project Manager for the Clean-up Tour. “But, where there’s human activity, there is littering. And trash represents a direct threat to fauna and flora, soils and waters and indirectly to humans. Plastic, for example, breaks into smaller and smaller pieces within decades and can eventually enter the food chain.” The VF Foundation funding helped the Summit Foundation extend their Clean-up Tour to Italy; create “Clean-Mont Blanc,” a scientific research program on microplastics; and fueled an awareness campaign in nearly 50 Swiss ski resorts.

In the heart of Denver, Colorado, Civic Center Park has gone from being a beautiful hub of the city to a place that a large portion of the population avoids and views as unsafe. The Civic Center Conservancy’s primary objective is to create solutions and programs that ensure Civic Center is a place where everyone feels safe and welcomed. With funding from The VF Foundation, the Conservancy launched “WORKS” to engage the unhoused with park upkeep, offer them employment and empower them to become a part of the solution. They also educated the community about coexistence in this public space, creating an inclusive approach with unhoused neighbors. In WORKS’ inaugural season, 24 unique participants dedicated 2,154 hours of work and 10 individuals went on to find permanent employment. The Conservancy also launched “MOVES” aimed at attracting new populations into the park through programming provided for free by three women-owned studios to guide people through yoga, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and wellnesscentered movement and education. One of the studios, Urban Studios, has a specific and articulated platform that prioritizes minority teachers and practitioners. Throughout the year, 315 people participated in 38 classes. MOVES and WORKS are part of a larger vision for the Conservancy as Denver works to keep the park active and thriving for all, and create opportunities for individuals to utilize the park in a consistent, fulfilling way.

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