Interfaith Alliance of Colorado
The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado is a Denver-based non-profit organization created by a group of clergy & laity in 1998. It is an affiliate of the larger parent organization, Interfaith Alliance, founded a few years earlier in 1994. While initially formed to protect religious liberties, its mission has grown to encompass the pursuit of several social justice issues. The group expresses a desire to help facilitate turning one's faith into action, especially through cumulative collaboration. Through direct action and by working with other local like-minded organizations the group is bringing together individuals of all religious inclinations in order to build solutions that benefit not only the local community but also society as a whole. While earlier focuses included championing LGBTQ issues, Colorado's chapter now is engaged in tackling homelessness among other efforts.
Because Colorado has been one of the fastest growing states in the nation over the past several years, and with an accompanying crisis in affordable housing, the homeless population there has grown in number as well. The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado has worked to create a network of action groups which it has named the Homelessness Action Network. By encouraging each congregation to form its own Homelessness Action Group the organization is uniting, building and bettering communities through these mobilization efforts. Once formed these action groups have access to training and resources that allow them to directly help the homeless community as a congregation and as individuals. Most of Interfaith Alliance's hands-on work and involvement follow in the footsteps of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s own life and work. In most of their stances and practices the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado reverberates this man's living fusion of both religious conviction and political involvement.
Click any of these photos to see the stories of how Interfaith Alliance of Colorado helped bring together various organizations to help a forgotten & suffering group of Denverites.
Interfaith Alliance of Colorado has also recently supported the burgeoning movement to build tiny homes for the homeless, an initiative inspired by similar projects first made real in cities like Nashville, Portland and Los Angeles (Xie). These types of communities "create an alternative way of existing for some people experiencing homelessness" (Rethinking). Indeed they offer a quite radical vision of what future city planning could offer. The security a simply constructed tiny house allows for is of special importance to the transgender community who suffer from some of the highest rates of homelessness among any measured demographic (Cumming). As David Cumming points out in his article, "A National Center for Transgender Equality survey published last year found that 26 percent of transgender homeless people avoided shelters due to mistreatment. Seventy percent said they were mistreated, harassed, sexually or physically assaulted in shelters, or kicked out due to being transgender" (James). Tiny communities like these can be sometimes be the only safety net for especially marginalized or desperate individuals.
Working together with several other groups Interfaith Alliance took an early lead on this project. It used its already established credibility as an organization to levy on behalf of the project. It worked to bring in groups associated with all corners of society from nonprofits to the University of Denver to the city government itself to privately owned local businesses that included marijuana dispensaries. In the spirit of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. they helped to name this new project the Beloved Community Village in a tribute to the man whose spirit and whose tactics the organization tries to embody. Interfaith Alliance of Colorado has had a unique and powerful success when it's come to achieving the goal of bringing "people of sharply differing beliefs together to talk about some of those most divisive issues, and in doing so, create a model in which such difficult conversations can take place" (Marks). In this tiny housing project and many others like it one can see the organization's abilities to mobilize both congregations and the more secular realms of the local community on a larger level in order to achieve their goals.
Check out these short videos that highlight the work Interfaith Alliance of Colorado & its partners are doing with regards to relieving homelessness in the Denver area.
"In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it."
The quotation above, taken from The King Center's website explaining the idea & concept of the Beloved Community, goes a long way in articulating the motivations behind the Interfaith Alliance. While the organization was originally brought together to interact with the institution of government it has evolved into a community building entity that has sought to defend & protect society's most vulnerable. This defense brings to mind the work of Jesus, Muhammad and other such figures who spent their time among the destitute working to ease their condition and bring attention to their suffering. Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Buddha also come to mind. The most fascinating part of Interfaith Alliance is the ability of those involved to see commonalities across religions and even the non-religious. Common themes and motivations surface and one can see the importance in such an organization's ability to set stark differences aside and work for the good of not only one another but also for a community and, ultimately, society as a whole. Interfaith Alliance allows for the rare opportunity to see religions working together rather than against one another. There is an application of dogma based in selfless love rather than the need to impose certain beliefs on others that showcases the seemingly forgotten strength of these religious communities.
Get a sense of Interfaith Alliance of Colorado with Executive Director Amanda Henderson
Works Cited
This piece brings human stories to the forefront of the project as David Cumming delivers an intimate initial look into the project. The author presents a revealing article with accompanying photography that really work to capture the most important facets of the project: changed human lives. Highlighting the radical possibilities the project allows for, Cumming highlights how similar projects have worked in other cities. It also gives one a sense of the level to which Interfaith Alliance of Colorado was involved with the project. The marginalized viewpoints this effective article present are crucial to making sure all levels of society are being tended.
“The Beloved Community.” The King Philosophy. The King Center, 2018. Web. 12 Apr. 2018.
This article, and the King Center website which it is a small part of, allow the reader to deep dive into the ideologies that made up and drove the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during his fight for racial, economic, and political justice during his time. The Beloved Community Dr. King championed so often seems to be at the root of Interfaith Alliance's motivations. Their relentless commitment to building and uniting communities, small and large, seem derived from King's own practice to unite groups in order to achieve a change of some sort. The clear, concise language found on the website really allow for maximum accessibility. Interfaith Alliance of Colorado is a living, breathing, evoloving example of Dr. King's vision.
This survey covered the experiences of over 27,000 transgender participants, making it the biggest of its kind. It reveals the alarming high rates at which the transgender community undergoes and deals with violence, discrimination & harassment across all aspects of society. In particular the survey on the transgender experience highlights and ties together the topics of job security & homelessness. Concrete data and thorough research such as this survey help organizations such as Interfaith Alliance strengthen their arguments for the need for social change. Put in the hands of groups determined to act, it brings attention to society's most marginalized, helps alleviate their suffering in new and creative ways, and gives them a voice where none may have existed beforehand.
Marks, Alexandra. “New creed: Love thy neighbor's religion.” Christian Science Monitor, 08827729, 4/16/99, Vol. 91, Issue 98.
Jenny Xie's presentation of early tiny home projects onto an interactive map allows for a quick and easy perusal of the first successes the movement had. This map was created during Denver's own project and shows what organizers had to work with and build on when it came to designing their own version. The layout and function of this site is very similar to this project in that it leverages several types of media to quickly and effectively convey a series of information. It brings in Instagram, Google Maps, and other platforms to reach out to as big an audience as possible.