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West End Community Resources

In January 2006, the Telluride Foundation initiated its “Building Community Resources Initiative” in Nucla and Naturita. The goal of this initiative is to assist (short-term) and empower (long-term) the underserved communities of Nucla and Naturita with capacity building skills to enhance their services, programs and infrastructure. For example, the Foundation will provide to local governments and organizations training and assistance with strategic planning, grant writing, community organizing, budgets and business plans necessary to successfully accomplish grass-roots projects and programs. Starting in January 2006, the Foundation facilitated several community meetings to identify and prioritize critical service and infrastructure needs. These meetings, which included representatives from local government, local nonprofits and the private sector, identified the lack of youth extra curricular activities and recreational opportunities as the number one priority for immediate action.

The Telluride Foundation received a $5,000 grant from the Laura Jane Musser Fund to initiate a skate board and BMX bike planning process in the rural, underserved, and economically depressed towns of Nucla and Naturita, located in southwest Colorado. This planning process would involve numerous community groups, government entities, businesses and individuals and would ultimately provide important recreational amenities for local youth. Because of the lack of governmental resources and paid staff for extra projects, it is vital to spend the next year recruiting local involvement in the planning process and ensuring that a solid plan and budget are in place before soliciting funding and donations for implementation.

The Telluride Foundation worked with the ColoradoCenterfor Community Development (CCCD) to engage the community in a public planning effort for designing and obtaining a new skate park. The overall planning process involved meeting with town officials to determine the general needs of the community regarding the skate park, site visits to estimate the possibilities for locating and dimensioning the skate park, preliminary design generation, public meetings with residents of Naturita, and revision of skate park designs to reflect community input. This effort was designed particularly to include the youth of the community in order to allow them to see and understand the community planning and facility implementation process through the design and planning for a community skateboard park. At this time, the town council has approved the final designs and the Telluride Foundation and CCCD will work with the community to begin fundraising efforts.

Rural Need: The rural towns of Nucla and Naturita in southwest Colorado are geographically isolated, with almost a two hour drive over windy mountain roads and passes to reach their county seat of Montrose. The population of Naturita is 635 persons, and Nucla (just four miles north) is 734 according to the 2000 Census. The two towns often work cooperatively together, sharing schools, the Basin Clinic and developing a joint drinking water system. The median household income of Naturita is $28,977 and Nucla is $28,466 and approximately 17% of the populations are below the poverty status. Approximately 17% of Nucla residents and 8.6% of Naturita residents are unemployed.

Fewer than half of Nucla/Naturita students are from traditional two-parent homes and 19.5% qualify for special education or Title I services. Based on approved applications, 60% of the K-8 school age students qualify for free or reduced lunches, and the Nucla high school drop-out rate has ranged from 10% to 27% over the years. Only 3.4% of the Naturita population and 11.1 % of the Nucla population has a Bachelor’s degree or higher. The school system has a serious drug and alcohol problem and the community as a whole has a growing reputation for crystalmeth use, drug and alcohol abuse, and associated crime.

The economy of this area remains depressed after never fully recovering from the decline of mining, which was the chief source of income until the 1980’s. From 1936 until 1984, uranium and vanadium were processed in the region and were the chief industry. Closure of the mines in 1984 had a devastating effect on the economy, and the area lost 40% of its population. Coal is still mined near Nucla and is used in the Tri-State Generation and Transmission power plant in Nucla. For employment, many residents are involved in agriculture and fishing and hunting guide services, others work for the power plant or commute 55 miles to the resort town of Telluride for construction, service and resort-oriented jobs (an almost two hour commute over dangerous mountain roads). Recent increases in oil and gas drilling and uranium mining have not significantly benefited the economy to date.

Other than playing on traditional school team sports, there are very limited services or activities for youth, especially younger children. The communities do not have a recreation center, youth center or even a movie theater, and after-school programs are rare if not non-existent. Many parents commute to jobs in distant communities, and children tend to spend a lot of time alone.