OUR HISTORY

TAKING ROOT

In 2007, Re:Vision partnered with Westwood community organizations, residents, stakeholders, and elected officials to launch an urban farm at Kepner Middle School and seven backyard gardens in Southwest Denver. Since then, Re:Vision has cultivated over 2,000 gardens in the neighborhood, producing hundreds of thousands of pounds of food, saving families millions of dollars on their grocery bills.

UNITING A COMMUNITY VISION

As Re:Vision began to grow, it launched its resident leadership program, the promotora model, and hired three community residents as urban gardening and nutrition community health workers. After starting this train-the-trainer community-led strategy, Re:Vision has transformed into a groundbreaking model for community-generated growth, growing its staff from two to 17 staff members, 10 full-time and 7 part-time.

GROWING A NEIGHBORHOOD ECONOMY

Our community wealth-building model supports a locally owned economy by creating neighborhood-based employment opportunities and professional development to local Latina leaders, creating a supportive environment for Westwood-based and BIPOC-led small businesses and nonprofits by offering affordable spaces to rent on the Re:Vision campus, and creating a cultural market model that centers community preservation. Our commissary kitchen also offers Westwood-based and BIPOC food business owners access to affordable kitchen space to launch or grow their small businesses. We not only provide our community with tools that support economic self-sufficiency but we also invite community and entrepreneurs to lead and own the local economy where their professional development and businesses then thrive.

KEY MILESTONES

  • Began in Westwood: 7 Backyard Gardens, Kepner Middle School Urban Farm.

  • Began Promotora program. Won Convergence Partnership Grant. Started Semillas Esperanza "Seeds of Hope" Youth Food Justice Program. Visited by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Rigoberta Menchu Túm. Received grant from Fruit Trees for People and planted 40 fruit trees at the Kepner Urban Farm, making it the largest urban fruit orchard in Denver.

  • Awarded New Belgium Brewing Company CEO, Kim Jordan, with the Re:Visionary Award, and Denver City Councilman, Paul Lopez, with Re:Vision Community Service Award

  • Opened first office in Westwood. Started the Ubuntu Urban Farm in partnership with Somali Bantu refugees.

  • Helped form Westwood Unidos.

  • Incorporated the Westwood Food Cooperative. Reached 300 backyard gardens. Awarded $1.3M grant from the Denver Office of Economic Development to purchase a 1.7-acre commercial property to bring a grocery store to Westwood. Helped Westwood win a $1M grant from the Colorado Health Foundation Healthy Places initiative. Launched La Cocina, a community-educational kitchen. ReBranded, dropping International from the name, now Re:Vision.

  • Removed over 500 tons of trash, scrap and recyclables from old junkyard property on Morrison Road. Awarded $675K grant from the Colorado Dept. of Public Health and Environment to train Promotoras as Patient Navigators. Started 400 backyard gardens. Launched Re:Vision Buying Club and La Tiendita, a pop-up fresh food market. Opening of La Casita.

  • Awarded $607K grant from The Colorado Health Foundation to support backyard garden program and Promotora training. Moved La Cocina into new property, and also opened a new fresh food marketplace in partnership with the Westwood Food Cooperative, called El Mercadito.

  • Purchased and renovated an auto body shop adjacent to property. Converted it into a co-working space, and launched the vision for RISE Westwood, a Community Hub for a Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Economy in Westwood. Won 2nd USDA Community Food Project Grant for FEED Westwood: Farming for Equitable Economic Development.

  • Co-founder Eric Kornacki, Executive Director since 2009, stepped down following the birth of his daughter, and developed a new role as Director of Impact. Co-founder Joseph Teipel, Director of Operations since 2012, was promoted by the Board of Directors to serve as Re:Vision's 2nd Executive Director.

  • JoAnna Cintron became Re:Vision’s first female Latina Executive Director. Re:Vision invites its first two tenants into the RISE Westwood commercial kitchen, Xatrucho Concepts and X’Tabai Yucateco. Re:Vision formalizes its partnership with the Rocky Mountain Micro Finance Institute (RMMFI) to provide the first Spanish-language version of its launch entrepreneurship program to Westwood residents free of cost.

  • Re:Vision responds swiftly and decisively to the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a drive-thru emergency food distribution center in its parking lot and urban farm. The Westwood Food Coop closes due to the pandemic.

  • Emergency food relief efforts are transformed into a robust walk-in food pantry program where community members receive a weekly share of fresh, healthy, and culturally relevant fruits and vegetables. Backyard gardens resume and bring much-needed relief and a sense of “normalcy“ to many Westwood residents.

  • Mariana del Hierro joins the Re:Vision team as the Executive Director. Re:Vision partners with the Urban Land Conservancy (ULC) and sells Re:Vision’s land to ULC, placing our land into a land trust that secures its affordability while maintaining ownership of our buildings. The land sale designates a section of our farm for an affordable housing development, responding to community needs. Semillas de Agua youth hydroponic apprenticeship was created and launched, continuing our youth education pipeline efforts in Westwood. To continue our work as an environment that supports local small businesses and organizations, 2 new small business storefronts with subsidized rents on the Re:Vision campus were created and rented to Ana Marina Studio and Julio Mendoza Art Studio and In-Lak’ech Arts, a Westwood youth arts nonprofit, also moved in. A new kitchen process was created to maximize the use of La Cocina, while reducing kitchen tenant rates. This resulted in adding two new kitchen tenants to La Cocina - La Reyna del Sur and Dos Caras.

  • Re:Vision receives a $700K+ grant from Healthy Food for Denver Kids program to ensure continuity for urban agriculture and nutrition education programs and to revive and expand the operation of its “Caja Verde“ hydroponic farm. Re:Vision is awarded $800k+ from the office of Congresswoman DeGette and Senator Bennett to purchase a one-acre vacant lot in Westwood to expand our urban agriculture footprint and develop an urban agriculture workforce development training site. The Colorado Health Foundation also awards Re:Vision with a $300k+ grant to expand our Semillas de Esperanza youth summer program to a year-round after school model to support more youth in Westwood. With programmatic growth and expansion, 6 promotoras were promoted to full-time leadership roles within the organization. Re:Vision grows to 17 staff members, 10 full-time and 7 part-time.