Civic Impact Project Highlight: Beyond Silos— Mapping Collaboration to Strengthen Belonging, Civic Capacity & Community Health

One of this year’s most significant Roaring Fork Leadership’s Civic Impact Projects is Beyond Silos: Strengthening Nonprofit Collaboration for Greater Community Belonging, a partnership between two RFL Civic Impact Teams and project sponsor Andrea Palm-Porter and Angie Anderson, RFL Alum and President & CEO of the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association. Angie and Andrea are also part of the Belonging Colorado Leadership Network Learning Cohort (where this idea and project was defined), positioning this work within a broader statewide effort to build connection, trust, and community resilience.

This project comes at a perfect moment. Colorado’s recently released Belonging Barometer shows that while many Coloradans report general connection, a substantial portion feel uncertain about whether they truly belong in community spaces, workplaces, and civic life. At the same time, our region is home to an estimated 300–600 nonprofits, each serving critical community needs—where many collaborate together – yet many operate in isolation, resulting in duplication, confusion for residents, and untapped collaboration potential.

Beyond Silos aims to change this.

What This Project Does

Beyond Silos is not another directory. It’s a collaboration gap analysis—a structured effort to understand:

  • Where nonprofit missions overlap
  • Where service gaps exist
  • Which barriers (trust, funding, culture, capacity) limit collaboration
  • What enables organizations to work effectively across differences
  • How nonprofits can strengthen bridging relationships to improve community belonging

Using interviews, surveys, data mapping, and adaptive leadership tools, the teams are producing insights that help nonprofits build trust, share responsibility, and coordinate efforts for greater collective impact.

RFL Teams Working on the Project:

RFL Team #1: Maryann Pitt, Lucy Berdiales, Nury Avila, Bill Doherty, Charlie Austin, Carlton Henry, Carson Campbell

RFL Team #3: Jennifer Steele, Monica Maldonado, Norman Fajardo, Marshall Foote, Michael Schuster, Britta Gustafson

The Potential: Strengthening Civic Capacity for Years to Come

This project has the potential to create transformational long-term outcomes for the entire valley.

What is Civic Capacity?

Civic capacity refers to a community’s ability to work together across sectors, organizations, and differences to solve shared problems, take collective action, and shape the future they want.

It includes the strength of relationships, trust levels, leadership pipelines, cross-sector collaboration, civic education, and a community’s ability to mobilize people around important issues.

And—critically—civic capacity is recognized as a social determinant of health. Communities with higher civic capacity experience better health outcomes, stronger social cohesion, and greater resilience in times of stress.

Additionally, with recent community conversations with Courageous Colorado in Carbondale and Glenwood Springs – one of the themes that was an outcome is: our area needs more civic education.

How Beyond Silos Builds Civic Capacity

As this work unfolds over multiple years, its effects could:

  • Increase civic capacity across the region
  • Address pressing issues more productively by reducing duplication and increasing coordination
  • Improve the local economy through stronger systems, clearer services, and smarter resource use
  • Strengthen belonging by helping residents experience a more navigable, connected community network
  • Build leadership capacity across nonprofit, government, and business sectors
  • Enhance community resilience—especially during crises or rapid change
  • Strengthen community identity and cohesion
  • Improve civic education and engagement (residents understand where to go, who to talk to, and how the system works)
  • Support healthier outcomes by reducing stress, improving service access, and creating pathways to wellbeing

This is the kind of systems-level work that compounds in value over time.

A Regional Effort Supported by Key Colorado Partners

The significance of Beyond Silos is amplified by growing statewide support for civic capacity and belonging work.

This includes support from:

  • Colorado State University (CSU) – research alignment and leadership development insights
  • CiviCO – statewide leadership networks strengthening Colorado’s civic fabric
  • Civic Canopy – expertise in collaborative capacity building and community systems change
  • National Civic League – advancing civic health, community engagement, and inclusive governance practices that help communities solve problems together
  • Aspen Community Foundation – regional convening and nonprofit ecosystem support
  • Belonging Colorado – bridging and belonging practices adopted statewide

Having these partners engaged in similar or complementary efforts places our valley at the forefront of Colorado’s broader movement toward stronger relationships, healthier systems, and increased community belonging.

Why This Matters

As Colorado’s Belonging Barometer makes clear, belonging isn’t just an emotional experience—it is a community asset linked to:

  • Health equity
  • Economic vitality
  • Stronger leadership
  • Trust and social cohesion
  • Civic participation
  • Quality of life

And belonging does not emerge by accident. It emerges when leaders—like those in our RFL 2026 cohort and over 1000 alum that continue to—take on the complex, courageous work of bridging silos, strengthening relationships, and building shared understanding across the systems that shape people’s daily lives.

Beyond Silos is one project, but its ripple effects could continue shaping the Parachute to Aspen regions civic landscape for years to come.

If you are interested to learn more – contact us: info@rfleadership.org

Sidebar: Civic Capacity as a Social Determinant of Health

What Is Civic Capacity?

Civic capacity is a community’s ability to work together across sectors, identities, and organizations to solve shared problems, make decisions, and shape its future. It includes:

  • Trust between people and institutions
  • Cross-sector collaboration
  • Leadership pipelines
  • Community engagement and volunteerism
  • Shared problem-solving and decision-making
  • The ability to mobilize resources and relationships in times of need

Why It Affects Health

Civic capacity is increasingly recognized as a social determinant of health because communities with strong civic networks experience:

  • Higher levels of belonging and social cohesion
  • Greater access to supportive resources
  • Lower stress, isolation, and fragmentation
  • Faster, more coordinated responses to community challenges
  • Increased trust—an essential component of public health
  • More equitable distribution of information and services

When people feel connected and empowered, their mental, emotional, and physical health improves. When communities collaborate effectively, health systems, nonprofits, and civic services function better for everyone.

How Civic Capacity Shows Up in Daily Life

Communities with strong civic capacity often demonstrate:

  • High participation in community meetings, voting, and volunteerism
  • Strong nonprofit and government partnerships
  • Residents who feel heard, valued, and represented
  • Effective responses to crises (wildfires, economic changes, health emergencies)
  • Better navigation of complex systems such as housing, transportation, and health care

The Leadership Connection

Civic capacity grows when leaders:

  • Build trust
  • Bridge divides
  • Convene cross-sector partners
  • Practice belonging
  • Share power and information
  • Create space for diverse voices

RFL’s commitment to developing leaders who can do this work is a direct contribution to our region’s health, resilience, and civic well-being.