Mountain Voices Project (MVP), is a Broad-Based Organization along Colorado’s Western Slope in Garfield, Pitkin, and Eagle Counties. At Mountain Voices Project, we believe in the power of working together for the common good. We bring together diverse congregations, schools, nonprofits and unions so that ordinary people have a powerful voice in the decisions that affect their lives and communities. We foster public relationships and teach people how to become leaders, developing the courage and skills to fight effectively in the public arena.
MVP is committed to:
- Developing leadership and strengthening community within and between institutions.
- Building bridges across long standing divisions that isolate communities from each other.
- Creating a vehicle for ordinary families to have a powerful voice in the decisions that affect their lives and communities, instead of leaving decision-making in the hands of a select few.
Responsibilities of institutions include:
- Developing a core team of leaders responsible for organizing within their institution.
- Participating in training sessions—monthly steering committee, three day trainings, and regional IAF training.
- Conducting House Meetings and relational meetings in order to craft issues and develop new leaders.
HOW WE ORGANIZE
In MVP, everyday people, from different faiths and backgrounds, learn the habits and practices to participate in democracy, and build shared power to address the issues that matter to them.
This process is rooted in our member institutions, where a "core team" of leaders conducts 1-1 relational meetings and small group house meetings.
Through these conversations, leaders begin to understand and effectively tell their stories and learn to elicit stories from others. These stories reveal people's motivations for engaging in public life, and surface issues people want to act on.
To find a way to act on these issues, leaders conduct research actions: meetings to identify potential solutions and decision-makers who can make them happen. Leaders negotiate with decision-makers to gain commitments on specific solutions.
In public actions, leaders engage elected officials and decision-makers in front of their institutions, and often press, to gain a public commitment, and then hold them accountable for following through.
Reflection is essential. After every relational meeting, house meeting, research action, and public action, leaders reflect on what they learned and evaluate their work.
Throughout this process, an organizer trains and reflects with leaders.
MVP STRUCTURE
Member Institutions have made a commitment to become members of MVP through a financial investment and development of a core leadership team that works to develop leaders within their institutions and organize locally through house meetings and relational meetings.
The Steering Committee, composed of institutional core team members, meets monthly for training, relationship building among leaders from other institutions, and ratifying the agenda and calendar for MVP. This group sets the direction and strategy of the organization.
The Institutional Leaders Caucus is comprised of clergy, school administrators, and executive directors who meet every two months to build relationships, reflect on building a relational culture within their institutions, coordinate recruitment of other institutions, and oversee budget and strategy.
The Delegate’s Assembly is the larger gathering that convenes the entire membership to report on progress made. The Assembly ratifies proposals from the Steering Committee around leadership, strategy, and the development of MVP as an institution.